I have a pair of these: Only one has casters and neither case has all the external pieces. I'm planning on making them into something like end tables. Right now, I'm just trying to gut the cases because they are rather heavy. The problem is they are put together with a lot of these: Just trying to drill them results in a lot of spinning, and little cutting. What is a good way to remove then without spending a lot of money on specialized tools? Do these rivets have a special name so I can replace any I may need to later? I'm still trying to figure out how to dress these up so they look interesting, but I have not been able to find any source of inspiration yet
are you sure drilling dosn't work? i found the same ones on my Lian Li and i just used a drill bit larger than the hole to pop em out
Yes, the rivets don't have a lot of friction in the holes so as soon as teh drill bit grabs, they spin freely.
try more pressure on your drill. the rivits end up binding and drilling out correctly. I've had plenty that have spun a ton and it is great what pressure does to them.
Yeah, putting pressure on your drill will apply force on the rivet against the case, hence it'll most likely stop spinning.
I have now bent one bit, and broken another These do not appear to be any sort of standard pop rivet, at least not one I've ever seen. They are countersunk and there is no trace of the breakaway shaft that is typical. These seem to be 'slippery rivets' I'm curious as to how much weight I can remove by removing the inner structure formerly used for computer parts. And all that empty space that will be inside is just asking to be used in some creative way (like a mini fridge perhaps?).
us a small hole saw or a spade bit to just make a hole around the rivet, just take chunks of the case with the darn things hahaha. OR you can use a dremel equipped with a drill bit. Because the Dremel spins so fast, i found that they actually rub away at the metal rather than actually shaving it like a drill does
just buy some decent drill bits spend a bit more money on them afterall if you get decent ones they will last for several years the cheap ones last for less then a month of heavy use
Make sure its a decent metal Drill bit, and use pulses of speed when drilling. Using continuous fast spinning drill bit wont work to well...
make sure that your drill bit is big enough. i had the same problem yesterday, and stepped up the bit size a bit - no more spinning. also try giving the back of the rivet (if you can get to it) a whack with the hammer. this kind of compresses the rivet against the hole, giving you a bit more friction.
If you can get to the back of the rivet clamp on it with vice grips. even the needle nose version would work.
I had the same problem dealing with an old AT full tower that was built to sustain a nuclear blast (I mean, who in their right mind uses over 450 rivets in a NORMAL case, even circa 1986?). Put something hard with some mass on the front of the rivet(granite countertop samples work a treat) and whack the back with a hammer a few times. Then grab a GOOD (note the emphasis) metal drill bit that is slightly larger then the rivet. Good pressure and pulses of speed, not constant flat out drilling. May take some time and you'll sure as hell be frustrated with rivets, but they'll come out. Barring that, a plasma cutter would burn those little bastards out for sure.
