Each of the rivets now looks like this. The extra material needs to be trimmed away, and the surface needs to be polished. First, though, the rivets are washed. First, an agitated bath of isopropyl alcohol removes the excess rosin flux. The alcohol is removed with a water rinse and then I add baking soda to neutralize any of the acid flux. I then wash them in dish soap for good measure and rinse them well.
This next step is a bit tedious. Each of the caps is roughly trimmed with a shear. There is a bucket on the floor that catches most of the snips.
The result does not have to be round. Indeed, I'd rather that they had a bit of "character"
The corners are removed by chucking the rivet in an "eggbeater" drill and applying it to an 80gr disc... first the edge, then the underside.
While still in the drill, I run the edges over a scotchbrite wheel to remove the burr.
They look like this at this point.
Here, I have one chucked in a pinvise and am applying it to a sisal buff with black emery compound. This has to be done without overheating the rivet, or there occurs a most surprising disassembly and "mini shower" of solder.
Here I am applying the rivets to a cotton buff with red rouge. They have been washed again in dish soap to remove the black emery, so I don't contaminate my rouge wheel. We can see here that I have made myself a new tool to hold them. It's a 1" aluminum rod with a hole in it. This may well be a better tool than the pinvise for the previous operation, as it will help pull heat out of the work. I'll report on that after the next batch.
The downside of the aluminum holder is that is makes my fingers all smutzig.
Mac
