How to remove a rivet

[Frodo]

 

[chuck123wapati]

much easier and safer than the drill method Thanks!!!

[Spyros]

To be fair, you did kinda murdered that leather around the hole a little bit LOL

[chuck123wapati]

22 minutes ago, Spyros said:

To be fair, you did kinda murdered that leather around the hole a little bit LOL

not as bad as when your drill bit slips off the rivet. This is a good topic to converse indeed, Anyone have a better method?

[fredk]

Sometimes I hammer a nail pinch down into the centre, but even if I do or not, I wiggle a pair of fine electrical wire cutters between the leather and rivet head and cut the stem with the cutters

[tsunkasapa]

I use my Dremel with a small grinding bit.

[toxo]

I had to do this yesterday. The best way by far is to center punch the middle of the rivet and use a drill bit the same size as the rivet shank. Quick, clean and simple. The trick is not to press too much else the top part will spin with the drill bit but even then a pair of pliers will suffice to hold it whilst you finish drilling. If done right the rivet will come apart on it's own with no damage to the leather and the hole is no bigger than when you started.

[Spyros]

1 hour ago, chuck123wapati said:

not as bad as when your drill bit slips off the rivet. This is a good topic to converse indeed, Anyone have a better method?

Spring loaded center punch before drilling anything metal.  Always.

[chuck123wapati]

42 minutes ago, Spyros said:

Spring loaded center punch before drilling anything metal.  Always.

I good rivet remover is what the leather world needs! 

watch the video if you use a standard center punch you don't need the drill. LOL Problem isn't with a center punched start its with a spinning rivet. I was just saying not arguing.

 

 

 

[chuck123wapati]

51 minutes ago, toxo said:

I had to do this yesterday. The best way by far is to center punch the middle of the rivet and use a drill bit the same size as the rivet shank. Quick, clean and simple. The trick is not to press too much else the top part will spin with the drill bit but even then a pair of pliers will suffice to hold it whilst you finish drilling. If done right the rivet will come apart on it's own with no damage to the leather and the hole is no bigger than when you started.

my standard way of doing it, done it many times also lol. 

"If done right"  doesn't always coincide with murphys law . As you well know friend the old spinning rivet head is the main problem.

[tsunkasapa]

44 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

I good rivet remover is what the leather world needs! 

C4????

[DJole]

You mean just biting down and ripping a rivet out with your teeth is not how it's done? 

 

[Dwight]

I use my electrical side cutters . . . for the male piece . . . cut it thru . . . then cut off the top of what is left of the post . . . the rest pulls out . . . no problemo.

For the female part . . . gently squeeze the side cutters under the female part . . . just squeeze . . . back off and go at it again 90 degrees from the first time . . . then back where you started . . . then the second place . . . each time adding a little more pressure . . . it'll pop off . . . 

Never scratch the leather . . . never have any problems at all with it.

Drills and dremels can get stuff going . . . burn the leather . . . slide off and mark it up badly . . . side cutters will not do that.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Spyros]

ΙMO if there was an easy way to remove a rivet without damaging the leather, then this only really means one thing:  your rivets are cheap crap or they haven't been set properly...

[Frodo]

I n agree with Dwight.  drill bits and Dremel's burn the leather or actually the rivet gets hot and burns the leather

[Spyros]

It will burn the leather if you let the rivet spin because it got fused with the drill bit, but you shouldn't let that happen. 

Basically you're not trying to drill through the rivet as such, all you're trying to do is remove some material from the base of the rivet until you release the stem.  And you do that by drilling at some angle and without too much pressure, and changing the angle frequently.  You want to see metal shavings coming out from the tip of your drill bit, and it shouldn't go in more than half a mm at a time.     Need a sharp drill bit too.

Trust me I'm the world champion at setting rivets in the wrong places

[chuck123wapati]

20 hours ago, tsunkasapa said:

C4????

lol now you know that's for fishin not rivet pullin.

[tsunkasapa]

2 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

lol now you know that's for fishin not rivet pullin.

I seem to recall it took quite a few  rivets out of a tank one time. 

[chuck123wapati]

6 minutes ago, tsunkasapa said:

I seem to recall it took quite a few  rivets out of a tank one time. 

I'll bet it did!

[Samalan]

I use tooth extraction pliers they grab even when  the rivet head is just below the surface then I drill the pliers make it so the rivet cant spin haven't burnt any leather yet also I use them to tighten screw backs If I was to lose this tool I would get another pair that's for sure.

[chuck123wapati]

1 hour ago, Samalan said:

I use tooth extraction pliers they grab even when  the rivet head is just below the surface then I drill the pliers make it so the rivet cant spin haven't burnt any leather yet also I use them to tighten screw backs If I was to lose this tool I would get another pair that's for sure.

Hey that's a good idea and i have some.

[JayEhl]

Hi,

This thread interested me because recently (okay, more times than recent) I've had to remove a rivet and learned the hard way that it was easy to damage the leather and I had to be more careful.  I generally used what @Dwight detailed and it does work for me, but I'm always looking for better ways to do things.    I had to go online to see what an extraction pliers looked like but those all over the map.  Is this more of a 'heavy duty' set of pliers like this?  or may I ask if someone post a picture of what they're using?

[Samalan]

4 hours ago, JayEhl said:

Hi,

This thread interested me because recently (okay, more times than recent) I've had to remove a rivet and learned the hard way that it was easy to damage the leather and I had to be more careful.  I generally used what @Dwight detailed and it does work for me, but I'm always looking for better ways to do things.    I had to go online to see what an extraction pliers looked like but those all over the map.  Is this more of a 'heavy duty' set of pliers like this?  or may I ask if someone post a picture of what they're using?

go to Amazon   you want   Dental Mead Forceps MD2 Molar tooth extracting model# MD2 part#MD2.

[JayEhl]

interesting..  .... but without going to the evil zon, for $13 for a dental tool is there something similar that could be found in regular hardware stores?

 

 

[Jaxx1024]

On 2/5/2022 at 8:38 AM, fredk said:

Sometimes I hammer a nail pinch down into the centre, but even if I do or not, I wiggle a pair of fine electrical wire cutters between the leather and rivet head and cut the stem with the cutters

I use wire cutters. No mess.