Pop Riveter

Stigura · 17-11-2019 4:10pm #1

I'll be looking to buy a pop riveter, next week. Fun times ahead, eh?

cletus · 17-11-2019 5:02pm

Are we allowed to ask what you'll be riveting?

Also, did you finish your fence project

Stigura · 17-11-2019 7:01pm

Cletus, my man!

Here it is, look:

Stupid lid fell off of my ash box, almost as soon as I got it. That was Years ago. Annoyed me ever since.

I've spent those years, wringing my hands and scratching my head. What to do with it? Could never work it out. Just knew that chucking the damn thing away and getting another one was never an option. Principle.

Couple that with the fact that I've never had a riveter before. Didn't even know how they worked. But, figured one may fix this cursed lid ..... Looked on you tube. Now; The way is clear :cool:

Riveter will probably cost about the same as the ash box too ~ those boxes aren't cheap! And, this way? I get to salvage the perfectly good box. And, I get the bonus of a new tool. Then, I'll have to look for other jobs for it. But, what ever; We're men. We like our tools.

Pat was round, the other day. We needed the end cutting off of a nail. He asked me if my big angle grinder was working yet. I pointed out I hadn't put the new disc in it yet.

Then, I said; " Cut a nail? Allow me to produce my Bolt Croppers! "

I said how I'd wanted a set of Bolt Croppers all my life. " Snip! ". Pat was impressed!

Infernal fence? Not yet. I have a thing in my life that's distracting the hell out of me just now. Haven't been able to settle to anything for weeks. No fence work. No disc's getting put in grinders.

Dogs have never breached the gate, thankfully. Yesterday, and today, I actually set a trap in there ~ though, in truth, the Dogs all stayed in here, in the warm, anyway.

Caught a beautiful, male, Great Tit, today. God, he was gorgeous! Fresh from autumn moult. Plumage was Screaming! Spent the summer handling juvenile chaffinches. All sort of half way and pretty dowdy. I'd forgotten just how stunning an adult bird, in full battle dress, can be!

Got me thinking now: How might I use my riveter to help me build new bird traps ....? (Which I'm trained and licensed to use) I can see distinct possibilities .....

cletus · 17-11-2019 8:06pm

What do you do with the birds once you catch them?

Stigura · 17-11-2019 8:33pm

I'm privileged to be an authorised Ringer

So, basically, I measure and weigh them, to see how old they are, and how they're doing. Then, I give them their bling. Tell them they're my little gang members now. And off they go.

All this information gets fed into the mother of all computers, back at HQ, and that's how we keep an eye on what the wild bird populations are up to.

Even on a very personal, 'back garden' level though, what I get to do has shown me amazing things which simply staring out the window would never show.

Anyway, I have this notion, now, that I could rivet angled tin along the 'corners' of wire mesh 'boxes'. Adding great rigidity and strength. Just an idea, floating around in my head. I like the sound of it though.

cletus · 17-11-2019 10:35pm

Pictures of the wire mesh boxes please

Stigura · 17-11-2019 10:52pm

Haven't got any ~ because, without the riveter, I've never made any :pac:

I do have traps that are, for our purposes, 'wire mesh boxes'. Some I bought in, from a guy who makes them. They're a design known as a " Potter Trap ". I also made one myself. But, these are made by wiring the mesh to a stiff wire framework.

I also made a lovely trap ~ bigger, multi catch thing ~ out of wire mesh. I cable tied that together. Just used a few squares of bent, pretty strong, wire inside. Probably not explaining it too clearly?

Now, I'm vaguely envisaging something reminiscent of the old tea crates. Only, made of mesh. Riveting angled light steel along the edges should give it a lot of support and strength.

I'm toying with the possibility of coming up with something to use for all the corvids I'm luring in :cool:

Stigura · 20-11-2019 2:20pm

Tenner!!!

No arguments from me, so!

But, as Ian Anderson once ~ so memorably ~ put it? " Nothing Is Easy "!

Just emptied out the ash box and took it into my tool room. There to mark up for the holes. Got hold of the long hinge, figuring to lift it up, to match against the lid? May as well have tried to lift this cottage, with finger and thumb!

Whole damn thing is absolutely seized solid!!! :eek:

There endeth Stiguras productivity, for today

Drenched the thing in 3 in 1. Now, I guess, it's off to Netflix with me.

Ye couldn't make this up!

Stigura · 21-11-2019 1:49pm

How Happy Am I?!

Behold! My beautifully fixed ash box lid! Good as new again, after all these years!

And that was So easy! I should have gone out and bought a pop riveter Years ago! :cool:

Well, there it is. Cost me a tenner and has paid for itself already

One happy bunny!

jack of all · 21-11-2019 4:38pm

Pop riveter is a great thing to have in the toolbox for repairs, I have two and a mix of rivets. It might only be pulled out a handful of times in a year but it makes for a good tidy job. Look out for small metal (steel or aluminium) washers to match the shank dia. of the rivets you're using and you can fix softer materials with it too.

stratowide · 21-11-2019 5:05pm

Back in the BCE era when I worked as a hgv mechanic this was my go to tool.Way ahead of a 9/16 spanner or a lump hammer I can tell ya:P

Jaysus I must've used(wasted..!!)a million pop rivets in various attempts to hold things together.

Hauliers were noted for their fondness for not buying new parts back then.

Ah yes the humble pop riveter..A great addition to any toolbox.

Pop Riveter

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