Best way to pop a rivet?

[airman401]

Trying to break rivets out of steel. After hours of drilling yesterday I figured there had to be a better way...

question is...what is it?

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[KnurledNut]

Tried an air hammer?

 

[airman401]

I don't have air tools at my disposal.

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[KnurledNut]

Your name is "airman401".

 

[KnurledNut]

How big are the rivets? Can you cut the heads off manually with a cold chisel?

 

[dadsEH]

So...how many of these are we doing?
I just grind off the heads and knock em out with a punch.

 

[signcrafter]

What size rivets and how many?

 

[zkdiesel]

Torch

 

[96redtoy]

Drill the heads off and take a punch and a large hammer and beat the tail out.

 

[HMCFab9]

Drill the heads off and take a punch and a large hammer and beat the tail out.

^^^ That's what i'd do. Ideally, you could use an air chisel though.

 

[spotco2]

Need more details on the rivets you are trying to remove.

 

[~smokey~]

Need more details on the rivets you are trying to remove.

For large rivets I use an angle grinder with a zip blade.

 

[Playwme]

So...how many of these are we doing?
I just grind off the heads and knock em out with a punch.

I'd agree with that. Drills are ok for small aluminium rivets but for steel or larger ones an angle grinder is the quickest.

 

[JakeKohl]

If you are talking about regular pop rivets, I drill the head out with an oversized bit (for a 3/16" rivet, I use something like a 3/8" or 5/16" bit. Once the head comes off, punch the rivet inward with a punch slightly smaller than the rivet hole.

If the shank of the rivet is still in the hole it can throw the bit off center and make it impossible to cleanly drill it out. In that case, you will need to grind the head of the rivet off with a dremel or side angle grinder before punching it out.