Friday, March 01, 2013

Dimples for rivets

Metal BompingThe first job on the Y6 bodywork is to push through the rivets in the side skirts. To aid the modeller, half-etch dimples are found on the back of the metal.

Well, they would aid the modeller if they weren't so large!

Aiming the rivet press is a challenge. Even using the bare metal spike rather than the thinner etched one doesn't help.

The best I could do was squint and try to aim the spike into the middle of the dimple.

(Note: I know the top photo shows things not lined up. I was working one-handed to I could weild the camera as well. You realy are picky)

Rivetted brassResult :

Not a neat line of rivets but a wobbly one. The long horrizontal set are OK but the verticals have the odd-mis-placed lumps.

If I did this again, I might draw some lines to help me but I'm not sure sighting them under the press would be possible.

2 comments:

Andy from Workshopshed said...

It is possible to fix a fence onto the press so you then only have to deal with the spacing and they will come out in a straight line?

Phil Parker said...

Andy a fence would do the job, or I could use the cross-slide that this riverter comes with. It will teach me to be so lazy!