Riveting up a frame

[eshteyn]

That actually is a good idea in the beginning, however, from personal experience rivets break easily especially under strain, also if you use rivets you have to use washers to allow the rivet to grab and hold the metal together. Once again they are very weak and in a match if someone hits you your frame might break apart.

[sanddrag]

Don't do it, unless you find some really large rivets.

[DonRotolo]

Rivets are weak in shock load, but great for static loads.

A loose bolt is much weaker under cylical loads than a properly tightened one (ask the Mech Engineering guys why). A rivet (of the type you are considering) cannot be 'tightened' - the tightest you can get it is not very tight. (Rivets for big steel, like the GW Bridge, are installed hot, so they shrink and 'tighten'). So, loose rivets and cylical loads equals premature failure.

Also, the rivet starts to get loose quickly, and it's ability to be strong* drops significantly. That means instead of tightening up nuts and bolts, you get out the hammer and tighten up the rivets.

*Strength doesn't actually change, but a loose member has a little bit of distance available to allow it to build up some momentum before it hits the end of the rivet...and that isn't good.

Don

[Edit: The above refers primarily to standard peen-over rivets, not Pop Rivets mentioned by Deepwater]

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Don't do it, unless you find some really large rivets.

Given the kit frame's quarter-inch holes, I'm looking at McMaster 97525A553 (stainless steel) or 97447A652 (aluminum), or the other rivets of similar size. Bigger than what I'm accustomed to, but I don't know what qualifies as really large these days.