Help with copper rivets!!!!!

[Timbo]

Ok, I can dome and polish the head of the rivet but for the life of me cannot finish the other end to look like anything other than crap.

Once I get the bur on and cut the rivet off it goes downhill really quick.

Can anybody help me out or make a tutorial on this???

I am really looking for some help on this as I have always used rapid rivets or some other one whack wonders.

I am desperate to learn how to make these look good.

thanks,

Tim

[Go2Tex]

Well, I don't know of a way to make the back side look really good but you can make them presentable if you use a good rivet setting tool set like the one from Douglas Tools. If the bur side will be visible, I usually try to peen it good enough to hold the bur on and then dome it real nice and smooth.

[ferret]

Like most things it takes practice. Use a 3/4 lb. ball pein hammer and lots of light taps to swell and shape the shank

[RichardCollmorgen]

What technique do you use to dome and polish the head of the rivet?

[carr52]

I like to use a small tack hammer. Instead of round you get a smooth flattened end. I like the flattened look on some things but not on others. Also you need to cut them off alittle close. It doesn't take much to hold the burr in place. Thats my take on it.

Tom

[Timbo]

What technique do you use to dome and polish the head of the rivet?

I use the setting block from a Tandy spot setting set. Slip the rivet down into an old drive punch that I dulled the end of an drive it down into the biggest dimple of the block. Then just buff them on the cotton wheel I have on my grinder.

Tim

[bruce johnson]

What technique do you use to dome and polish the head of the rivet?

Richard,

I use the same set from Bob Douglas as Go2Tex. We probably saw it used first at the same place. I was using a homemade deal before that to dome with, made out of a bolt. It is a 3 piece set - burr setter, shank domer, and head domer. I have "predomed" the heads on some, but usually dome them once set. To predome, I punch a hole in some scrap skirting and stick the rivet in, set it over the pritchel hole on my anvil and dome it. Somebody or another told me to do that because they had the head domer slide off and cut through the grain of the surrounding leather. After using it a while, I haven't done that yet.

The shank hole on the burr setter is almost 1-1/2" deep. An advantage over the Osborne I had with a shallower hole. You don't bottom out and bend the shank setting longer rivets. I also use it as a handle, stick the rivet in and polish the head on a wheel. Worthwhile to wear eye protection, I have had them fly out of vice grips and the setter.

[sodapop]

if/when someone has the time...if ya could post a pic of a finished out burr end like your talkin about...cuz i just do what tom does and take a tack hammer and flatten the snipped post...

thanks...darryl

[RichardCollmorgen]

Thanks for the info. I think I'll look into the Bob Douglas set.

[bruce johnson]

Richard,

Here are some pics of a scrap with some rivets in it. The one on the right is set by hand and peened with a hammer. The middle is set with Bob's peening tool, but the head wasn't domed from the other side. It makes a nice rounded smooth peen. The one on the left was set with the peening tool and then turned over and the head domed. Doming the head after setting the peen will flatten top of the peen a bit and countersink it some. You can also predome them by setting it into a punched piece of scrap, and letting the shank sit down in the pritchel hole of the anvil and dome it. Then when you set the burr, it stays rounded up more if you like that look or effect. I get less scraping by flattening and countersinking it a bit.