Pre-peening one end of brass rods for custom Alox Cadet.

[kosmo]

Since I have not created rivets with Alox scales before, I though I would do some practice and also see if I can develop a method to pre-peen one end of a 2.2mm brass rod.  In this way I'm hoping that the finished custom 84mm Alox Cadet will have as nice as possible rivets on at least one side.

For those of you with experience with creating rivets for Alox knives, please chime in and tell me this looks like a good method (pre-peening one end) or if I'm wasting my time.  Does this method look adequate for creating the first rivet on each rod?

I have a very limited supply of 2.2mm (thanks for what I have to Tattoosteve99).  So I am using old 2.2mm rods removed from 84mm knives to practice with.

I am initially setting up my chuck (removed from my drill press) inverted and holding the 2.2mm rod.  Initially I used the back spring (~2.5mm thick) from a 91mm knife,
 to gauge the desired height.  It will be ~1mm of exposed rod when I begin peening (see second photo).  I found this is really not necessary.  When hammering to create the rivet, the rod slips into the chuck, so it is necessary to re-position the rod a few times in the process.  Perhaps if I use a longer piece of rod to start with, it will not slide as much in the chuck.



I made a 60 degree counter sink in the pin hole of a nail file.  I made it about as deep as necessary to cradle an original rivet removed from the Cadet.  Hoping to use this counter sink to pre-form the rivet.  After placing the nail file over the pin there is ~1mm of pin exposed to the peen hammer.



Unfortunately, the next image is a little fuzzy.  It is the brass rivet created and set loose in the black Alox scale.



This photo shows the test rivet (brass) above compared to an original (nickel-silver) rivet below for comparison.

[magentus]

I only have a little peening experience kosmo, but what you've done here looks great! I really like your countersink idea, and I think I will try it.

It looks like the peening you have done will work - what does it look like when you thread it through the scale? does it fill the hole? I understyand that the more it fills the hole, the better.

The only extra I can add is that someone else suggested using the chuck of a cordless drill, and peening while the drill is on a low speed - this speeds up the process. I have tried it and it seems to work.

Great post anyway 

[kosmo]

I only have a little peening experience kosmo, but what you've done here looks great! I really like your countersink idea, and I think I will try it.

It looks like the peening you have done will work - what does it look like when you thread it through the scale? does it fill the hole? I understyand that the more it fills the hole, the better.

The only extra I can add is that someone else suggested using the chuck of a cordless drill, and peening while the drill is on a low speed - this speeds up the process. I have tried it and it seems to work.

Great post anyway 

It didn't quite fill the hole as much as the original.  Perhaps if I work at it longer. (Unfortunately, it's the fuzzy picture I posted earlier.)  One problem I had was the chuck not holding the rod tight enough.  It would slip while peening and it was necessary to re-position the rod often.  I didn't want to chance squeezing the rod so hard it was deformed.  Perhaps if I had a way to hold the rod in a collet it might work better.

I ended up not using this method on my first custom Alox knife.  I became concerned that if I pre-peen one side and then try to peen the opposite side independently that it would deform the initial side.  Perhaps if I had created a larger rivet to start with.  It would need to be large enough to rest against the rivet (not the scale) on the bottom side.  More experimenting is needed.  You can see the results of my first custom alox knife here: (http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,59339.msg1090162.html#msg1090162)

[HankSolon]

Pre-Peening imho needs only a vice, something to protect the rod (e.g. some used liners or some old clothes) and a lot of practice. Nice idea, though. ;-)