cap rivets

[Bob Rearley]

Gentlemen,
This Sheetz gun I am replicating has 2 brass rivets, one on each side of the cap.  I have used copper rivets in the past with good success.  I want to use brass but I also want to minimize the chances of denting the cap.  What diameter material do you usually use for rivets?  By the way, Some Home Depots have copper rivets in the department where you find brass gas and water line fittings.
Thanks, old apprentice

[smylee grouch]

I have had some luck with brass when I annealed the rivet JUST before riviting it after getting it to the right length. I also used copper from heavy copper wire to make the rivets.

[smart dog]

Hi Bob,
I use small brass flat headed wood screws that I screw from the barrel channel into a hole in the cap, trim most of the the excess and then peen the residual into a countersink around the hole.  The shaft diameter of the screw is about 3/32" and they peen pretty easily but you could anneal them too.

dave

[Bob Rearley]

Great idea Dog.  I seem to recall brass screws being a little softer than brass rod.  If you use brass screws in hard wood you better pre thread the hole with a steel screw.
Bob

[deepcreekdale]

Annealing the brass right before installing it will make it pretty soft. I chuck a piece of brass rod in my drill press or lathe and file it down to about 3/32 with a head that fits into a countersink in the barrel channel. I always make sure to use a round peen headed hammer with the peen polished carefully. A heavy engraving hammer works well. I fit it down through the barrel channel through the cap, install the barrel and then use the barrel as a backer to hold the rivet firmly. If it is even slightly loosee I place a small piece of scrap metal there to hold it tight against the barrel. Use care with the hammer and don't hit the cap (which you made a nice firm fit so it doesn't dent easily, right?) and it should work fine. Very easy. I prefer copper myself because I like the contrast, but brass should work just as well.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Rather than whack the rivet with a hammer, wack a punch with the hammer and the punch will rivet over the end of the brass shaft without damaging the cap.  Select a punch that has a tip about 3/16" in diameter and round and polish it up nicely.  I use this punch for setting the rivets than retain my sheet metal under-ribs too.

[kutter]

I use machine screws.
A #6-32 will work nicely in a nose cap.
People don't realize how much holding power they have in HARD wood.

Use a pan head or oval head. Take advantage of the countersink already on the underside of the screw.
Drill the pilot hole in the cap and thru the wood.
Take a countersink and just lightly by hand cut a vary shallow countersink in the nosecap. This just as you would if you were to rivit a fastener in place.

Cut the (brass) screw to length and run it home. Tighten it up so it barely contacts the nosecap material to hold it securely.
You don't want to indent it with too much pressure. You certainly won't have to worry about denting anything with a hammer as there will be nothing the rivit into place.
The screws countersink matches and fits the one you cut in shallow into the nose cap.

Now file the screw head down flush to remove the slot with any extra heigth.
You have a nice clean brass 'rivit' in place and no hammer marks. Quick to do too.

......If you feel like the screw may not be enough on it's own to hold fast,,place a dot of Super Glue in the hole before turning the screw into place. It will not come out now.
But turn it into place quickly and with out stopping and starting as it may not 'start' again. The glue will set up that fast in the confined space.
You will need heat to break the bond.

[Not English]

I use brass escutcheon pins instead of screws or rod, but otherwise it's pretty much the same as others do. I have a piece of steel with a countersunk clearance hole drilled in it for the shank. The escutcheon pin is inserted in the hole and the round escutcheon head is peined flat to fit a countersunk hole in the barrel channel flats. Once both pins are inserted and the barrel is back in the forestock I snip the pins off and pein them into the countersunk hole in the muzzle cap. Once peined and filed, they disappear.