[sanddrag]

We've had rivet pull studs break in the wrong place too. It's really a pain, and it's ugly. Usually, there's enough sticking out for us to grab with pliers and wiggle back and forth to break off. If not, then we'll file it down. I think it may stem from using a rivet outside of its specified grip range, but I'm not certain. I too would like to know how to avoid this.

We always drill a 3/16" hole for a 3/16" rivet. I don't see any problem in letting the rivet heads stack up on a drill bit. I just grab them with pliers afterward and reverse the drill bit out of them.

We have a Harbor Freight pneumatic rivet puller that works great. I don't think I'll manually pull a rivet ever again.

That said, I am interested in what manual rivet pullers teams are using. All of our Arrow brand ones are total garbage and no longer grip the pull stud well at all.