Hi guys, I am making something in mild steel and I'd like to rivet it together using aluminium bronze, or some other alloy (strength requirement is negligible).

The item is to be situated outdoors. I'd like to galvanize and paint the majority of it (the mild steel shapes) and leave the rivets in their natural finish. How can this be done without either damaging the paint / coating on the mild steel or ending up with paint all over the rivet heads...?

Any help much appreciated. Al.

Hi AA Depends on a lot of things, size and construction being the main ones, if the rivets are not required structurally, then I would consider leaving them out until all the workpiece is in situ or ready to ship out, and then fit the 'rivets'

I put the 'rivets' in inverted commas as depending on the sizes and configuration, I am assuming you want these as a feature, not a structural joining element.

I would consider making them in two parts, the rivet head and body, and a roved washer to act as a rivet head on the rear of the work, this too can be decorated and then lightly peened in situ to fix, then finish any decoration on the rove if required.

These pics from an old gothic feature may help illustrate what I mean.



The flower motif is just decoration (big rivet head?) and is held in place with the rivet which has a decorative head, that passes through the floral crimped disc, then the loop in the scroll, then another crimped disc, then a cupped rove (Shown on the rivet in the wrong place and reversed to the orientation it should be)



And finally the rivet in situ minus the floral disc (Sorry about the fuzzy pic)



and a couple of other samples



Or alternatively you could make the 'rivet' an ornamented headed screw (and nut ?), and then screw them into position after painting and loctite or dot punch the thread to stop them being easily removed if they are in a public place, private situations, not so important.

You could use a burr (washer that bites into a rivet) for assembly. This allows for low assembly forces. If you are interested in small stuff you can order copper rivets and burrs for building small boats.

You can also make a burr for any rivet by making a washer with a driving fit hole. Controlling the dimensions of the rivet and washer are important.

I see this is what John B was talking about, with different lingo.

Another choice is to use a "soft" material that can peen easily, and a close fitting washer so you do not have to peen much. Straight razors are fastened in this manner using materials like acrylic, horn, bone, etc. fastened to a steel blade. In this case the pin allows for movement, and is often nickel silver. You peen carefully with a lightweight ball peen hammer. It is funny but a spoon back (like for soup) is recommended for tightening loose pins by the shaving forums.

Phil

Galvy prior to assembly & masking tape to keep paint off the rivets?