Learn how to rivet and you`ll be able to connect metal pieces together without having to use a torch! There are now all kinds of simple ready to use rivets one can buy (see tutorial links below). But these great riveting tutorials show how you can advance to making your own.
Nancy Hamilton is a great metal smith with a wonderful sense of humor!
Her basic wire riveting tutorial is a must see. I really appreciated the part where she shows where to strike the rivet with either a riveting hammer or a ball peen one (shown above).
Her fancy rivets tutorial is also worth seeing. She makes an easy dome rivet by balling the end of the wire with a torch. She then shows how you can make them fancier by creating a screw rivet and a dimpled rivet.
Another wonderful metal smith,
Soham Harrison has a tutorial which covers 4 types of riveting.
The first one is the
basic wire rivet (far right in the picture below). It is worth watching how he countersinks the holes. He makes them so flush that had he used the same metal, the rivet would be near invisible.
He then showed the
basic dome rivet (second from right in the picture above). He created his own rivet setter to do this. He made this rivet with a slight gap using a bit of a business card so the joined pieces can rotate. Fun way to get rid of the card after!
The third type is the
metal tube rivet which he reckons is the easiest one to do - probably because there is no countersinking needed. This type of rivet is great if you need to fit a jump ring or wire through it for your design.
And the fourth is a suspended or platform rivet.
Hat tip to Aims for the finds.
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