Hi,
A while ago I read somewhere that there is a nice tool for makng round rivetheads. I don't mean circular but really drop shaped. Can anyone point me in the right direction? And also where to buy this tool?
Thx,
Erwin Leetink

This was posted today by Ken Hartlen on missing links

Hi all,

I found a great way to make 'rivets'.

Tonight I made rivets by sliding 0.030" rod inside some 3/64" tubing. I let the styrene protrude about 0.040", held the end of the styrene just close enough to a candle flame so the end mushroomed. The tubing kept the end from balling and the styrene formed into a perfect rivet head against the end of the tubing. Push the rod out and cut the rivet to length.

It only takes seconds to make a rivet and it won't be long before you have a decent pile.

For different sized rivet heads, use different sized styrene rod and a brass tube it will fit into. And be sure to let the rod protrude at least as much as its diameter.

This came to me as I was trying to figure out how to 'rivet' the pivots on the tilt frame I made for the 1/16 Tamiya Kübelwagen. Not sure if I had a moment of 'Eureka!!!' or if I just recalled something I read before.

Ken

Ken,
It seems so simple, but I'm sure that must work ! I'll surely give it a try. Good hint !
Jan

Howdy,
Ken thanks for the tip, but for my purpose it doesn't seem suitable, as I want to be able to create rows of identically shaped round-headed rivets. I'm currently building a locomotive from Baluard, and quite some rivets have airbubles :-( !
I want to replace the faulty ones, because if I replace them all, this would cost me days of work!
The method you suggest might be fine for indiviual rivet heads.
I'll definitely use it for that!
Thx,

i golikell.if you whant real rivets,go to CMK and you can found all the kind of rivet-esc. 1/72 and 1/48 .what is the scale of your loco.to order theme try to go to hannants.co.uk,or talk directly with the owner of the rivet-CMK-do you know micro-mark?they have all the stuffs you need to work in your locomotive,because they are specialized in all the miniature tools for this kind of work.-www.micromark.com-and--www.czechmasterkits.cz or www.hannants.co.uk.
i hope you will find the rivets,because they are very useful even for my plains and armour 1772.

Hi,

A friend turned me on to this a few years ago.

Find a pair of flat bladed tweezers or needle nosed pliers. Insert stretched sprue with some sticking out beyond the tweezer blades. 'Kiss' the sprue to a candle, and the head will roll over quite nicely. The metal tweezers/pliers allows you to set a constant size. The rolling of the head will stop at the tweezer/plier tip. When cooled in a few seconds, the 'shaft' of the sprue can be used as a guide and inserted into pre drilled holes. Quite easy to get a bunch of 'em to the same diameter.

I am assuming that this locomotive that you're building is in metal, in that case, just snip off the rivet heat and SG in place.

HTH,
Thanks,
Kevin Keee
Mortars in Miniature

Hey guys,
I found a very easy way to replace rivets. Micro-Mark sells a tool called pounce wheels. They can be found on page 24 of their new holiday catalog, and run $16 a piece. All you do is press firmly down on the wheel, roll across the model, and PRESTO!!!!! you have rivets....


Hope that helped ya out some.

Ian Sadler here in the UK wrote an article on making uniform rivets - can't find it for the moment, but he suggested using the filter cartridges for the home water filters. These are packed with ceramic beads that vary in size and can be sorted into groups. Then you flush cut the existing rivet and drill a 'cup' to glue the rivet into. I don't know any brand names in the US but the best one here in the UK is the Boots own brand - which i've used and it works. Just be carefull sawing open the container...

Aitch, that article is here on DocDio's web site

http://fp.docdio.f9.co.uk/page/Easy%20Rivets.htm

That covers it niceley thanks Geoff

A friend of mine recently got a handy little tool...actually 2 tools....from England just for this purpose...I posted this on totalmodel.com...so I've just coppied it to paste here.

I don't know where he got it.....but it's advertised in the front pages of Military Modelling every month....under Historex Agents...they list the one for making rivets at 28.50 pounds...and the hex one at 39.50 pounds.
His brother I think it was....was in England and picked them up for him and sent it through the Canadian mail when he got home....he figures it cost about $145 Cdn when the dust cleared.....a lot for the size of the tools......they were just tiny.....but once I started cutting out hex bolt heads...I could see where they would soon be well worth the $$$ spent.

For round topped rivet heads they suggest using the tool for round rivet heads on a piece of flat, hard rubber....this pushes out the round disc and then the rubber gives way just a bit to "pop it up".

Hi Folks,
Thanks for all your replies. I have been checking all these options out and finally opted for the plastic-rod/candle method. The locomotive I'm building is a 1/35 scale mostly resin kit of a WW 2 steamlocomotive from the Deutsche Reichsbahn Gesellschaft. This kit is made by the Spansh firm Baluard. As far as the kit is concerned, my feelings toward it are ambivalent: On the one side it is an impressive machine, but on the other side, there are quite some details missing (controls, steam whistle, etc) not to mention the amount of airbubles on very obvious places. If it is ready I'll post some pics.

PS: Dioman, what you mean it a punch and die set. these are used to create rivets from plastic card, these are not suitable for roundheaded rivets

Yes....if you read my post again....they tell you how to make rounded rivets...by using a piece of rubber.....but no matter....good luck with the candle and sprue.

Hi Dioman,
Sorry, I must have missed the last bit! #:-)