[morzh]

I learned my lesson when I tried to rivet the backelite speaker plug of my 20 after drilling out old rivets and re-wiring it.
I kinda suspected there'd be something wrong with it but went with it anyway, and sure enough, it cracked. I glued it back together. And I glued in the copper rivets from the back. Butts only. No one sees the front of it - it faces the chassis.

Now with my 18 when I drilled the rivets out and re-wired it, even though the plug is not backelite and consists of three layers of some sort of wood-like material (fiber-something???) I decided to be careful, as the pressure developed by the mandrel when going through the rivet is huge and if the rivet is of the matching size to the hole, it may still crack even if the material is not backelite.

There are also only so many options one gets when wanting to buy copper rivets. I barely found a bag of copper rivets of somewhat matching size a couple of years or so ago, on e-Bay.


So, here's what I do:

1) I take the mandrel out of the rivet and discard it (or use it for some off-label purpose...it is a nice copper-clad steel nail).
2) I take the rivet, and insert it in the hole from the wire entry side (the butt will remain at that side).
3) I take a large diameter bolt extraction tool. It has a very obtuse angle very nice large tip. I put the rivet butt on a piece of hard metal, so only the rivet touches the metal, and not the plug itself (otherwise it will crack), using the metal as an anvil. I put the tip of the extraction tool to the front end of the rivet and with a hammer flare it until it holds the case of the plug together. careful not to over-flare (case will crack).

   
   



Comes out nice, evenly flared and....copper! almost like the original.

When I come home I will add the photos.

[jerryhawthorne]

Looking forward to the pics Mortz. My 111 has had in the past for some reason the speaker plug replaced. It was done by cutting off one from some other set with about 3" of wire sticking out and then connecting to the wires coming from the radio and taping with electrical tape. Looks ugly. I can see finding a couple of those rivets may be difficult.
Jerry

[morzh]

Added the photos.

Could it be nicer? Certainly! But I like this result.

[jerryhawthorne]

Looks great Mortz, thanks.
Jerry

[Phlogiston]

It does look nice. Anybody know where to find those copper rivets?

[morzh]

I was looking far and wide, and ended up finding a bag on eBay. I can look up the numbers - size and length. I remember I could not find anything in copper in hardware stores. I think I found couple of vendors on Internet at some point but something told me to go on eBay, and I ended up buying them much cheaper. But still expensive. Aluminum of course more omnipresent and much less expensive, but then it is, well, aluminum.

[jerryhawthorne]

Mortz, perhaps Phlog and myself could help deffer some of that expensive if you had to buy a bunch. You know, 2 to Phlog, 2 to me and some $!


Jerry

[Phlogiston]

That would work and I would also be interested in larger sizes.

[morzh]

So, size does matter after all

I don't remember how much I paid for those, so what I could do is just throw few pieces in an envelope and send to you. I can measure the length first, or as I said, I will look at the label on the pack, maybe it contains some part number / size info, if I did not rip it off. It's a good pound of them there.

[jerryhawthorne]

Sounds great Mortz, I'm in for 4 in case I screw up. For my 111 speaker plug (Bakelite). Let us know length and diameter.
Jerry

[morzh]

So those are blind rivets.
The length is about 3/8" (had to use a ruler, no label is present - the guy who sold them to me simply filled the bag from a larger container. At the time I knew what I was looking for, but that was 2 years ago so I forgot).
The diameter is about 1/8".

[jerryhawthorne]

Mortz, I could go for 4 of them, looks like the size is perfect. Will PM my address. I believe if those have the internal brad that they are also known as pop rivets. Your method of installation is better than using a pop rivet gun as it will leave the brad head buried in the tube when it breaks off, making the back side of the rivet far from flush with the back of the plug.
Jerry

[morzh]

The pop rivet and blind rivet is the same thing.

The standard method using the rivet gun is unacceptable as it will likely crack the plug. It will 100% will crack backelite one (this is when I bought the gun and tried it and then it cracked so I had to glue it back together) and although 18 plug is not like 20 one, it consists of three fiber type material wafers put together, I think it will also crack as the pressure is large.

I can photograph the extraction tool I use but I think you know what it is - that thick rectangular cross-section rod with a twisted groove and obtuse conical tip that you hammer in a bolt's head (like in allen hex bolt) and then rotate it counter-clockwise to extract.
What matter most - you need any tool whatsoever that can

1) withstand a hammer hit (multiple hits), and
2) has a conical obtuse tip.

A drill bit won't do as it is not pointed.