Can You Shave Olympic Rivets By Hand?

[Gkiesel]

Hello All, Is there a way to shave olympic rivets by hand to avoid buying the costly rivet shaver tool? I would like to remove our TV antenae completely and make a plate for the offending hole. I would only be shaving a dozen or so rivets, so I don't want to buy a $200 dollar tool. Any sugestions? Thanks, George.

[Fyrzowt]

I've heard reports of folks successfully (and carefully) using a Dremel tool.
Dave

[Gkiesel]

That's an idea. What type of head for the dremel?

[Fyrzowt]

I've never tried it, I don't think the type of bit was discussed in the threads I read. A search might bring it up.
Dave

[InsideOut]

I don't think there is a special bit when using a Dremmel...whatever works. We we restored our first trailer, I did the few rivets by hand with a Foredom tool (heavy-duty Dremmel-like tool) also a little by hand with a file. It was pretty slow-go. That's the beauty of the rivet shaver...it's shaped just for that purpose. We now have a rivet shaver as we will be replacing a panel on our GT this spring - so there will be too many to do without a rivet shaver.

Shari

[Fyrzowt]

If I'm not mistaken, many of the "standard" bits for general materiel removal have a cove on the end. That may work well if you are careful. I think if you got the speed to high, you would risk slipping off the rivet and marring the skin. Kind of a high speed wobble.

[jayray5]

The dremel is a high speed tool that can get away from you and "walk" accross the skin. Practice on a rivet in another piece of material away from the TT and get good at it first. The rivets are cheap--so sacrifice a few of them before you tryit on the AS.

[rickandsandi]

George- I have seen one done with a hand Dremmel and I was sweating bullets the whole time and it wasn't my AS. I have done a ton of them with the shaver and it works like a charm. I don't think I could ever do it free-hand, even after a few glasses of wine. Perhaps there is a forum member in your neighborhood who has one and can help you out. How many do you need to do?

[Gkiesel]

Probably not more than a dozen. i just want to make a water proof cover where my TV antenae exists now, and don't want to just Vulkem over common pop rivets. George.

[1953 Flying]

At Home Depot or Lowes, they sell these round sand paper bits that attach to your drill. It works pretty good. The down side is if you sand to much it will leave the top of the rivet flat instead of round.

[Zeppelinium]

We need to get Aerowood to chime in here, but he was telling me that you can use a mircrostop countersink tool ($26) with a flat bit (another $20 or so) and so a really good job. I thought he said the flat bits were available at Pan American Drills (great place for number drills and clecos, by the way), but I didn't see any that I thought would work. Hello, Kip....

I was a bit (ha ha) bummed by this news, since I bought an olympic shaver at 5 times the cost of Kip's solution.

Zep

[Ganglin]

Since it's on the roof why not just use a stainless screw and bonded washer with a shot of vulkem under it.





larger image
larger image
# 4 - Bonded Washers - Stainless

$3.50



These are a great product for cowls and canopys. They are Stainless Steel on one side and neoprene on the other. Great for protecting the plastic or fiber glass. Also, helps keep the screw from vibrating out. These have a #4 hole in the metal side. And the neoprene hole is smaller so you can actually use a #2 screw, providing the head is large enough like a button head type.

[TWaugh]

I've used my standard dremel with a cutoff wheel installed and it works fine. Make sure to rest your arm or hand against the shell to steady the dremel. I use the hardened cutoff wheel to trim the excess rivet just shy of flush, then and use the flat side of the cutoff wheel to lightly tap (use a gentle touch) the top of the rivet which smooths out the excess aluminum. With the dremel set to high speed the aluminum smooths very quickly . It may not look as good as the shaved rivets but once its polished its very hard to detect that it was ground smooth. I would suggest practicing with a few rivets on some scrap material. Once you get used to using the dremel its not that difficult. I have yet to have the dremel slip and do any damage, I think that's part luck and part patience. This is not a method you would want to use if you were doing more than a couple dozen rivets at a time, but its ok for simple repairs and a few rivets.

[Aerowood]

I'll will post part numbers and vendors names tomorrow when I get back to work. I don't have any of my catalogs here. Just remember that it will be a flat cutter. I found this old post that talks about the shaver I had in mind
http://www.airforums.com/forums/f381...ver-24106.html

[pauly g]

I just cut the stem off with a pair of clippers an finish it off with a dremel. I have never had a problem.

[2bkidfree]

I used snips to take off most of the post and then a die grinder to work it down. Some 600 grit and then 100 grit sand paper finished it off. I polished it afterward and it looked fine. You can get it die grinder at Harbor Freight for under $20 with bits.

Gilbert

[2bkidfree]

I meant, start with 600 and then go to 1000 grit. You have to be very careful not to hit the skin.

sorry.