Riveting by using a hand press

Riveting can be performed manually by using the appropriate tools, see the article How to Manual Riveting or by using a hand press. In this article you will learn what benefits a hand press and we will describe in individual steps how to work with it.

A hand press consists of a base, the arm and the piston. There are two types of hand presses on the market:

• lever presses – The press has a reinforced structure and a long lever. It is distinguished by high accuracy and a large working stroke. The long handle ensures smooth and easy operation of the press.

• spindle presses – spindle presses develop the same strength as lever presses. Work with the press is a bit slower. The operator must shift a lever from top to bottom position in a circular motion.

Advantages of a hand lever press

• A rivet is always evenly unriveted,
• riveting requires less physical strength,
• when riveting by a press, we always have one hand free to adapt the material in the press,
• it is possible to buy an extension to the press for application of grommets, snap buttons, chaton rivets or punching holes,
• when cutting out the holes, we always cut through the material even through multiple layers,
• a press is suitable both for right and left-handed.

Principles when riveting by means of the press

1. Choose correct size of the rivet in regard to the thickness of the joined materials.
2. Use the appropriate tools and instruments in regard to the given size and type of rivets
3. Take into account the nature of the material, its toughness, ductility and the like.

Riveting by a hand press

A hand press has holes for bolts on the bottom plate. If you have a sufficiently large workspace on the worktop, it is convenient to permanently attach the press to the worktop of the table.

As in hand riveting, first we must punch a hole of corresponding size to the material. There are punching products used for this purpose, made of high quality hardened steel. They are attached to the press via a thread.

Lower part – the pad is made of brass. Softer brass protects the hole punch before becoming blunt. Thus, it is possible to prepare the holes for rivets, ornaments and other small ironwork very easily and quickly. Punching products are available in sizes 1.4 – 4.7 mm. It is possible to buy the entire set or just the required size.

It is important to choose the proper size of the punched hole for the rivet even for the hand press riveting. The diameter of the hole for the rivet must not be too tight or significantly greater. If the hole is too tight, the shaft will not pass through the opening. If, on the contrary, the hole is too large, there is a danger of ripping out a rivet from the connection in case of tensile load, especially in the smaller sizes of rivets. The best way to determine the size of the hole punch is to test a hole size on a piece of material.

Unriveting open rivets

1. We assemble a riveting composition of appropriate size in the press. Note: Each rivet size has its own riveting composition.
2. We insert the shaft from the back side into the prepared hole, we insert the rivet head from the face’s side on the shaft.
3. Thus we position the prepared rivet on the lower part of application composition. By moving the lever from the top to bottom position we unrivet the rivet.

The pressure piston ensures that the rivet will be rivet equally. We do not have to carry out the riveting again. Pushing the press on the head of the rivet results in a deformation in which the rivet stem increases its diameter and thus creates an undetachable connection.

Unriveting a closed rivet

The riveting procedure is the same, we just have to rivet for the application composition indicated for unriveting a closed rivet. The application composition is from both sides. Even here, each rivet size has its own riveting composition.

Working with the hand press is simple, the press facilitating work and reducing the amount of poorly unriveted rivets. Investing in a press pays off for small workshops, saddleries, luggage stores, clothing shops and small craftsmen.