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how do you get machine name plates off

lowCountryCamo

Stainless
Joined
Jan 1, 2012
Location
Savannah, Georgia, USA
I would like to get the plates off before I paint and reinstall afterward. They look to be rivets . I tried to drill out but they seem to be hardened. I suppose I could grind them off but am fearful I will ruin them.
 
Two ways. Grind a slot with a Dremel tool for a flat-blade screwdriver as some of these "rivets" are actually spiral pins. Otherwise, if you have access to the other side, usually you will see that through holes were drilled for the "rivets" to be driven in and you can use a small pin punch to driven out from the back side.
 
I have also heard of them called "drive screws" using that name @ McMaster Carr leads to the same link as above.

I was thinking one of those old "impact drivers" you hit with a hammer and have large screw driver bits might be useful although a little clunky for such a small head. The hammer blow does enforce contact with the screw slot while the cam action supports turning. Not sure what it would do with such a "fast" thread as those as the hammer force would be almost directly inline with the reverse action of the thread....
 
I have never run into hardened ones, but I am sure there are some out there. I have two ways to remove them, both of them I drill them out. The first is to take a dremel tool and grind a flat on the top of them, make sure it is centered, pretty easy to do by eye. Then cntr punch and drill, I usually buy the replacements first and then use the drill size for the new ones. That way almost always works. The second way is to drill a hole part way through a plate, 1/2 usually, that is the same size as the rivet head. Then drill through the rest of the plate with the drill I will use for the new rivet. This plate becomes a drilling guide, place the large hole over the rivit, and drill through, the head of the rivet will usually come off when you retract the drill bit.

Charles
 
I'd just take my fiber saw and grind the head flat carefully , get under the plate and pop it off. Grind the stub down ,maybe put the plate is a slightly different spot to avoid the hard nubs that are still there.
 
I use a sharp wood chisel and carefully pry , sometimes on the screw nail and sometimes under the plate. Once started they can be pulled out with a needle nose pliers. Turn counterclockwise while pulling.

If done right the screw nail can be reused.
 
They are called drive rivets this side of the pond. Some are soft, many are hard and they are a b****r to get off without damaging the name plate or whatever - especially the aluminium ones.

I've rarely been successful in finding access to the other side to knock them out - many are blind holes. I wish that I had a solution to offer, but it's been a problem I've wrestled with and not solved !
 
The ones we used were known as " PK rivets " probably standing for " Parker- Kalon ", and they were really hard. No chance of drilling them out. You needed a good sharp chisel to chisel off the rivet heads. I got the plates off ok but more often than not you were left with the shank of the rivet embedded in the machine. You'd have to slightly re-position the name plate in that case.

Just on a different tack one company I worked for had all the large cast names of the manufacturers of the plant in the factory chiselled off and then ground smooth. If they were too big for that they had a piece of sheet metal made the same size and shape as the original nameplate and fastened that over the nameplate.

I was told it was to stop any visitors being able to duplicate the processes. Seemed a bit over the top to me.

Regards Tyrone.
 
Just on a different tack one company I worked for had all the large cast names of the manufacturers of the plant in the factory chiselled off and then ground smooth. If they were too big for that they had a piece of sheet metal made the same size and shape as the original nameplate and fastened that over the nameplate.

Before the world wars many machines were imported from countries who would become enemies. It was considered unpatriotic to buy equipment from the enemy so the practice of removing name brands became common for a while.
 
Wood chisel works for me.

Also make flush cut nippers or side cutters for ckt board work.

You can grab the edge and get under it to get it up a bit then pliers or pry it with a screwdriver as pivot under the nippers
 
Drive screws -
The only soft ones I've seen so far were in an old Hardinge Cataract lathe - just brass pins in that case .
Most all I've encountered are pretty hard steel .

A 2 step approach works for me most times :

First, take a nice, sharp flat-ended pin punch, and go all around the screw head, tapping it sideways.
This will usually loosen up the screw in it's bore.

Next, use a Dremel or similar, with one of those little thin diamond cut-off wheels, and cut a slot in the screw head.
Most of the time they'll unscrew right out, counterclockwise .

If it doesn't unscrew, then the previous loosening technique will make it much easier to pry out,
using various other implements of destruction :D
 








 
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