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How to Easily Attach Sheet Metal to Wood: The "Reverse Rivet" Trick, No Rivet Gun Necessary

All you need is a drill, a pair of pliers and a hammer

By Rain Noe - October 30, 2018

in Evergreen | Tools & Craft

ID students, take note: Eventually you may want to present a project in metal. Depending on the object you design, it may be easier to fabricate the object in wood, then paint it to look like metal. Alternatively, you could skin a wooden object in sheet metal, which raises the problem of fasteners--do you want to see exposed screw heads? You could use adhesive, but you've got to be pretty bang-on, and it might be tough to undo an error.

I'm a new fan of designer/builder Matt Jackson's YouTube channel, as he's got tons of useful fabrication tips on it. His latest is how to attach sheet metal to wood, using this interesting "reverse rivet" method:

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I'm digging the look of the rivets and the simplicity of the method!

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Nathan D.

6 years ago

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It's cute that he thinks that dimestore silicone is going to stick to anything that isn't glass for more than ten seconds, but all he's doing is guaranteeing rot underneath that pointless plate that's going to leak and hold moisture directly against the wood forever.

If you really wanted to do that for cosmetic reasons, use a damn nail set instead of dimpling the metal by whacking at it with a hammer, but a finish washer and a screw would be a better choice all around to accomplish that little shiny concentric circle look with some actual holding power.

But hey, at least we've found the Eric Strebel of carpentry.

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Jo Mo

6 years ago

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Content for content sake even if it doesn't make sense. I would really like to see Rain Noe's ID work.

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- amunta nul
  
  Jo Mo
  
  6 years ago
  
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  I've been saying this FOR SO LONG! I don't believe he's ever done ID, for a while his bio said "sewing-machine-fixer" or something of the like.
  
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Mark Thomas

6 years ago

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Just bizarre, A poor nail substitute, hideous looking, and guaranteed to fail and leak.

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Mike Cheung

6 years ago

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This is called using a nail.

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Scott Brown

6 years ago

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reinventing the nail, for some reason. there are special nails for this purpose - stainless or aluminum and color matched to the coil stock.

as someone who actually does stuff like he does in the video, I would never put a screw or nail through the drainage plane of a sill wrap like that - not only does it look terrible in the most visible part of a window's exterior trim (from the inside), the silicone seal will eventually fail. oil canning is also a near-guarantee, adding to the bad looking.

modern adhesives and proper preparation and fabrication techniques should eliminate the need for ham-fisted fixes like that - whether for home repair onsite or in a design studio.

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Christopher Laughton

6 years ago

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I completely don't get it! Because you are not expanding the rivet, why is this any different from a simple stainless pin? You are piloting the diameter and depth of the rivet, so that is contributing nothing whatsoever to the fix - which relies solely on the pin.

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