Morris Minor Owners Club

I was using my pop riveter today (new earths, since you ask) and I noticed engraved on the side "wear eye protection". Now I'm fairly hot on safety issues, but this baffles me. Can anybody see any reason whatsoever why this should be necessary?

just in case you were stupid and tried to pop rivet 2 pieces of glass together - of course ;-)

'Doh! That'll be it. Above your head, naturally...

BG, t'is because the discarded shank of the rivet can come firing out when the rivet is fully formed. (stand well back and hang on for safety):D

Hello Jonathan,

I have been using pop rivets, with a hand riveter, for more years than I can remember and I have never seen the shank ejected as the shank is not released until the pressure on the pliers is released.
I believe that most stated precautions are given so as to cover the manufacturer of all and any (stupid?) misuse of their products.

Alec

Alec wrote:I have been using pop rivets, with a hand riveter, for more years than I can remember and I have never seen the shank ejected as the shank is not released until the pressure on the pliers is released.

Yes, same here.

I believe that most stated precautions are given so as to cover the manufacturer of all and any (stupid?) misuse of their products.

Agreed.

got it in one alec ,todays H&S madness

NEVER seen it happen. JLH

No nor have I . But its all I could think of for yet another bit of over protectionism. Hence

Aha - so you're defending the big manufacturers now? Oh no, you're not - everything's OK then

Aha - so you're defending the big manufacturers now?

don't blame the big manufacturers! blame the idiots that police the health and safety policies and the ####y legal system that allows far too much litigation on behalf of people who did something stupid!

bring back Darwinism (survival of the least stupid) - Litigation drives excessive 'Health and Safety' and therefore 'anti darwinism'

Does that mean a big litigious country like der USA will get progressively more stupid? ;-)

oops - this off topic debate is going to snowball into a tirade

No, you're right - we're both railing against the same people It's tiresome, but it does seem to be a new fact of life...

Doesn't the ball bit of the rivet ping out if you're trying to use too short a rivet? I've heard of that but never seen it.

I have been using pop rivets, with a hand riveter, for more years than I can remember and I have never seen the shank ejected as the shank is not released until the pressure on the pliers is released.
I believe that most stated precautions are given so as to cover the manufacturer of all and any (stupid?) misuse of their products

I have seen rivetters eject the shank

Draper rivetters are particulary likely too, Don't know why though.

When it first happened it surprised the Poo out of my cousin and me. We wre in a glasshouse at the time and we thought we had broken some glass. Luckily it just made a huge noise but scared us silly as I usually would have stood behind a rivet tool when pulling the handle.

As an aside I now have a cordless electric rivet setter that does all the work and also collects the shanks for tidier working. bit pricy though

Must be possible, I guess - the B&D one I was using has a metal sheild at the top of the rivet, so somebody agreed with you STILL had the warning on it too...
"As an aside..." - bit off topic that, isn't it?

As I said we were surprised.

We set 1000's of these rivets a year but had never had one do this before.

My hand rivetter is a Sykes Picavant set I bought about 17 years ago and they have Never sent a shank flying, ever.

"As an aside..." - bit off topic that, isn't it?

I apologise unreservedly and when I can remember what the topic was will return to it immediatly

I should think so too!