In my very recent experience…
1: Solid Rivets. The approved way is to drill the centre of the rivet down for about 3mm (or the depth of the rivet head plus a gnats) and then chisel the head off. The drill diameter should be very slightly less than the rivet shank. If you get it right, the rivet head will chisel off very easily. If it doesn’t you haven’t drilled down enough or used a big enough drill. The advantage of doing it this way is that just chiselling will buckle and stretch the panel and just drilling risks enlarging the hole.
If one drills all the rivets first (air drill is best) and then sets the chisel along the line of the rivets, one hammer strike is likely to knock 5 or 6 rivet heads off at once! Sad but satisfying 🙂
2: Cherry (or blind) rivets. As above, but first the rivet head needs to be ground back and the mandrel punched out. If the mandrel doesn’t punch out easily grind it back more. The drilling and chiselling bit is easier though!
The important thing is to ensure that the panels do not take any damage if at all possible (although this is sometimes unavoidable) as all you’re doing is making more work for later!
The above should work for the majority of domed rivets. Flush rivets need a slightly bigger drill and no chiselling. And remember that there’ll always be one that resists all efforts to remove!
JC
Oh and what they all said before is right as well 🙂 Especially the swearing bit.
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