Platinum rivet

has anyone had experience with making a rivet from platinum wire (
melting head,etc), then putting it in titanium (drill hole,
hammering the other end)? I have a request from a customer, and I
have doubts about the possibility of this working…

any insights appreciated, thanks,
Christine

has anyone had experience with making a rivet from platinum wire (
melting head,etc), then putting it in titanium (drill hole,
hammering the other end)? I have a request from a customer, and I
have doubts about the possibility of this working.. 

It will work. So long as you’ve got a torch capable of melting the
end of the wire. Be sure to use at least a slightly oxidizing flame,
and don’t melt it into too large a ball, or it will tend to collapse.
If not, then simply leave the wire long enough so you can hammer both
ends into rivet heads. Platinum is wonderfully malleable, and it will
easily form a good rivet head under the hammer. This part, either way
you do it, isn’t so hard. But if you’re rivet is intended to be
structural, not decorative, then you’ll have to be sure to use a
heavy enough guage of wire. Platinum’s ductility will mean that the
rivet will not work harden as much during the hammering over, as you
might expect from gold, so it may need to be heavier, and left
thicker, to avoid loosening prematurely. If you’re doing this just to
inlay a decorative “dot” on the titanium, then it should work
beautifully. Nothing you can do to color the titanium will affect the
platinum rivet’s color or polish. If you color it electrolytically,
you’ll want to carefully mask the rivet head, so it doesn’t work as a
current sink, preventing the titanium from coloring right up to the
rivet (leaves a little ring shaped zone of uncolored, or lower
voltage color, around the rivet).

peter

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  has anyone had experience with making a rivet from platinum wire 

thank you so much Peter for your very comprehensive answer to my
question of a couple of weeks ago. The rivet is for decorative
purposes only, so strength is not an issue, but it was the
ductability of the metal that I had no info on, I was just worried
about the melting point and the hardness in regards to the titanium.

thanks again,
Christine in S Aust.