A Riveting Tutorial

I know you people know how to put on rivets, but I forgot today and I lost my instructions, so this is for me in the future. I figured it out by looking at a picture from an old post where I just happened to catch the back of the riveting tool package. It was a little blurry, but good enough. Moooo!

Take a nail and push it through the spot where you want the rivet. The little black disc that comes with the tool is so you can hammer on it if you want to - put it under the spot where you're hammering. (I figured that out by the tiny nail holes I saw there!) Take the nail out and come back in the opposite direction to make a good hole - it's at the tip of my thumb (not IN it, surprisingly).


Load the rivet "tool." They supply a long cylinder to help you get it seated well - you don't really need it, but you feel more like a machine worker if you use it.


The tool is ready. Inside rivet part on the bottom, outside rivet part on the top.


I've pushed the rivet stem thing through the hole from the inside out - that's the hardest part because there are lots of fabric layers and this isn't sharp like the nail. See the silver bit sticking out near my thumb?


Now lower the top so it sits nicely over the bottom and bang away. It really only takes a couple of blows.


Remove the tool from the inside and outside - voila! One time the seat of the tool came off with the rivet, and when I removed it there was a huge black rubber thing where my rivet should've been. I nearly panicked, then I realized what happened and just pulled it off and stuck it back in the tool.


Oh Spaceman, I'm so sorry!