A Look at the Behind the Scenes of Repairs! - Rivet

This time, I had a chance to replace rivets, so I’ll show you how I did this.

First, let me explain about rivets. Unlike screws that are tightened to fix materials together, rivets are deformed to hold materials in place securely.
The advantage of rivets is that they provide strong and durable fastening, but the disadvantage is that they make part replacement more difficult.

Now, let’s introduce a practical repair example.

In this repair, I replaced the fan of a bubble machine.
To replace the fan, it is necessary to remove the rivets.
However, as mentioned earlier, replacing parts fixed with rivets is not easy, and you need to cut off the heads of the rivets.

Here is the tool used to cut off the heads of the rivets, called pliers.
This type of pliers is a tool made for cutting off the heads of nails and screws.

This is how the heads of the rivets are cut off.

When the heads of the four rivets are cut off, the cover and fan come off.

Next, I prepare to drive new rivets.
Here I need a riveter, which is used to install rivets.

Here is a manual hand riveter. There are also electric and air-powered types, but for replacing just a few rivets, a hand riveter is sufficient.

Along with the riveter, you need the rivets themselves.

The thin end goes into the riveter, and the thick end goes into the material to be fixed.

Before driving the rivet, make sure the size of the rivet matches the board and fan.
If the part to be fixed is loose, the rivet may come out even after driving it, so please be careful.

As you pull the lever of the riveter to drive the rivet, the tip of the rivet deforms.

Pull the lever about three times, and the metal part on the riveter side breaks off and the rivet is secured. The key point is to drive it vertically; if driven at an angle, the broken metal can remain on the riveter side, increasing the effort needed to remove it.
Repeat this process for the remaining parts.

With all the rivets reinstalled, the fan replacement is complete.

That’s all for my Behind-the-Scenes of Repairs! - Rivet Edition.
Thank you for reading.