Vintage Tool Box Emblems. How Are You Doing It?

[thehorse13]

Many of us are finding and restoring vintage toolboxes. One of the annoying things to me is finding truss head cinch rivets when putting emblems back on the box.

Thus far I have been getting by with threaded truss rivets purchased from Restoration Supply Company out in CA. They have an easy to use PDF catalog and haven't given me any problems. The down side to threaded rivets is that you have to cut them down to size and crown the threads so that you can get the nut to spin on perfectly.

All of that said, I'm always looking for ways to improve my process. Have any of you found a good cinch truss rivet kit? How are you putting your emblems back on a restored tool box?

 

[6PTsocket]

There seem to be several truss head ( low profile dome) rivets that might work The 2 piece ones used for leather work press together pretty easily. You back it up on something solid and the inexpensive punch has a crown depression so it does not mess up the face side. They come in different grip ranges. You probably want the shortest. They are all over ebay and craft stores and Tandy learher. Then there are semi tubular that is a solid rivet that is drilled part way. I guess you bang them down on something conical to flare them. And then you can get solid truss heads. I noticed a You tube video on how to set them by hand. Did not check it out. My experience is with the 2 piece ones. They come in different finishes but i guess you want nickel. I have cut down the male part with a Dremel cut off wheel to shorten the grip range when I did not have the right size. They tell you the grip range of the different sizes.

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[bmwrd0]

I use drive screws.

 

[NYBODYMAN]

I use drive screws.

Do these drive in rather easily? How do you avoid doing damage while hammering these in?

 

[thehorse13]

I've tried drive screws in the past. At the end of the day, the effort to modify them and the damage that I did to the test metal outweigh the benefits. Thankfully I ran a test before attempting this on a toolbox. At least I know that I wasn't the only one who tried this out. I'm also curious if you had luck using the drive screws without damage.

The only way I've found to reattach the emblems with an almost OEM look thus far is the threaded rivet route. I was hoping that someone stumbled on a better way than the current process that I use, which is:

1) With a slide ruler, measure the hole on the toolbox. Most sites use inches but some will do metric.
2) Measure the diameter of the OEM rivet head.
3) Go to the catalog from the website that I posted and try to match up a threaded rivet from page 38 of their PDF catalog.
4) Cut the rivets down to length.
5) Mount permanently.

I'm about to do the badges on my 40s Snap-On box. I will post pics of the outcome. If anyone has a different method, please post 'em here.