On Sun, 28 Sep 2014 22:02:24 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 28 Sep 2014 21:10:20 -0400, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On 9/28/2014 7:33 PM, micky wrote:
Do pop rivets get old? AKA blind rivets.

Yes, and so are you and I.




Do they get brittle with age?

I recently used a couple that I brought home from work in the 60's and
they are perfect. No idea why the metal would change unless it reached
a couple hundred degrees.

Should I be using steel pop rivets instead? What are the advantage of
them?


Use steel in steel, aluminum in most everything else.

Is that because of electroylsis or something similar?

Some alloys age harden. Not sure if any are used in pulled rivets,
but solid rivets are available both hard and soft - and soft ones are
only soft for a limitted time. They may need to be annealed before
use.

Well, I don't know either if such an alloy was used here, but they were
20 or 30 years old. I've just about run out, and I bought a bigger box
of assorted new ones, also aluminum, so next project I'll try the new
ones too.

Thanks, all.