The Complete Handbook of Rivet Pliers

Chapter 1: Understanding Rivet Pliers

The Tool and the Fastener

When you squeeze the handles of a rivet plier, you are performing a precise mechanical operation that creates a permanent joint. The tool itself is a lever system, but its operation is inseparable from the fastener it uses: the blind rivet. Also called a pop rivet, this fastener is a two-part assembly. The main body is a hollow, cylindrical sleeve with a manufactured head (the flange) on one end. Inserted through this sleeve is a solid stem, or mandrel, which has a wider section at one end that sits flush with the sleeve's open end, and a long, thin pull section that protrudes out from the flange side.

The tool engages this protruding mandrel. When you squeeze the handles, the tool's jaws grip the mandrel and pull it with significant force, while the tool's nosepiece simultaneously presses against the manufactured head of the rivet body, pushing it the opposite direction. It is this opposing pull-and-push action that is the core of the riveting process. The force is concentrated on the mandrel's wider end, which is being pulled into the thin-walled sleeve. This causes the sleeve to deform, or "bulb" out on the blind side of your workpiece. This bulbed section grows until it is larger than the hole you drilled. At that point, the rivet has formed its own, blind-side head. The pulling force continues, and once the sleeve is fully deformed and the joint is compressed, the mandrel snaps