I recently bought an Arrow rivet fastener, but I know NOTHING about rivets. I thought I'd practice using it, but I don't seem to be doing something right. I put the fastener on the nail-part of the rivet and squeeze the grips together so they are touching, and I can see the nail getting pulled through the rivet a little, but that's all that happens. Is the nail supposed to break off or come out or what?

 

I have to assume you are talking about a pop-rivet tool. Are you just putting the rivet in the tool and pulling the handles or are you drilling the proper size hole and actually connecting two surfaces together? If not using it to connect things, the rivet does not get enough pressure to snap the nail off. Also, it usually takes a couple squeezes of the handles to break off the nail. Good luck.

 

You need to drill the proper size hole.The stem part (nail what you call) goes into the jaws flush with rivit.squeeze handles.If it does not break off push more of the stem into jaws and do it again.

 

Using a pop-rivet gun, animated.

The waste part of the pin will snap off inside the tool jaws, and should drop out with handle fully open and perhaps a sharp rap on the tool body. Don't try to force the waste out or it may jam, and you'll have to perform some tricky surgery on the tool.

 

High strengh pop rivets come in different grip lengths (the thickness of what you are riveting). A long grip rivet on thin material will have the nail break off protruding from the rivet head.

Common low stength rivets don't have to be sized so carefully. They should protrude out the back side about 1 1/2 times the rivet diameter (there has to be enough rivet on the back side to swell to hold everything in place). Don't worry too much. Common pop rivets are very forgiving.

Some pop rivets will not "pop" unless they are inserted in a properly sized hole. If you are playing around without actually riveting something the nail can sometimes be pulled all the way through without ever poping.

Many pop rivet guns have different sized tips. They screw into the business end and have a hole that matches the size of rivet you are driving. If the tip is too small you can't insert the rivet. If it's too big the nail may slip in the gun without pulling hard enough. And as Mr. Dragon said it often takes a couple pumps on the handle. It will take more pumps if your rivets are too long for the material you are riveting.

Somebody ask me about solid rivets... I could go on for days.

 

Hey, Pilot Dane - if you expose any more of this esoteric knowledge we're going to have to start calling you Rosie LOL