Rivets - need help

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Good Morning oilers,

I do not have any experience with rivets. I was working on my little girls sail boat and I need to rivet the pulley for the jib.

I bought 1/8 thick 1/4 inch rivets and a rivet gun but it did not work. the 1/8 was too thin, I need something thicker.

Q: Can I use the same rivet gun with thicker rivets
Q: How do I estimate the length of the rivets I need? the mast is aluminum is about 1/4 inch thick.
 
Is this a rotating pulley and does it need to rotate on the rivet or does it use a little bearing?
Do you have a picture of this?
 
they make rivet tools that have multiple tip choices. stay away for steel rivet around wet applications. if it's possible to reach the back side of the rivet, then you can use a backing washer to add some support if the material being riveted is brittle. i.e. cast aluminum or extruded aluminum that is curved, such as a sailboat mast. as for the length of the rivet, it only needs to be long enough to pass through the hole and have the little ball go into the rivet sleeve where it will brake off the shank. be sure to drill straight, as the tighter the fit the better the hold.
 
Originally Posted By: Trav
Is this a rotating pulley and does it need to rotate on the rivet or does it use a little bearing?
Do you have a picture of this?


Trav, it is a rotating pulley, sorry, I am a few hours plane ride from home, I will post a pic sometime this weekend.
 
Originally Posted By: sorce_code
they make rivet tools that have multiple tip choices. stay away for steel rivet around wet applications. if it's possible to reach the back side of the rivet, then you can use a backing washer to add some support if the material being riveted is brittle. i.e. cast aluminum or extruded aluminum that is curved, such as a sailboat mast. as for the length of the rivet, it only needs to be long enough to pass through the hole and have the little ball go into the rivet sleeve where it will brake off the shank. be sure to drill straight, as the tighter the fit the better the hold.


Chris, I was afraid of that, time for a new rivet gun.

Source, the holes are already there, I drilled out the old rivets,
ok, that makes sense, I will pop a few of different thickness out and check the depth of the "ball" and then measure the depth of the hole to the bottom edge of the material.
the problem is the depth is not even on all sides as the surface is curved and pulley frame was meant to go on a flat surface and it was bent somewhat to conform to the surface curvature.
 
Originally Posted By: stockrex
the problem is the depth is not even on all sides as the surface is curved and pulley frame was meant to go on a flat surface and it was bent somewhat to conform to the surface curvature.

I think a rivet is less than ideal for this job. A small SS bolt with a sleeve through the pulley (you can enlarge the pulley hole to fit a sleeve) and a small washer would keep the pulley from hitting the mast.
A washer and nut on the other side can be tightened without putting pressure on the pulley.

These are all available at a Ace hardware for a couple of dollars. You can even get a small plastic pulley with a bearing in it there also.
 
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