Rivets are small fasteners that are made up of a head, connection shaft, and a tail. While nails and screws may be more common, rivets are a very affordable and, in some cases, better option than either. They’re easy to use, can be made out of many different materials, and can be made in various sizes. Here are a few of the most common household uses for rivets.
Hanging Photos and Other Items
Rivets can be very helpful for putting up different decorations, including framed photos. Without the right type of support, photos and artwork can easily fall off walls. This can break the glass in frames, so you want to ensure that doesn’t happen. Rivets provide he needed stability. In addition to working well on walls, you can also use rivets on the ceiling. This makes them useful when hanging decorations such as Christmas lights or banners.
The best type of rivet to use for this type of work is a blind rivet. A blind or break stem rivet is similar to a wall anchor in some ways. The main advantage of using these rivets in the home is that you don’t have to see the other side. This type of rivet includes a mandrel. Once you’ve pushed the rivet into the wall, the mandrel is pulled, deforming the rivet so it expands inside the wall. This is the anchor part, and it ensures that the rivet is capable of holding up your decorations.
Use Rivets to Attach Hinges
Another common household use for rivets is to attach hinges to doors, cabinets, windows, and other items. While screws are often used for this, blind rivets do make a good replacement. In fact, some of the hinges you buy from home improvement stores come with rivets for installation rather than screws.
Rivets Are Used in Many Hobbies
If you make jewelry, do leatherworking, or are a woodworker, you may already have a supply of rivets in the house. These hobbies and others use rivets as fasteners in a number of ways. Woodworkers can use them while building cabinets, boxes, shelving, and much more. Rivets often result in sturdier final products than screws or nails would. In jewelry making, rivets can be used to connect metal pieces without using a technique like soldering. In leatherworking, rivets can connect two pieces of leather or as simple decoration.
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