Drilling out pop rivets

[whifof100ll]

Anybody have a handy way to drill out blind rivets?

I generally drill out the center post and wind up with the remainder of the rivet spinning in the hole.

Thanks
Dale

[mgomez]

That's odd...I use a #30 drill bit for the 1/8" blind rivets. The head usually ends up wrapped around the drill bit (where it's impossible to remove) and the shank of the rivet falls off.

[N941WR]

Dale,

The trick to drilling out a pop rivet is to take a nail the size of the hole in the head of the rivet and grind it flat. Then place the nail in the hole in the pop rivet and drive the center "mandrel" down with a hammer. Once you do this take the appropriate size drill bit and drill it out.

The reason you need to drive the center of the rivet down is because it is not soft aluminum like the rest of the rivet and it will cause the drill bit to "wallow" out the hole. This also helps reduce the head spinning problem.

Hope this helps.

[whifof100ll]

Thanks, the nail trick works.

Also, another trick that worked was to take a dremel cut off wheel and carefully remove most of the head, leaving it very weak, then just breaking the remainder out.