Air chisel
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Elder User
Joined: May 2003
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From: Dixon, Il
Air chisel
How good do they work? I am kind of tired of grinding the rivets off and was wondering if an air chisel would work better. What are your guys experiences with them? Are they worth buying? What brand and any certain attachments?
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Joined: Sep 2001
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I have a "Mechanics" brand tool I purchased at an auto supply store in an "emergency". I use it to remove bushings and sometimes for a tailpipe. It would not remove a big rivet tho. The tools it came with are not very high quality steel and do not remain sharp long. I have used higher quality units but I have no idea what kind they were.
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Joined: Jul 2002
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From: Long Island USA
Originally Posted by Oval_obsessed
How good do they work? I am kind of tired of grinding the rivets off and was wondering if an air chisel would work better. What are your guys experiences with them? Are they worth buying? What brand and any certain attachments?
I know in thin sheet metal, an air chisel will "walk" pop-rivets through the metal, elongating the hole
I have an air chisel, and while the bits are not the greatest in the world, I used it to cut up a Triumph TR7 into pieces for scrap with one of the special forked types.
If you are talking about rivets like what held on the spring perches on my '74 F250 frame, well, I don't think a small air chisel is going to do much, and again, you risk making the hole in the chassis oblong because beating the rivet made of steel will certainly mar the hole in the chassis made of steel.
I had some luck using a torch on my '74, but that was only to blow away enough of the head of the rivet to then grind it down and punch it through. My air chisel did nothing to them. Maybe a bigger air chisel would do it but it would beat the snot out of the hole.
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Joined: Jun 2002
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From: Atlanta GA
If you have a big enough compressor and big enough hose, then a big air hammer with a quality chisel will take the head of a rivet right off. But, this is not the best use of an air hammer. What you should do for a rivet is grind the head off, drill a 1/4 hole down the middle clean trhough the other side, then knock it out with an air hammer. That leaves you a nice clean hole for the bolt.
Second best method is have someone with a torch cut the rivet head off. I was not that good with the liquid wrench, but, on a TTB I easily heated the heads, blew them off, and then punched the remains of the rivet out with a punch and hammer.
Second best method is have someone with a torch cut the rivet head off. I was not that good with the liquid wrench, but, on a TTB I easily heated the heads, blew them off, and then punched the remains of the rivet out with a punch and hammer.
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