aluminium or stainless

S

Scallywag

New Member
Joined
8 Dec 2005
Messages
15
Visit site
I am making something out of aluminium and I need to rivet pieces together. Should I use:

(i) stainless steel rivets
(ii) aluminium rivets which have a normal steel core (which could rust)

Are there other choices? My instinct is to use the stainless steel but will there be a significant galvanic reaction in the salty water environment?
 
From the point of view of galvanic corrosion Monel, which is an alloy of copper and nickel, is almost as bad as stainless steel.

You should set them in with a coating of Duralac paste. ( and for this I would use Duralac rather than Tef-Gel.)

If strength was not an issue I'd use aluminium, which are a lot easier to set, and punch out the remains of the mandrel if rusting was a problem


Not sure but you may be able to get aluminium rivets with a mandrel that wont rust. You can
 
Last edited:
Scallywag said:
I am making something out of aluminium and I need to rivet pieces together. Should I use:

(i) stainless steel rivets
(ii) aluminium rivets which have a normal steel core (which could rust)

Are there other choices? My instinct is to use the stainless steel but will there be a significant galvanic reaction in the salty water environment?
Click to expand...
You can use stainless fastenings in aluminium fairly harmlessly, provided you never want to get them out again. The galvanic reaction will weld them in place. I used monel rivets on aluminium mast fittings and they are holding up fine (they are not bearing significant load).

I have tapped aluminium and screwed it together with stainless set screws. It has held up fine but the screws will not come out again.
 
Scallywag said:
I am making something out of aluminium and I need to rivet pieces together. Should I use:

(i) stainless steel rivets
(ii) aluminium rivets which have a normal steel core (which could rust)

Are there other choices? My instinct is to use the stainless steel but will there be a significant galvanic reaction in the salty water environment?
Click to expand...

Without details of what it is you are making, I would consider welding aluminium before any rivet.
 
I made a bracket for a masthed/steaming light from some sheet aluminium.

I pop riveted it to the aluminium mast with ordinary aluminium rivets. Its still there 34 years later.
 
Scallywag said:
I am making something out of aluminium and I need to rivet pieces together. Should I use:

(i) stainless steel rivets
(ii) aluminium rivets which have a normal steel core (which could rust)

Are there other choices? My instinct is to use the stainless steel but will there be a significant galvanic reaction in the salty water environment?
Click to expand...

Rivnuts?
 
Aluminium with carbon steel pins will be perfectly OK. The aluminium will protect the steel in water, but since the area of aluminium is so much greater than that of the pins it will corrode only to a very minor extent. With some grades of aluminium sheet it can happen that there is a slight increase in the corrosion rate of the rivet itself, but again this is far greater in area than the pin.

There are also 'closed' pop rivets in which the base of the rivet itself does not have the steel pin protruding. These can be helpful if the vessel being constructed is intended for holding fluids, and also overcomes corrosion problems.
 
Aluminium rivets with an aluminium pin are available; I have a few of them in a box They are closed end. I can't remember where I got them I'm afrad but they are Emhart ones ( they apparently own the "POP" trademark as in "POP rivet !)
 
Thank you

Thank you all who have taken the time to help me with this.

It looks like I will be OK with aluminium rivets with a normal steel core - so I'm going to use those.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top