Removing stainless rivets from furling foils

[fkittson]

I'm having a hard time removing the stainless rivers from my schafer 1100 furling unit. I have drilled the heads off with a larger bit. Normally then I would use a drift punch to drive them the rest of the way through but it is not working this time. I have tried starting with a smaller bit then increasing the size till the rivet is completely gone but the bit drifts do to the aluminum being softer. Any suggestions.


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[deltaten]

small, pointy grinding bit and a Dremel ?

[harryisted]

+1 for dremel


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[1affiah]

I think you got it backwards. Assuming this is a standard ss pop rivet, punch the shank thru first, then drill with the same nominal size of the rivet.

[Pauls]

The first possibility is that when you drill the head off you are creating a big enough burr on the remaining shank that it is preventing you driving it out. I'd recommend you use a very sharp drill, run it at very low RPMs, and ensure you use lots of feed pressure on the drill. Lack of high feed pressure will allow the drill to work harden the rivet which will almost guarantee two things: a large burr and a dulled drill bit.

If you're cutting the head off clean perhaps there is enough corrosion between the rivet and the material to bind the rivet shank. I'd try Kroil penetrating oil on that.

Good luck with it.