Buying Rivets

FIRST General Forum
1

I’m looking at buying a good deal for rivets (10,000 or so), and am looking to find a good deal.

In small qty I’ve bought from mcmaster and bolt depot and it’s not too crazy.

Blindrivetsupply.com has much better pricing than the above two, but never heard of them.

Looking for 3/16" Dome head Aluminum/Aluminum. Grip lengths from .125 max to .625 max.

For reference, mcmaster has 1/4" griplength for $.063 each, bolt depot has them for $.047 each, and Blind Rivet Supply has them for $.029 each.

Any other good sources for rivets?

2

I am sure Wayne will chime in here soon, but he bought 3 box of 10,000 rivets for us but I can’t remember where he got them from. It was a good deal…that last 3 or 4 years worth of robots have been put together with those rivets.

3

I’d check alibaba if you’re looking for anything in bulk really. Stuff tends to ship from China, but for rivets, who cares?

Looks like these guys have your size: http://cncpart.en.alibaba.com/product/1872852169-221869210/alibaba_china_fastener_blind_rivet.html

You’ll have to get a quote, but it looks like they’re no more than $0.005/piece with a minimum order of 10000. Be wary of methods of payment though.

4

We previously bought a bunch of rivets in 8000-pack boxes from BlindRivetSupply, but they no longer have these listed (only 100-packs…) and it looks like they were acquired by another company since last build season. :-/

5

And from the same place you can get this fantastic ELEcTRIC rivet gun, for the same low price as the rivets

Seems sketchy at best.

6

Now you know where Harbor Freight gets their stuff :stuck_out_tongue:

7

I would not trust alibaba or ebay for anything structural in my experience. Electronics like power supplies or resistors are great. Rivets are a bad idea.