What Is a Brake Rivet Tool and When Should You Use One?

Brake rivet tools are a rarity in most modern garages. Their main purpose is to remove and install the rivets that hold down the brake lining to the brake. But modern brakes are already bonded to their lining without rivets, meaning brake rivet tools fulfill a much smaller niche than before. Older brakes, large machinery brakes, and plane brakes still sometimes use riveted brake pads and need brake riveting tools though. So if you want to learn more about these interesting contraptions, keep reading.

Brake Riveting Tool Parts

While there are a few different types of brake riveting tools on the market, you’ll find that they’re all made up of two basic parts–the anvil and the roller. Then of course there’s the brake itself and its lining. The brake and lining are two pieces of metal, curved and with matching holes for the rivets to go through.

Each brake rivet is a cylinder with a flat head on one end. Some rivets have solid cylinders with only the ends hollow while others are hollow all the way to the head. Either way, only the hollow part needs rolling for the rivet to function properly.

The anvil on a brake riveting tool is where you position the rivet’s head when using the tool. It’s a solid metal block and provides a surface for the roller to press against. The roller is a four- to six-inch long cylinder that rolls the sides of a rivet as it presses down on the rivet against the anvil. As the edges of the rivet roll down, it creates a wider metal circumference beneath the rivet head. This holds the brake and lining pieces together.

Brake Riveting Tool Types

Brake riveting tool sets can both attach and remove rivets. The different brake riveting tool types out there are suited for different situations though.

Handheld

Handheld brake riveting tools consist of a hammer-driven roller and a small anvil that clamps onto a stable surface like a workbench. These are great for home restoration projects, and they’re easy to find and affordable for smaller projects. That being said, the rivets fastened with these handheld tools aren’t as tight as machine-fastened ones.

Gear-Driven and Pneumatic

Foot stomp brake riveting tools are freestanding machines with foot-pedal control. Instead of a hammer, the force exerted on the roller comes from a set of gears and a chain. These gears lower the roller onto the rivet as it lies on the anvil, subsequently rolling its sides tighter than any handheld brake riveting tool could. Pneumatic brake riveting tools work the same way, but instead of gears driving the roller down, it’s a pneumatic system.

Hydraulic

Hydraulic brake riveting tools are the most advanced type. These have pressure sensors for the sake of precision and rivet feeders to speed up placement. Hydraulic tools also have settings for the different brake types. Custom brake businesses use these types of brake riveting tools to fuse linings to hundreds of brakes a day for different vehicles and machinery.

Brake Riveting Tool Tips

Brake lining rivet tools are fairly easy to understand and use. Even large hydraulic brake riveting machinery sometimes only requires proper positioning. However, you need to choose the correct rivet length if you want to hold the lining to the brakes securely. If your rivet is too long, it might double roll, and it won’t hold the lining to the brakes as well as it should. In addition, remember that in a solid brake rivet, you should only roll the hollow end. The solid section of the rivet cylinder helps the rivet maintain a certain level of structural integrity.

The safest option will always be to bring your riveted brakes to a trusted repair shop. However, you can rely on a small brake riveting tool set for smaller projects like a damaged set of vintage brake linings. Now that you know how a brake rivet tool works, it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out.