How to Make Rivets - From Cans ( = Any Tin)

improvisation is priceless. here a technique to make rivets from a fishcan - or, for that matter, any kind of can, resp (thin) tin in general. its easy, free, and might turn out ´pivotal´ in an emergency etc. ok, put on your hard-head, here comes another crash-course:

ps, in a future post we deal with making hollow pivots, also from *trash*

to demonstrate the technique lets just split a piece of wood and rejoin it - with a homemade rivet

a), drill a hole through the wood (pieces)

b), take some tin (here the lid of a fishcan)

c), cut a strip

a), roll up the strip in a coil (i use a sewing-needle and some pliers)

b), cut off whatever exceeds the diameter of the ´rivet´ needed

a), insert the rivet in the holes of the two parts

b), leave on each side some extra (which will be falten to form the heads)

a), find some solid surface (and, optionally, use some washers about the size of the rivets, underneath)

b), start flatening the tin and forming a head... by hammering (move the hammer also circularly with some inclination towards the centers - that helps to get some roundish shape, if so sought). when one side is done flip the object over and create the opposite head.

take off your hard-head

done

thanks for stopping by.

over & out