Removing pop rivets

R

rx1jim

New member
Joined
Feb 17, 2008
Messages
925
Location
Poughquag, NY
Removing pop rivets is a real pain. Sometines you can drill them out before they start spinning. Sometimes you can hold the back of the rivet with a vise grip pliers to stop or prevent them from spining while your drill them. Almost all of the time, when you cannot hold them from spinning, they'll spin like crazy. What are your tips and techniques for removing pop rivets??
 
you can knock aluminum pop rivet heads off with a good cold chissel. I fvind drilling on an angle abit helps. But a 90 deg die grider with 40grit roloc disc works well. Also if you start off with a smaller dril bit like 1/8 for 3/16 poprivet then go to 3/16 it will have less chances of spinning a new sharp drill bit will bite in harder and make the rivet want to spin. Also if you cant reach the other side a flat screw driver sharpened to pri up on the rivet will help it from spinning or a good set of flush wire cutters or just a pair ground down to be flush

This is may daily piss off Ive grown to hate airplanes
 
I just removed my running board trim and I pulled out the mandrel with a side cutters, then drill (a little angle does help) & hold the rivet with the side cutters if necessary
 
Thanks for the tips and suggestions. I have about 20 more rivets to remove on my project sled then it will be diassembled to the point where I have all the parts off that need to be cleaned and powder coated.
 
I have done 3 big rivet jobs. On the last one my brother suggested an air chisel. Cheapo Harbor Freight air chisel+half the time spent= PRICELESS!! I bought my air riveter at Harbor freight as well. Got the bigger one and it works great!!
 
Heres a question about putting new rivets on. What is the best rivet to put back on? I have used aircraft rivets and they seem to work great, but are there better rivets out there?
 
OK, I finished removing all of the rivets I need to from the sled. Thos that I could grab with a needle nose vise grip pliers were easy. The bling rivets were a proble due to spinning but holding the drill at a 45 deg. angle eventually removed enough metal for the rivet head to fall off.

The rivets from Yamaha are very expensive, I need about 80 rivets. I am planning on using a stainless steel rivet for all of the rivets with a normal small dia. head. I have not found a non-Yamaha replacement yet for the fivets with the lareg dia. head which are used to hold the body panels on the sled.

Anyone have a good source of rivets?? I can't see paying between $0.38 and $1 a piece fro Yamaha rivets.
 
rivets

I can get aluminum large head rivets in quantity. and colored head ones too. Message me your email address and we can talk or your phone and I will call you. Will be glad to help you finish your great looking project!
 
Jim, Betheviper or Ding have Multi-Grip rivets available for structural stuff if you can't find any local. I believe they're Stavex or some such name, small head. The other, you can likely use any Aluminum rivet. I find the Alum/alum don't pull worth a poop and would lean towards Alum/Steel mandrel. You can check out race car supply for aluminum in various grip ranges and even colors.
 
Cam/ Viper adict said:
Heres a question about putting new rivets on. What is the best rivet to put back on? I have used aircraft rivets and they seem to work great, but are there better rivets out there?
Click to expand...


If I had the choice I would use cherry max rivets when its a blind situation for one the pull better and dont cause corrosion If I could reach I would use a solid alumminum rivet and buck it. But that being said it depends on the aplication, the stock yamaha steel pop rivets will have a better shear and would be need in certain aplications. If your going to replace with aluminum rivets you will need to pitch in more rivets to get the same strength
 
I do have the Avdel Stavex BS01-00618 in Silver, and the BE34-00618 in Black.

see http://www.avdel-global.com/en/products/breakstem-fasteners/stavex.html for details.

This is a rivet that Yamaha used several places on their sleds.

I also have Cherry Interlok rivets (a very strong structural rivet) in both 3/16" and 1/4" (silver) for wherever you need a structural rivet.

I charge 15 cents a rivet for quantities of 100 or more, and 20 cents a piece for quantities less than 100. I usually ship in USPS flat rate boxes that cost about 5 bucks.

There have been a number of posts on this topic in the past. Briefly, you want to be careful using a Stainless rivet due to galvanic corrosion. Also steel/steel is desirable wherever strength is needed, and structural rivets should be used at high stress areas like the rear trailing arm mounts. Aluminum rivets should only be used for softer parts that do not need much gripping pressure.

For removing rivets, knock the mandrel out with a punch (very important), and drill or chisel with light pressure like mentioned above. The rivets are less prone to spinning if you use a lighter pressure. There will always be 1 or 2 rivets on every job that take longer than all of the rest put together.
 
Last edited:
I just bought a pnuematic rivet gun. I must have 100 rivets to install to put this sled back together. The reassembly of the sled with the freshly powder coated parts and new parts should be fun.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


Back
Top