Rivet tools--what's out there today?

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by MICHAELABICK

RC when do you use the wide domed rivets. Do you also use 1/8 or do you use 3/16 exclusively?

Micheal,

We do not actually use wide domed rivets. For some reason we prefer the smaller guys. No real reasoning, maybe price? or the ability to get all of the same kind? I honestly couldn't tell you what our thought process was here.

But we use 3/16" on our entire bot, its easy to go:

We have a #10 hole, we can:

-Bolt
-Rivet
-Ziptie!

Makes life easy for us as designing in another set of holes would be a pain, we stole from 973 the #10 bolt pattern idea. So we put #10 holes every .5" inches. We also make a lot of changes on our bot, so the bolt pattern is pretty sweet and versatile.

The 1/8" rivets aren't used nearly as much, the reason we actually have them is we spend a lot of time letting new kids explore ideas and making prototypes. We buy 1/32" - 1/16" polycarbonate (3-4 sheets) and a ton of 1/8" rivets, this allows us to make prototypes cheaply and easily. The 1/8" rivets are really easy to use with a manual riveter. 1/8" rivets have a purpose, but they are not really used on the bot.

-RC

[MichaelBick]

Originally Posted by R.C.

Micheal,

We do not actually use wide domed rivets. For some reason we prefer the smaller guys. No real reasoning, maybe price? or the ability to get all of the same kind? I honestly couldn't tell you what our thought process was here.

But we use 3/16" on our entire bot, its easy to go:

We have a #10 hole, we can:

-Bolt
-Rivet
-Ziptie!

Makes life easy for us as designing in another set of holes would be a pain, we stole from 973 the #10 bolt pattern idea. So we put #10 holes every .5" inches. We also make a lot of changes on our bot, so the bolt pattern is pretty sweet and versatile.

The 1/8" rivets aren't used nearly as much, the reason we actually have them is we spend a lot of time letting new kids explore ideas and making prototypes. We buy 1/32" - 1/16" polycarbonate (3-4 sheets) and a ton of 1/8" rivets, this allows us to make prototypes cheaply and easily. The 1/8" rivets are really easy to use with a manual riveter. 1/8" rivets have a purpose, but they are not really used on the bot.

-RC

That was my mistake on the wide domed rivets. When I saw the link for the "Domed for Wide Thickness Range" rivets I somehow thought that they were wide domed. Thanks for the information about the 1/8" rivets. We have been planning to steal the same 973 bolt pattern, and it is good to know that the 3/16" rivets will handle all of our needs.