Duration: 10:41

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Forging rivet tools from scrap ball bearing, spring and railroad track steel. Never made or used this kind of blacksmith dome head rivets before, so these aren't very clean or precise. Actually I'm very surprised of how hard it is to make and set rivets, specially steel ones, so congrats to those that make and use them on a regular basis. It really is way more hard work than it looks!
The tools I forged are sized for 8mm round stock, you can see the one I made of steel is too short, I underestimated twice how much material is needed for the domes, it's quite a lot!
Brass one was sized better, but brass work hardens a lot and I was not able to set it all the way, it should be annealed to have it dome fully.
Finally the aluminum one was a joy to make, it's super soft and sets nicely. But I cut the round stock a bit too long! So, as I've said, harder than it looks.
Not sure if I'll ever make steel ones again. I'd need way more practice to make them look good.
Aluminum ones on the other hand are fun to set but it's not the best fastening material so they would be good only for esthetics.

Index of operation and materials:
0:03 Railroad track steel
0:13 Remove bearing cage
0:54 Angle iron piece to hold the ball bearing, hole deeply countersunk
1:20 Stick weld the bearing from underneath
1:40 Angle grinder to clean the weld
2:25 Cut the railroad track steel in two with metal cutting bandsaw (steel annealed off camera)
2:40 8mm hole drilled for the rivet spacer
3:20 Hole drilled for handle
3:44 Tapped to M8
4:00 Hot cut a section of spring steel
4:40 Upsetting one end to make it thicker
5:20 Smooth the rough forged steel with 2x72 belt grinder
5:30 Hardening with coke forge, heat to non magnetic and quench in water (I tested both steel before)
5:55 Steel hardened
6:06 Remove scales with bench grinder and steel wire wheel
6:20 Tempering with residual heat of forge
9:02 Brass rivet made the same way
9:28 Aluminum one as well!

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