Upset question, making crank handle rivet.

[DEERESMITH]

Guys,
I am attempting to make a new crank handle for my Champion 400 blower.
I have turned a nice 4" long hickory handle, and drilled a 25/64" hole, so it fits freely over a 3/8" rod.
I have done the best job that I know how to do of forming a rivet head on the end of a 3/8" rod.
So now I have a handle, on a long 3/8" rivet, that I need to install on my blower lever that has a 3/8" hole in it. How do I rivet this to my blower lever without tightening the rivet down on the wood handle. I do not know how to form an upset to back up the rivet through the lever, with the wood handle in place.
Any ideas?
Also, If anybody knows how to form a rivet head, without a divet in the top of the head, I am all ears.
Thanks in advance for your help.

[Mark Aspery]

How about you turn your rivet around and pass it through the blower lever first. Then slide your wooden handle on -then add a small washer and then cold pien the rivet head over. It does not have to be the perfect rivet, just enough to stop the washer from coming off.

[ThomasPowers]

Sorry in 28 years I don't recall *ever* getting a divit in a rivit head; so I can't comment on that. Perhaps if you had shared how you were doing it to get the divit we could help.

One method of keeping a rivit from taking up all the slack is to make a sloted sheet metal shim that you place around the rivit shaft somewhere convient and remove after riviting the system tight to leave a gap.

[DEERESMITH]

I appreciate your advise, but I don't think I completely got my point accross.
I want the rivet securely fastened to the lever, while mantaining proper clearance for the handle. I think I need some sort of upset between the handle, and the lever, so when I peen the end of the rivet,the rivet will be securely
fastened to the lever, and the handle will be allowed to spin on the rivet, but the rivet will not be allowed to spin or wiggle in the lever.

Here is how I made my rivet head. I made a rivet head tool by driving my ball peen hammer, ball end, into a hot piece of steel. The diameter of the rivet head tool is 9/16" ( 3/8 X 1.5)
I upset the 3/8" rod best I can, then drive it into the rivet tool that I made.
When I attempt to drive the hot, upset end of the rod into the tool, much of the metal wants to expand out the sides of the tool, yet the metal has still lacked a little from completely reaching the bottom of the tool. This leaves a slight flat spot, or a divet. The divet gets worse if I attempt to correct the metal that expanded over the sides of the tool.
I hope this makes sense. If I knew how, I would post pictures.
Thanks again.

[ThomasPowers]

So you want to tenon the end that goes through the lever and rivet that tight *and* draw down the other end to have the wood handle float on it. What is the problem again?

Bad ascii art: (|====|||=|) right?

For me I would draw down stock and not try to upset in the middle. Probably want a monkey tool to dress the faces of the thicker area and you will need to rivit the piece into the lever using a rivit set---after you start the shaping of the rivit head with the peen. A good postvise will really helps as you can grip the rod in the handle area, drop the lever arm onto the tenon and start riviting it with the hammer and then switch to the hammer and set.

As to the problem making a pre made rivit head---what shape did you forge the end to before trying to drive it into the die? You probably don't want it flat but more a truncated cone so the metal doesn't have to move as much as it's rapidly cooling. However I would not do any premade rivit heads for this job and rivit each end separately

Edited March 11, 2009 by ThomasPowers

[Sam Thompson]

Why not turn/forge the end slightly narrower, leaving a shoulder for the washer to sit on and then peen it cold?

[Iron Falcon 72]

It was not uncommon for rivets to be left with a flat on the end.
The handle on my 400 actually screwed into the crank arm. Are there any thread left in the crank arm? If there are or if you can retap it and then thread the rivet that may be your simplest solution.

If you can't thread the rivet buy a 3/8" cap bolt and grind off the square lands. If you buy one that is long enough there won't be any threads inside the handle.

I doubt that you can peen the rivet tightly enough to keep it from sooner rather than later spinning free. By threading it into the crank arm it will be more secure.

[Sam Thompson]

I think you should shoulder the rivet at both ends and rivet the outer end first (hot) then put the other end through the crank. If you warm the rivet quickly the metal of the crank will protect the wood while you peen the end.

[John B]

Start with a larger diameter bar, and make the domed end, jump it up/upset it, using a split holder in the leg vise to secure the stem, use the ball end of the hammer to peen the Domed head to the required basic shape, (this could be finished using a hot rasp as you are only looking to produce a domed shape) then if you like, finish it off using your tool as a rivet snap in conjunction with a bolster plate. This should give a clean edge under the head.

Then when you are satisfied with the end, measure the length of the wooden handle and add some clearance to this, then on the other end of the rod at this length, forge the end down to form a shouldered tenon to fit into the hole in the existing crank handle, leaving it long enough to allow it to be riveted in solidly.


Drill the handle bore out to clear this larger diameter rod.

Fit handle on rod, then rod and handle assembled into the hole in the crank handle, and rivet this into position

An alternative would be to tap the hole in the handle, and thread the end of the rod to fit this, leave the threaded end a little longer than the thickness of the handle, and peen the end over when it is fitted to stop the lot undoing.