Copper Rivet Making Jigs

[aconstruction]

I recently started making these rivet jigs for personal use and for friends. They seem to be popular so I am adding them to the products my small machine shop makes. They help you make copper rivets out of #6 bare copper electrical wire. Using a ball peen hammer you can make flat head or dimpled head styles. Dome head rivets can be made using a normal rivet setting tool. My website is http://heromount.com...pper-rivet-jig/

Thanks

[Snpr9696]

Very cool

[Woodyrock]

This took me back to my apprenticeship days (marine joiner) we apprentices got to make the rivets. Boss was too cheap to buy ready made. I never saw how the wire was cut, but we apprentices got buckets full cut to length. Both ends were quite square. Saw cut somehow. Any how out jigs fit in the prichet hole on the anvil, were in one piece folded, and would spring open when knocked out of the anvil. The shop had the jigs for differen t lengths and wire sizes. I think the shops blacksmith made them. After about an hour of making rivets you drifted off into la la land. Thump the jig out, the new rivet usually fell on the floor, but it back in the anvil, put in the piece of wire, tap the jig down, and thump the wire to head it....repeat repeat.

Woody

[Black Dogg]

I received my jig last week and just thought I'd give a short review for any one thinking about buying one:

The jig itself is very well made; it looks exactly like in the pics. I think it's pretty well indestructible and should last a lifetime and then some when used as directed. The instructions that come with it are clear and easy to follow.

I found it worked best if I laid the whole jig on my anvil in the shop, but the flat back piece of a vise should work as well. It took three tries to get the hang of it, but now I can make a rivet in less than a minute.

Delivery was fast; I placed my order on Wednesday afternoon and the package arrived on Saturday.

All in all a great product at a great price!!

Black Dogg

[Faridz Muhammad]

Thats a great innovation my friend! I'll bookmark it first as its inspire me!

[ChuckBurrows]

What size rivets are the finished product similar too in h comeriallin (#9, 12, etc) ?

[CountryStyle]

are you using pennies for the washers? If not how are the washers made? Is there a part of the jig that helps make them?

[omlucas]

are you using pennies for the washers? If not how are the washers made? Is there a part of the jig that helps make them?

[BDAZ]

A source of washers would be fantastic!

Cya!

Bob

[lightingale]

After spending a few hours researching it, a source of washers is what would be the difference between buying the jig or not. I'd rather not have to punch and drill each one by hand.

Edited February 5, 2015 by lightingale

[stelmackr]

http://www.hpaulin.com/Catalogue/400.pdf page 62

Is this a place to get the copper washers? I don't have a #9 rivet washer to measure to get a quote.

Bob Stelmack

Edited February 6, 2015 by stelmackr

[glockanator]

I have been told that harbor freight sells copper washers but I can not confirm this.

[bullmoosepaddles]

The burrs can be found here.

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=1917

Go well

Gene

[mlapaglia]

does this jig taper the rivet so a standard burr fits? 6 gauge wire is a #9 rivet but the burr is undersized 0.016 for a captive fit. It needs the tapered tip on the rivet to start the burr.

This is my understanding anyway.

I'd like to buy one if I can use normal burrs.

Michael

[shtoink]

does this jig taper the rivet so a standard burr fits? 6 gauge wire is a #9 rivet but the burr is undersized 0.016 for a captive fit. It needs the tapered tip on the rivet to start the burr.

Judging by the pictures provided here and on the website, those are not tapered holes. There looks to be a normal 60 degree cone shape at the bottom of the holes from a standard drill bit.

I did a bit of number crunching to aid in looking up the details for what it would take to get a tapered fit to the bottom of the holes. It looks to be that they rivet manufacturers will typically use a set amount of taper that is the same angle from center across the different sizes. The only change looks to be the main diameter and dimensions associated with the head, so multiple modified versions of one size reamer could be used make the taper at the bottom of the holes.

This is good news and means that only one tapered reamer would be needed for the holes. Each hole would probably need a separate modified reamer to fit the bottom of the hole.

The bad news is that now, there needs to be extra steps to make the holes and would, almost certainly, require more lead time to make and an increase in cost due to increased manufacturing complexity. Each hole will require a fair amount of planning and multiple steps to get an approximately correct taper in the bottom. I estimate a minimum of three separate passes for each hole. One for the minimum taper diameter, one for the shaft diameter, and one for the taper reaming. There may be some overlap in the tooling that will be required if it's kept to the same #9 rivet as the only change would be the desired rivet length, but I didn't do any high/low tooling cost estimates. If they were trying to make one jig for multiple rivet sizes, the tooling required just got a lot more expensive.

For those curious, a #0 Tapered Pin Reamer is what would be needed. It would need a portion to be cut off near the bottom to make it fit the job of tapering the hole at the bottom. A #1 might do the job, but this would all require a fair amount of testing before going forward with any kind of production model. At least the halves of the jig can be separated to inspect the surface finish and proper fit of the modified tooling.

Well, it looks like a geeked out a bit hard on that one. Sorry that it ended up being a much longer response to a simple question. I got a bit carried away with crunching numbers, looking at data sheets, and then attempting to make an estimate of the tooling and steps it would require to do all that. I could go even further into detail to lay out the train of thought and such, but I highly doubt that many people would find it interesting and it, more than likely, would just induce comas and copious mashing of the back button.

$50 for this jig, that looks very well made, feels like a great deal. If they made one that created tapered rivets, the time needed to for the extra steps might not be worth it if they wanted to stay in the same price range.

[mlapaglia]

Judging by the pictures provided here and on the website, those are not tapered holes. There looks to be a normal 60 degree cone shape at the bottom of the holes from a standard drill bit.

I did a bit of number crunching to aid in looking up the details for what it would take to get a tapered fit to the bottom of the holes. It looks to be that they rivet manufacturers will typically use a set amount of taper that is the same angle from center across the different sizes. The only change looks to be the main diameter and dimensions associated with the head, so multiple modified versions of one size reamer could be used make the taper at the bottom of the holes.

This is good news and means that only one tapered reamer would be needed for the holes. Each hole would probably need a separate modified reamer to fit the bottom of the hole.

The bad news is that now, there needs to be extra steps to make the holes and would, almost certainly, require more lead time to make and an increase in cost due to increased manufacturing complexity. Each hole will require a fair amount of planning and multiple steps to get an approximately correct taper in the bottom. I estimate a minimum of three separate passes for each hole. One for the minimum taper diameter, one for the shaft diameter, and one for the taper reaming. There may be some overlap in the tooling that will be required if it's kept to the same #9 rivet as the only change would be the desired rivet length, but I didn't do any high/low tooling cost estimates. If they were trying to make one jig for multiple rivet sizes, the tooling required just got a lot more expensive.

For those curious, a #0 Tapered Pin Reamer is what would be needed. It would need a portion to be cut off near the bottom to make it fit the job of tapering the hole at the bottom. A #1 might do the job, but this would all require a fair amount of testing before going forward with any kind of production model. At least the halves of the jig can be separated to inspect the surface finish and proper fit of the modified tooling.

Well, it looks like a geeked out a bit hard on that one. Sorry that it ended up being a much longer response to a simple question. I got a bit carried away with crunching numbers, looking at data sheets, and then attempting to make an estimate of the tooling and steps it would require to do all that. I could go even further into detail to lay out the train of thought and such, but I highly doubt that many people would find it interesting and it, more than likely, would just induce comas and copious mashing of the back button.

$50 for this jig, that looks very well made, feels like a great deal. If they made one that created tapered rivets, the time needed to for the extra steps might not be worth it if they wanted to stay in the same price range.

In other words, No.

Thanks