Olympic Rivet Shaver

[r&kweber]

Hi,

I'm looking to buy your 'extra' Olympic Rivet Shaver. Or possible rent/borrow one in the Seattle area for shaving approximately 30 rivets. Anyone in the Seattle area want to barter for homebrew? email for currrent draft selections.

Thanks,

Ryan.

[Excella CM]

A proper shaver is a good thing to own, if expensive. An alternative until you can justify the expense is to cut off the stub as close to the head as possible and use a file to bring it flush with the unfinished rivet head_not perfect, but pretty good, and you can always go back and cut the profile later when you get a shaver.

[Hawk_Man]

Ryan, I used a Dremal tool with a grinding stone to take down the stub, then

I got out a diamond file and finished it, after which I used 1500 grit sand

paper and a little water just on the tops of the rivets worked out well. This is

in the event you wished to try an alternate method. Good

luck in your search for getting a rivet shaver.

Regards, Keith

[CanoeStream]

I'd second the vote for a Dremel. It has more uses after smoothing rivets too! Like Excella CM says, cut it off close with a side cutter to begin with.

Coming from a dental background I'm not thrilled about the price or quality of Dremel inserts, but Dremel's grinding stones would be the 2nd step. Dental "straight handpiece" or "latch" mandrels fit well in a Dremel -- not the little high speed bits used ... well, you know ... don't want to lose too many readers here. You might find some handy rubber polishing wheels or cups if you are on good terms with a local DDS -- promise to give them back on Monday morning? I didn't end up with perfect hemispheres but you'd have to get pretty close to tell.

[rickandsandi]

Come on guys; any excuse to buy a new tool!


For only $199.99 you could own this beauty! Wouldn't it be great to have one? And just think, you are at a rally and someone starts talking about some bad belly rivits and you pull out your tool box and there it is! How awsome is that?

[Thealt]

I'm all for buying tools, but 200 bucks gets you a really nice dremel tool or some other fancy gadget. 200 bucks for a glorified drill / router bit.. Uh.... if you have that money burning a hole in your pocket, write your name on the back of a 100 dollar bill and send it to me so I can see your pretty signature.
Me, I will be in this predicament soon. I play to modify a white grinder stone (1/4" barrel shape) for a dremel tool to have the concave shape to closely match the finished rivet. Think I should be able to do this by taking a carbide bullnose router bit or drill bit and chuck it in my drillpress (also a 200 dollar tool), then slowly grind this concave shape into the white grinder wheel bottom. Just has to be deep enough to give the rounded shape. Once that is done, just carefully place over the rivet when it's nipped just proud of the finished height and start your grinding.
Should work. but of course in theory..... everything does.
Alt

[markdoane]

I don't think you need to be perfect, just better than these.

[r&kweber]

All,

Thanks for the ideas. Rick, my wife calls you an enabler? Any excuse to buy a tool and normally, I'm there. But $200? It's not like VTS is hiking the price, but a 30 yr. old version of the tool would work just as good as the new one.

I've read a few threads in the VAC archive, which gave me an idea. I can buy a aircraft rivet shaver off ebay (or Boeing Salvage). Looks like a air powered drill with a tripod built onto it so your bit stops short of the aircraft body. They normally come with a flat cutter, since airplanes use flat rivets. I could set the cutting depth to flatten the rivet just so, and that would be as good or better than a freehand Dremel style setup? Anyone have experience with this? Or should I revert to the easier trade shaver time for home made beer?

Thealt, that's a good theory. If it works, any chance you'd like to make two?

Markdoane, nice teeth! Left overs from Holloween? Thanks for the help finding fender repair material, now I'm trying to get the rivets looking as good as yours!

Ryan.

[SilverToy]

Mark -

As I just came from visiting my mom, retired DDS, and STILL a HAWK on others teeth.... those examples, well.... let's just say that they would have mom cowering in fear... over what the rest of the, "humanity" that exists BEHIND those teeth, looks like.

The poor dear!!! I am thinking of the wretched 'dears' that sports them, and the poor dentist/ ortho, that gets to 'fix' them.

No seriously, those teeth, are they 'actual' examples, or some ??? joke or movie dentition? Cause if those are real.... well, they call to mind the actual horse teeth that mom and others of her class were assigned to 'practice drilling' on... YIKES!

Her only comment was, that she would NEVER 'See' any patient that had teeth as poor as that.... famous last words.... bills to pay, all that! She is happily retired, and just as happy to say that she NEVER, EVER HAS to fix another crummy tooth, gum or the like. Period.

Thanks for the memories! What, no GOLD teeth???

