quick update ... rivets

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Posted by chris_harper2 on April 30, 2003 at 14:14:56:

In Reply to: Expanded PVC, styrene, acrylic, whats the best?............. posted by EricIvins on April 29, 2003 at 21:45:37:

Last night I edge glued two scrap pieces of expanded PVC together with regular, viscous, PVC cement. I did not fully test the joint this AM but it did not seem to be all that great.

This afternoon I stopped by a hardware store and picked up some 1/8" diameter steel rivets with a grip range of 3/16" to 1/4".

I drilled three 1/8" holes along the 11" length. For reference I was drilling into 1/4" PVC so I only had 1/16" to play with on either side of the hole.

I drilled one of the holes on center, another purposely off center, and the other slightly off center.

Then I added a drop of PVC cement to each hole and installed the rivets.

With the on center hole there is a slight bulge on both sides of the base of the PVC. Nothing that I would worry about.

With the slightly off center hole the bulge is greater on one side. Once again, nothing I would worry about.

With the far off center hole there is a bulge on one side only but the PVC did not split. If an interior bead of silicone was used like in any cage it would be completely covered.

I've not even let the drops of PVC cement dry and the joint is noticably stronger and more rigid.

And this was with 1/8" diameter steel rivets.

If one were to use smaller diameter rivets (I'm not sure if such a think exists) and/or use the rivets designed for soft plastic I think this would be the perfect way to build these cages.

Now I have another experiment.

I'm going to try riveting pieces together and then using the water-thin solvent to inject along the edges after riveting the pieces together. I think this would make very strong joint, especially if using a more appropriate rivet.

However, the strongest possible joint would probably be from using the more viscous glue and then riveting the joints afterwords.

I'll try to get more scrap and see which one is stronger.

I'll also looking into finding a better rivet for the task.

Follow Ups:

quick update ... rivets BobGarby 04/30/03 (3)
- quick update ... rivets chris_harper2 04/30/03 (2)
  - quick update ... rivets BobGarby 04/30/03 (1)
    - quick update ... rivets chris_harper2 04/30/03 (0)