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.

[RichardCollmorgen]

Thanks for the pic's Bruce. Is the doming of the head just for appearance or is there some mechanical reason behind it?

[bruce johnson]

Richard,

The pictures really don't show how good these look after you do them.

As far as doming the head. Shortish story. During saddle week at Sheridan in 2006 several of us on this forum were there. It seems like they'd show some little trick or tip about a tool not many of us had, lunch break came and we'd hotfoot it down to Sheridan Leather to pick one up. The most popular were the rivet sets and Bob Douglas slim blade awls. I hustled off with my pal Jeff and we got rivet sets. That night when my wife picked me up after the class, she saw Don's domed rivets. She asked him where he got them, they looked so nice. He told her about the domer, she told me I NEEDED to get one. One step ahead of you, honey. To this day she will show anyone who comes over, interest in leather or not, how much better the domed heads look. She will also fire up the drill press with the punch chucked in it and punch a few holes too. Those are her two favorite things. She will look at a saddle and the first thing she looks at is whether the rivets are domed or not. Yeah, they look better. The silver cap copper rivets I get will dome up nicely without damaging the engraving too.

Mechanically. It sinks the edges into the grain a little. My old pal tells me back in the days of flat leather drive belts, these were used to splice skives together. The heads were flat and countersunk on purpose. They didn't want them domed up or sticking up. What I see sometimes on the ones not domed and installed poorly is the shank was bent when the burr was set and an edge of the head isn't flush. That little edge sticking up catches everything and wears whatever rides over it.

[Timbo]

How short to you cut the shank above the bur??

Then what do you do?? Flatten it out with a hammer then dome the shank??

Tim