too!
Let’s take a look at a pop rivet gun. Most of the time, this is what they will look like. There is a tip attached to a nozzle looking part, and a few other tips screwed into the body.
The different tips are for different size rivets. I found out the hard way, you want to use the smallest tip possible with your rivet. Trust me.
Then, line up the second piece of leather or wood and drill all the way through.
Insert a rivet into the gun with the fat end sticking out, like this. The thin end goes in the gun and the fat end goes through your material.
Now, for wood or leather, you need to make sure to use rivet washers. Once again, trust me. Without the washers, the rivet will rip right through the material and cause a big problem.
Rivet washers are cheap and are usually sold right next to rivets.
Now it is time to compress the rivet. I like to place a finger on the backside, making sure the rivet is pushed all the way through before I start to compress. One negative I have discovered about my gun is that it seems to e designed for someone with hands the size of Wreck it Ralph’s. It would be nice to have a third hand, but two work fine.
Make sure rivet is pushed all the way through, and that your washer hasn’t fallen off, then start to squeeze the handles together. Depending on how thick your material is, you may have to squeeze anywhere from 1-4 times. Once it’s done, you will hear/feel a loud “pop” (hence the name “pop rivet”).
The backside isn’t as pretty. On a forum I was reading, someone called the backside of a pop rivet “ugly as someone else’s baby”.
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| You can see on the right side where I forgot to use a washer. The rivet almost pulled straight through the wood. |
If you dig the Mid-Century/Industrial look, check out my:
+ Mid-Century Industrial Storage
+ World Market “Aiden” Coffee Table knock off
+ Zinc Top Coffee Table
Linking at:
Remodelaholic
www.savvysouthernstyle.net
A new tool I should get – awesome! Great tutorial. P.S. I'm glad you don't have hands the size of Wreck It Ralph's. 🙂
Like I need another excuse to got to Harbor Freight! You had me at pop rivet, and a tutorial to boot. You are a legend Elisha. Thanks.
La Verne@hope&salvage
How fun! I wish you lived closer to me 🙂
Harbor Freight is my very favorite store too! I love getting the ad in the mail every week!
I have got to try this! I love that you just randomly met a guy in the store and came out with a rivet gun…awesome! Pinned!
That is such a cute chair, it's very creative.
If you were doing a bunch (like on the leather and wood chair), you could take a piece of scrap wood, drill a hole larger than the rivet and smaller than the washer and use that to hold everything in place while you squeeze the giant handle of the rivet gun (I'm a grown man and have trouble with those). Great Blog!
I've been experimenting with rivets too…I have a love/hate relationship with Harbor Freight…I bought their 3/16 Pneumatic Riveter and the handle broke halfway thru my project. To be fair I must tell you my project has about 500 rivets…it's a wood/metal project and I've found for my decorative purposes, if you don't see the back of your project, the strength of the rivet does not seem to diminish when NOT using a washer. Have fun!!
Thank you so much
Thanks