Ciao

Axel

[rickandsandi]

OK Friends, get on my case for spending the $200! Everyone has some pretty great ideas on alternatives to the Olympic Rivet Shaver. And I am positive they will all work. However, in the spring when I will be doing most of my rivit replacing on the Tradewind, Sandi will have an extra long Honey-Do list. Tradewind, Sandi, little time, need to do a job quickly and do it once. See my point? Please, don't get me wrong; I have a workshop full of really great jigs and what have you but I also realize my time is whorth a little something too. Once you use the Olympic Rivet Shaver you are hooked, a perfectly smoothed rivit everytime! Options are great, saving money is great, efficiency is even better. I would like to see one of the finished stones though!

[Thealt]

I suppose if I had to replace more than 100 rivets I would reconsider after trying a workaround, but lucky I don't have that many to replace. Knock on Aluminum. Maybe we should have a rivet shaving party. Bring the tool and we will all bring the food Times like this though, wish I had a metal lathe to construct my own tool. I'm still suffering from sticker shock. When I first saw that thing, I thought " the drill is included right?"
Still, I'm an enabler too; have a shop full of tools, just not that one.
Alt

[Aerowood]

Originally Posted by r&kweber

All,

Thanks for the ideas. Rick, my wife calls you an enabler? Any excuse to buy a tool and normally, I'm there. But $200? It's not like VTS is hiking the price, but a 30 yr. old version of the tool would work just as good as the new one.

I've read a few threads in the VAC archive, which gave me an idea. I can buy a aircraft rivet shaver off ebay (or Boeing Salvage). Looks like a air powered drill with a tripod built onto it so your bit stops short of the aircraft body. They normally come with a flat cutter, since airplanes use flat rivets. I could set the cutting depth to flatten the rivet just so, and that would be as good or better than a freehand Dremel style setup? Anyone have experience with this? Or should I revert to the easier trade shaver time for home made beer?

Thealt, that's a good theory. If it works, any chance you'd like to make two?

Markdoane, nice teeth! Left overs from Holloween? Thanks for the help finding fender repair material, now I'm trying to get the rivets looking as good as yours!

Ryan.

A "real aircraft rivet shaver" will shave the cut off stems just fine. It will just be alittle flat on top instead of slightly curved. On a stem that is only around .125 in diameter this will hardly be noticed. If someone is looking that closely at your trailer to even notice, they better have cash in their hand to buy. If you can get a good deal on a shaver at Boeing surplus sales I would go for it, because a true aircraft rivet shaver costs quite abit more then $200 dollars, closer to $500.

[malconium]

There is a less expensive type of rivit shaver available for around $30 that works just fine. I believe it is mentioned in the following thread:

http://www.airforums.com/forum...ight=microstop

If you can not find the info please PM me and I can look.

Malcolm

[C Johnson]

Originally Posted by r&kweber

Hi,

I'm looking to buy your 'extra' Olympic Rivet Shaver. Or possible rent/borrow one in the Seattle area for shaving approximately 30 rivets. Anyone in the Seattle area want to barter for homebrew? email for currrent draft selections.

Thanks,

Ryan.

Well you could talk Darol Ingalls into bringing his rivit shaver to the Newport Seafood and Wine Fest Rally. That way we could all see your 18 footer in person !

I personally used a dremel to shave my rivits. It turned out ok, I'm sure the shaver would have been better.

[rickandsandi]

Originally Posted by Thealt

I suppose if I had to replace more than 100 rivets I would reconsider after trying a workaround, but lucky I don't have that many to replace. Knock on Aluminum. Maybe we should have a rivet shaving party. Bring the tool and we will all bring the food Times like this though, wish I had a metal lathe to construct my own tool. I'm still suffering from sticker shock. When I first saw that thing, I thought " the drill is included right?"
Still, I'm an enabler too; have a shop full of tools, just not that one.
Alt

Hey -- any excuse for an AS party. I'll supply the shaver and rivits and drills, you guys supply the beer!

[uwe]

There is nothng like a rivet shaver to shave Olympic rivets. Everything else either takes forever, delivers questionable results, or just plain does not work, or in some cases I have seen, does more damage than good.
The rivet shaver, once set up, makes Olympic rivets look just like bucked rivets, and does not damage the skin surrounding the rivet.
I have set quite a few of these Olympic rivets, and shaved them, eventually with a rivet shaver. Comparing the makeshift method to the rivet shaver, the shaver always wins, hands down.
The purchase price, although steep, pales in comparison on the money you can save in repairs. One trip to a RV shop for metal repair can cost you a multiple of the price of the shaver.

[r&kweber]

Chris, we really wanted to go to the Newport rally. Unfortunately, we have to stay in toen that weekend. We'll make it to a rally yet. South Beach State Park is our favorite beach park in Oregon. We used to go there regularly when we lived in Eugene. And camp so close to Rogue Brewery!


I have decided to buy the bulb type rivet shaver. But not until I have to. With many other expenses before June, ie. A/C, Zip-Dee, etc. I am going to try to have an RV repair center shave them for me on this go around. Plan is to set all the rivets at this time and pay someone to shave them. Maybe this will work, maybe I'll have to get one from VTS sooner than I want.