Bay Supply Blog - Rivets, Fasteners, and Tools | Mike Eichinger (2)

Choosing fasteners that are easy to install and don’t require special tools will save you time and money. Off-the-shelf fasteners deliver outstanding performance, and when you find the right fastener for the job, be sure it doesn’t require specialized equipment. Otherwise, you will have to spend money on tools and training.

Huck is one of the most recognized fastener brands, and the Huck BobTail^® lockbolt is one of the most popular and reliable fastener systems on the market.

If you’re a hobbyist or ever had to help your kids with a last-minute school project, you have probably had to deal with messy adhesives such as white glue, instant glue, or rubber cement. If you aren’t already using one, consider a hot melt glue gun.

Caulk is one of the most useful household adhesives available. There are multiple applications for caulk, including sealing leaks in windows and baseboards, sealing sinks and baths, and completing tilework. Caulk is an excellent sealant to keep out moisture and helps prevent mold and mildew.

When you think about rivets, you usually think about one-piece fasteners designed to join two pieces of material. Solid rivets are designed to be installed using a bucking bar to flatten one end. There are also blind rivets designed with a shaft and a mandrel that you pull to form a secure joint on the blind side of a workpiece. These types of rivets are one-piece fasteners that are easy to install. 

Rivets are increasingly used with plastics to assemble electronics, appliances, and other applications. Using rivets with plastics takes special considerations to get optimal performance. You must choose the right rivet design and materials for a lasting joint.

We have been blogging recently about easy entry rivets, what makes them unique, and how to use them. In this blog post, we want to delve deeper and discuss where to use them.

We write a lot about blind rivets, lockbolts, threaded inserts, and other types of fasteners, but we don’t want to overlook solid rivets. Solid rivets are probably the oldest and most reliable type of fastener and have been used for millennia. The ancient Egyptians used rivets to fix clay pots, and the Vikings used them to secure the planking in longboats. With every new application for solid rivets that emerged, new rivet materials were needed.

When installing blind rivets, you can encounter any number of problems. For example, the rivet diameter may be wrong for the hole size, the rivet may have the wrong grip length to make a firm joint, or you may have chosen the wrong rivet materials for the job. A common problem is the holes in the material being misaligned. If the holes don’t line up, it can be impossible to install the blind rivet correctly.

Not all fasteners are off-the-shelf products. In addition to standard rivets, threaded inserts, and lockbolts, you sometimes need custom fasteners made for specialized tasks or a fastener specifically designed for manufacturing. That’s when you call SPIROL.