Blind Rivet | What is a blind Rivet and how to use rivet tools? (2024)

Rivet Measuring Transcript

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Bob: Welcome back to Albany County Fasteners - Fasteners 101. I'm bob and today we're going to teach you how to properly measure a blind rivet. So let's get started.

I'm going to teach you how to properly measure a rivet. We get a lot of phone calls from buyers wanting to buy a rivet thinking that a rivet is measured under the hat to the end. Which is totally false. A rivet is measured by the installation thickness of the material you're going to be installing it in. So if you're installing two pieces of metal together, to select the correct rivet, you need to measure the thickness of those two materials together. At that point you would have the total amount of product that you're going to be gripping to fasten together.

So when you measure, when you receive your rivets, don't take a tape measure and measure from this point to this point. That's not going to be correct. You're going to find it's going to be about an eighth of an inch to three sixteenths of an inch longer than what you purchased.

So the correct way would be to get one of these babies. Ok, this is called a rivet measuring tool and to find the correct measurement that you want, here's how to measure a rivet. So it has all of the sizes on the side here, which are gauge, they go from size 3 all the way up to size 8. So I'm going to try to stick it in the hole. It won't go into a 3 but it goes right into a 4. So this is a 4, I know it's a 4 because I picked it.

Okay so we know it's diameter is a number four and then we're gonna be looking for length. It won't fit into this, this is where you find out the length. So it's the second one and it comes in right at 4-4 so this is a 4-4. 4 being the diameter and the next 4 being the length.

It can come in 4-2, 4-4, 4-6, 4-8, all dependent upon the amount of material you're going to be gripping. And that's basically how you measure a rivet. You do not measure a rivet with a ruler.

Installing POP Rivets Transcript

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Bob: Welcome back to Albany County Fasteners - Fasteners 101. I'm bob and today we're going to teach you how to properly install a blind rivet. So let's get started.

So I'm going to install several rivets. The first one I'm going to install is this copper rivet with the standard rivet hand tool. I'm going to put in the mandrel. The mandrel goes in to the tool first. Like this. All the way in. Now, I'm going to place it.

I'm using a piece of structural steel. This is just for demonstration. I pre-drilled the holes already. Not to bore you with drilling holes. So I figured I'd just knock this out for you.

Then you just put it in and you squeeze it (SNAP!). Until you get the snap. And that baby is installed. 1-2-3.

So that's the copper rivet installed. I'm going to grab another one this is a closed end rivet. You can see that the closed end has that flat-bottomed square finished off, waterproof end. So I'm gonna install one of these right now with the standard rivet gun.

Pushed it in. BAM!

You can see it's not loose. Perfect installation.

One thing I would caution you on is to drill the correct size hole for the rivet. The rivet should have no slack when you drill a hole. It should be tight right against the rivet. Actually, you should force the rivet in place. A little bit. It should just be like, friction fit.

I'm going to install now a white rivet. I'll turn this around when I'm done, later so you can see the finish and the back.

That's what you get after you pop the rivet. You get a broken mandrel. It cuts the mandrel right off.

I'll install a black rivet, I'm sorry, a brown rivet.

You can see it's pretty easy. No Force. Ya know? You don't have to struggle with it.

This one is stainless steel. A lot of people call me and they say: "Hey Bob, why is it, is it harder to install stainless steel?" I'm going to show you right now it's not harder. It's the same thing.

Snapped off. It's installed fine. There was a little bit more resistance but, you know, its not any different than putting in anything.

This is the multi-grip. So this is a fabulous fastener they came out with. This particular fastener, they made it so if you're, you know, have multi-applications you can use this and it breaks at each one of these points: 4-2, 4-4, and 4-6.

Ok, so you can break in any of these areas. I'm gonna install that now; let's see how that works. I've never used one of these myself but here's the first time.

So there's double the pull so it keeps pulling it in. You can see in the back here. There it goes.

So it's a double action, you have to push the lever twice.

Basically, that's it other than the structural so these structural (rivets). These structurals are installed using a different tool. The structurals are installed with a tool like this. Which is one of these monster-they're almost like a bolt cutter-type of riveter because you're going to need some leverage. These are like quarter inch. I didn't drill holes for this but I just figured i'd show this to you. What it looks like. This is a pretty heavy-duty structural. You would use these in structural applications.

So that's a wrap on us showing you how to install. I'm gonna twist this around for you so you can see the finished product. Ok here is the, that's the front. They are all finished, all in there very well. And then I'm gonna show you the back; that's the side that you wouldn't see.

That's why they call them blind rivets. Because of the backside. You put them into a hole that you're trying to fasten two pieces, you can't get to the back of it with a nut and try to hold it while you put a screw in. This is the perfect application. There you go.

So now I'm going to demonstrate to you the installation of the pneumatic rivet gun. This is a really cool tool. It's quick. It's fast. If you're in a production line, that you want to produce quick action riveting. This is the tool for that.

So I'm just going to install the mandrel into the rivet tool. This is, I didn't show you this, well I showed you this one but I didn't install it before. But this is a large flange (rivet)and I'm just going to install it. Watch this.

Fast action. Quick. The material doesn't matter; it can be stainless, it can be aluminum, it can be steel. It doesn't really matter, whatever you put it in. This tool, will get the job done. Fast.

Uninstalling POP Rivets Transcript

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Bob: Welcome back to Albany County Fasteners - Fasteners 101. I'm Bob and today I'm going to demonstrate to you how to remove a structural rivet.

So the first thing I'm going to do is use my punch and I'm gonna punch a hole, so I have a starting point for my drill. I'm going to add some lubricant to my bit. As I always do. Then I'm gonna, find the center here. Now, this is a structural rivet, that I'm removing. That's in place and we're gonna clear the hole out.

Of course, you should be using protective glasses and gloves while you're doing this. Almost there.

There we go. Drilled the rivet out. That's the head of the rivet. Backside comes right out.

Takes ya less than five minutes, not even a couple of minutes you can drill the rivet right out. The rivet, so if it's a quarter inch rivet, like we used here, you should use a quarter inch bit to remove the rivet or a three-sixteenths bit but nothing smaller than that. And nothing larger if you don't want the hole to be over-sized and you're going to reuse the hole again. So you basically want to use the same size as the rivet that you installed originally.

That's how you remove a structural rivet or you can remove any POP rivet, in this demonstration here.