Rivet trimming

[Phil Dawe]

Greetings!

Can anyone offer advice as to which is the best way to trim the length of the round head rivets supplied in the Flak 88 kit?

Many thanks

Phil

[Fabrice Le Roux]

Phil,

Make up a jig.

Get a piece of metal the right thickness for the desired length of rivet shaft. Drill a decent number of holes about 5-10 mm apart, the holes should be take the rivets as push fit. Get another plate the same size and drill holes in the corners to take some screws (M3 or M4) and nuts. Fill the jig with long rivets, bolt the back plate on to hold them. Then trim off the surplus shaft with sidecutters or snips, then sand off the snipped shafts back to the surface of the plate with a linisher, powerfile or Dremel drumsander.
This way you can trim them off square and the same length in batches.

Much easier than doing them one at a time!

cheers, Fabrice

[Steve Stuart]

Fabrice that is an elegant solution, I wish I had know it before tackling some of the X hundred rivets on the Mark IV!
Regards
Steve

[Phil Dawe]

Many thanks for the tip Fabrice! I shall make up a jig in the morning!

Cheers

Phil