johnsmachines

And I don’t mean pop riveting.  I used some solid copper rivets on the vertical boiler today.  I tried to avoid them, hoping to use small bolts and nuts instead, or even soldering,  but ended up doing it properly and using solid copper rivets.

They do look the part.  No?  This is the ash pan door.

The copper rivets are already annealed.  You need an anvil with a depression which is the same same shape and size as the rivet head, a hammer, holes drilled and a method of cutting the rivets to length.

I secured the anvil in the vise.  The anvil was a bit of steel rod into which I bored a hemispherical depression with a ball nose end mill.  I super glued the boiler parts together, then drilled them.

Then hand held the parts containing the rivet, used side cutters to cut the rivet to length so that about one diameter of rivet was protruding, placet the rivet head onto the anvil, then gave the cut end a few taps with the hammer, to pean it over and secure it.  Easy as!

Those are the first solid rivets I have used.   Ever.

Then I silver soldered the handle in place.

The next job was a bit trickier.  I made some holes in the smoke box lid to let the safety valve and dry steam header poke through.  I tried drilling them initially, holding the lid with my hand, but the inevitable happened….   the drill bit grabbed, spun the work around, threw it and left a row of little dents on the copper surface.  I had been contemplating polishing the copper or painting it.   I guess this little accident means that I will be painting it.

So next I held the lid on the wooden form which I had used to make it, and held the form in the drill vise.  No more grabbing and throwing, but it was a bit tense.  I gradually worked up the drill sizes, and when it became close to the desired measurement, I filed the last bits.

Those taps are vertical.  They appear to diverge because the iphone has a wide angle lens.  2 penetrations made.  One more to go.