Riveting
Riveting
Riveting
It is particularly useful for joining metal that cannot be soldered (Such as titanium) or simply for decorative effect. Holes are drilled, then Broached out using a small round needle file or a Broach if you have one. A metal peg or piece of chenier is placed through the hole and the end is spread using a punch. A further piece of chenier can be slipped in between the plates if desired. This lifts the two pieces of metal apart creating a gap. You can join as many pieces of metal together in this way. I have used only two in the diagrams for simplicity. VERY BASIC RIVET JOINING TWO SHEETS OF METAL
Take a small amount of round wire. Put it in the reverse action tweezers, dip it in flux, then hold a blow torch up to the bottom end (hot flame), until a ball runs up. Then take a pillar file and flatten the bottom end:
Next, take the file around the top edge of the ball to smooth away the lip, thus:
Put a length of well annealed wire into the vice with a small length poking out of the top, then use hammer blows to flatten out as necessary. As you get more adventurous, it is possible to put a pattern on the head of the rivet:
Peg size Make the peg for the rivet a bit longer than you need, just in case. The width of wire should be a good fit for the holes you are passing it through. If you want the second piece of metal to swing against the first, then use wire just a shade less than the hole. Please avoid using very fine wire as it bends inside the hole as you apply force to spread the other end of the rivet.
4 CHENIER RIVETING A pleasing effect can be achieved by replacing the peg with chenier that is pre-spread at one end only (using a more pointed punch) first. Alternatively one end of the chenier can be soldered to the base plate and only the top end spread into the metal sheet using a punch and hammer.
SUGGESTED PROJECT 1 Example of a simple project consisting of two flat plates of metal, one with a cut out design to the middle and four chenier rivets. Light can pass through the chenier rivets.
SUNKEN RIVETS Sunken rivets provide a smoother, more professional finish to your work. The hole to receive the rivet is drilled through both pieces of metal as usual, then take a slightly larger drill bit and drill down a short way into the hole you have already created. This example shows a 1mm hole drilled through both pieces of metal. Then a shallow hole has been drilled with a 1.5mm bit. 1mm round wire is passed through the two plates of metal and flattened using a punch and hammer. As the entrance to the hole is wider than the wire, it provides a recess to accommodate the additional width of the flattened peg.
In the above example a length of chenier that is wider than the hole has been inserted between the two sheets of sterling silver. This is done either: A B To create space between the pieces. Where only one rivet is used, movement is created as one sheet of silver can swivel against the other.
It is necessary to put a pad of some sort in between the two plates of metal when applying the punch and hammer. This is to protect the piece of chenier from collapsing.
SUGGESTED PROJECT 2 The following shows a way of setting stones into metal that cannot be soldered. It is often used for decorative purposes as well. It is a simple process as long as you work carefully and follow the instructions step by step.