Electronics > Mechanical & Automation Engineering

spinning loose rivet remover drill?

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coppercone2:
I hurt myself drilling a rivet that kept spinning and I imagined a tool I don't know if it exists

The idea is to make a drill with a stop around it. Kind of like a "screw holder", but with maybe a slightly abrasive surface edge, or some kinda sticky rubber, so when you push the drill bit into the rivet, the outer sheath body contacts the rivet to prevent it from spinning, and then the drill can make contact with the immobilized rivet to wear it away. Usually rivet heads are pretty wide.


Normally you would need to glue the rivet, or try to grab it with needle nose vise grip, or some other annoying 'immobilizer' that tries to grip a very flush edge.


I have seen a carpenter drill that has a depth stop that could kind of perform this function if you put a handle on it and made the tip some how sticky.


WHat tools are there for this?


Kind of like this, but with a handle (to prevent spinning) and a 'gripper' of some kind on the tip (serations, rubber, abrasive, etc)

jpanhalt:
I have removed a couple of hundred aluminum rivets in aluminum skins.  The mechanic I worked with in the 1980's (W.M.)  had probably done thousands.  He had been a mechanic during WWII and was an IA.  We never used a special drill.  Maybe a little practice will help.  Rivets have two ends, the manufactured end and the shop end.  The shop end is what results after bucking the rivet.  You drill from the manufactured end.  If you can reach the shop end, you might try holding it with vise grips or a diagonal cutter.  We never had a non-defective, solid rivet spin. 

I had a couple of loose rivets in a cowl and was able to get them out without any special tool.  You  need to be very careful not to enlarge the hole.  If you do, the only solution when redoing it is use a larger rivet.  Clearance between the rivet and hole is small, and as the rivet expands during bucking, it fills the clearance.

Pop rivets may have a solid steel plug left over from pulling..  The shop end can be cut off and the plug driven out from the manufactured end..  Then remove as usual.  Steel rivets may be more difficult.  I can't remember any specific experience with them.

EDIT: Damned spellcheck kept changing rivet in the singular to river.  Misset one.

coppercone2:
I don't know if I ever noticed them spin quite so much on a metal thing, this was a rivet on a PCB. I think its more slippery. What I should have done is put a drop of super glue and waited a while, then drilled it.

I think with aluminum they deform it enough that it never really gets super loose, and I think if you spin it a while, it sticks to the aluminum from metal friction. it was infuriating on a PCB.

And the problem those are often in a location where its hard to get a grip on them because of nearby parts.

I guess what you can also do is use a small tile hole saw (i.e. 1/4 inch) diamond, put that in a chuck aligned with a drill press, and use it as a 'anvil', or glue some rubber to a steel pin and use that as a anti-spin anvil.


But to have a box of this all in 1 technology that can be used with a hand drill and no backing (i.e. used in a panavise) would be nice


only one would need to exist, that fits a TO-220 package rivet.

coppercone2:
it might have another use too, for drilling through a rusted stuck bolt nut combination. a nice alternative to having to weld them, like if you back a nut off on damaged threads and its in some fucking hole and the other side is inaccessible or requires a stupid wrench

Nominal Animal:

--- Quote from: coppercone2 on October 20, 2024, 04:15:24 pm ---Kind of like this, but with a handle (to prevent spinning) and a 'gripper' of some kind on the tip (serations, rubber, abrasive, etc)
--- End quote ---
Grab a suitable size woodworking square hole hollow chisel, replace the actual drill bit with a metal one, and add a handle to the hollow chisel to both stop it rotating and to help guide/direct the drill when starting.

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