We love homemade tools around here, and this one right here is SUPER handy. I can’t tell you the number of times I would have loved to have had this tool in my arsenal and now I’m going to make my own! If you aren’t familiar with rivnuts, you should be. They are just what they sound like. They go in like a rivet, and are threaded like a nut. You use them in sheet steel or aluminum to mount whatever you might want to bolt to the sheet metal, keeping in mind that they are not strong enough to use for things like seat mounts or anything critical from a structural standpoint. But if you have something that needs to be mounted to an inner fender or firewall, these are your jam.

The only thing that is sometimes a bit annoying is that the flange on the rivnut will make whatever you are mounting stand off the sheetmetal by about a 1/16th of an inch. Sometimes this is good, sometimes it can make the fit not as clean as you like. With a dimple die like the one in this video though, you can make the flange on the rivnut flush to the panel and make it smooth as can be. I like it. Here’s how to make one yourself.

He’s using a lathe in this video, which makes sense for what he’s got to do, but I would be willing to bet I could make something nearly as functional with the right combo of washers and tubing. We’ll have to try that out one day.

Video Description:

I use quite a few of this type riv-nut or threadsert. I have a need to mount them flush in 0.063 aluminum. It’s thin for a countersunk rivnut so let’s machine a dimple die to recess mount what I have on hand flush. #fabrication #autobodywork #metalshaping