Thursday, January 31, 2013

Riveting Knee Joints on 3 3/4" Micronauts

I use rivets.  I like them.  They strength the figure.  Plastic pins wear and/or break.  Have a floppy leg Antron?  Or a Repto?  Thank goodness for the tail.  You can either find a parts lot and replace the parts and hope the ones you get are tighter or will be tighter when you put everything together.  Or you can drill them out and install rivets.  It Can be done but its a last resort. 

After 35 years the plastic is brittle and even manually drilling with my fingers spinning the drill bit...There is no rhyme or reason.  It either works or it shatters.  Once the hole is drilled, putting a rivet in isnt a problem.  But the drilling is. 

As a last resort if you have some spare legs  to work with its actually worth it to try.  It strengthens the figure like you wouldnt believe.  I have a vintage Centaurus I did it to.  I shattered 2 or 3 legs trying to drill it, but once it was drilled, she went together pretty good and is nice and firm.  And since we are all accustomed to rivets in the arms/shoulders of our Microman figures, you actually dont even notice the rivets are there.



And considering how rigid this figure is now, I would rather have the rivets than not.

For those IN CANADA considering a Squeeze Riveter I...I cant believe I am saying this...Check Ebay first. 

I went to several tool outlets and was informed at every one it would be 2-3 weeks for them to order it and the bill would have been between $250-$350.  They had to order it.  Order it? From where?  From the US.  Well shit I can do that myself.  So I found a decent squeeze riveter for around $90 or $100 on ebay and after shipping/customs I saved at least $100.

Im not sure what US tool suppliers would charge, so for US residents you might want to check with a supplier first before hitting Ebay.
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6 comments:

  1. UnknownApril 28, 2017 at 5:06 PM

    This has been really quite helpful!

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  2. UnknownApril 28, 2017 at 5:25 PM

    How do you know what size rivets to buy?

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  3. T-551April 29, 2017 at 7:39 AM

    I researched the rivets through available rivet companies until I found rivets that were of the same size or close to it based on comparing sizes of rivets taken from existing 3 3/4" figures.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownMay 13, 2017 at 7:39 PM

    I'm looking for rivets for the 8" type 1 mego bodies. So I should get one out of one of the bodies and measure it by the millimeter? Then find one that matches or close to it?

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  5. UnknownMay 13, 2017 at 7:41 PM

    Also does any squeeze riveter work for any size rivet? I would also like to do some maintenance on 3 3/4 micronaut + GI joe

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  6. T-551May 14, 2017 at 4:54 AM

    A Rivet squeezer works on many sizes. You might have to buy additional dies. You'll have to check the dies against the rivets which are usually measured in inches. Or rather if metric rivets are available then you would need to check and be sure that that's what you need. I have never had a need to check for metric sizes so I honestly don't know if they are in use or available. Hand squeezers have different size yolks for different applications which can be easily switched out. Specific yolks are usually sold separately. I use a 1" yolk for all my 3 3/4" and 5" figures as well as my magno figures.

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