The Murphy Builders Site

Hello just purchased a rebel project 320 I need to buy a drill to remove a bunch of rivets .What speed of drill works best 2500 3600 4000 or six thousand rpm drills . Also does a guy try and drive out the pin whyll supporting the rivet on the rear. Is there a good way to keep them from spinning and oversizing the hole. Thanks Guys

Get yourself a good spring loaded centerpunch to drive the pin back. You may have to grind the shift so it's small enough to enter the mandrel hole and may have to push a couple of times to drive the piece of mandrel back.
A 1/8" drill bit is a little smaller (.0035") than the #30 bit so you may want to consider using that size for drilling out the rivets. Never gave drill speed any thought. Have used battery powered hand drills and air powered 90* angle die grinders equally well. More important the drill is sharp.

I have drilled out tens of THOUSANDS of rivets in the past 20 years. Very few of those (probably less than a 100) I have ever bothered to knock the mandrel out first. Mattic's rivets for the most part have always broken the stem off well down in the hole. The hole works to center the drill and by the time you're hitting the mandrel the rivet has let go. I've always used a #30 and have rarely oversized a hole. Maybe a dozen holes in 20 years I've had to up to 5/32 rivets... and again that's after 10's of thousands of rivets. The only place I generally knock the mandrel out is on fittings and tubes where the mandrel is in a 3/32nd" grip or more.

NOW.. if you have a batch of Rivets Unlimited junk... that's a whole nother story! :thumbdown: Those broke mandrels proud of the head and you'll have to file them flush first and then try to drive the mandrel before drilling them out.