How do you set tube rivets?

[Dalton Masterson]

Howdy.
I have a small bottle of copper tube rivets. These are the rivets with a flat head, then a hollow stem on them.
I assume there is a special technique to using them, as the different methods I tried didn't work at all.

Just thought they could be handy at times.
Thanks,
DM

[Slowhand Bob]

I assume you are talking about splash rivets.  These are pretty common but are not very attractive on the back side with most setting methods.  With a common slash rivet setter you simply peel the tube down into a star shape on the back.  I have never had much luck getting it right but there is a setter that makes a shallow roll over on the back side and last but not least you can obtain small caps that are made to attach to the back when setting.   Add into this the fact that small copper washers (burrs) are made that can be added to the mix but are most often used under the roll-over tool setting.  Not sure if Tandy or anyone has setting instructions on these  UHHH black sheeps of the rivet family.

[Dalton Masterson]

Aaah, those are these then?

I was thinking they might be good for some things where the backside is somewhat hidden.
So these are the ones that look like a bullet after fired into a steel plate?
I was hoping that they would roll down into a nicer shape than that.
Oh well, they were in a box I got at an auction awhile back, and I thought I might as well use them up.
Thanks, SB.
DM

[GunClick Rick]

I have some and i think they came with a little round anvil type thing,but i never had the chance to use them.If i can be more help just let me know   The little round anvil i have has concave on one side and a hole on the other side,easy to balance..

[Slowhand Bob]

A great video GCR, Chuck does a good example of setting this rivet in his video also.  All setters are not created equal for this type rivet, I have one that needed to be ground down just a bit because of the concave being to deep.  This was actually causing the burr to be driven down excessively before the stub was nice and rounded.  These rivets are actually a better rivet than the splash style and actually show off one of the crafters workmanship a bit. 

Dalton, if you decide to try a few of those tubuler rivets you can find a much better splash setter through Weavers than the one Tandy sells.  Osborne sells the setter that is supposed to roll the setting edge over when using burrs but I have had very spotty results with this style.  The rivet must be an exact fit or the tube will fold or collapse before it rolls over.  Would love to see someone skilled at this do an example for us. 

[Dalton Masterson]

That is a good video GCR. I do mine a little different than that, using a small ball peen to do the initial shaping, then use the tool to dome it nicely.

SB, I tried the tools in my Tandy rivet setter set. The snap tools rolled the rivets somewhat, but only until the whole column collapsed to one side and looked bad.

"Use the proper tools" they always say...
I will keep an eye out for a setter. Might as well use them up on something, even if its just practice.
DM

[Springfield Slim]

If the Tandy copper rivet setting tool is anything like the tool that comes with the glove snaps, you  are probably going to have to reshape it. My glove snaps would mostly just collapse until I took a Dremel tool to the setter and put some corners and proper angles on it. Now it splits the rivet and rolls it over so that it actually holds well. Nothing worse than having a customer call and say his snaps fell off his leather item. The way most of the tools are made they just compress the stem. They need to ROLL IT OUT to work properly. They also need to fit the hole in the stem. We had some really expensive handheld snap setters at work that we used on the electrically conductive mats to keep from shorting out the circuit boards. They cost over 200 bucks and I was sorely tempted to "borrow" one, but I used them as an example of how the setter end should look.  Let's face it Tandy is largely cheap Chinese junk intended for the hobby market, Boy Scouts and such and are not always serious tools, and as such they sometimes need some "adjusting".