Restoration of a Double Leakey Rivet Press

[Rob Pulham]

At the Summer show in Doncaster my bargain of the day was a Double Leakey Rivets press bought for the princely sum of £19 from the Bring and Buy stand.

I was quite late visiting the B&B because I was trying to be disciplined in my purchases, making sure that I had collected and paid for pre orders and bough other essentials before looking out for anything on spec. When I saw the rivet press and realised what it was I was quite surprised that it was still there. I mentioned my surprise to John Kneeshaw, who served me when I bought it and he had thought the same he said that he wouldn't have been surprised if someone had pulled it out of his hand as he was adding it to the table.

This is what it looked like when I got it home.

A quick search on the internet revealed that the handle was on upside down and that the guide was missing. The handle was an easy fix as it was retained by a grub screw. By good luck I had a choice of nickel rod or silver steel to make the replacement so I choose the latter as being more in keeping with the 'tool'

I turned a 60 degree point on it as looking about right from the photo, and then milled a flat for the work piece to rest against.

Next I went over it with a wire brush in my Dremel and I was pleasantly surprised when most of the surface rust came off leaving the painted surface underneath. I quite like the lived in look so I am not going to repaint it as I had originally planned. all that remained was for me to fasten it to a suitable piece of wood.

 

[Paul Tomlinson]

Rob, a few months ago, with G0G member David Atkinson's help, I was able to purchase a couple of different sized anvils from Denis Leakey, if that is of interest to you...

 

[Rob Pulham]

While searching for info on the Double Leakey, I came across a thread here on WT where Fraser @Overseer had posted his Double Leaky some time ago. As well as noting the guide I also noted that Fraser's had more than one anvil. I PM'ed Fraser and he kindly gave me all the background info on the Leakey as bought and the optional extra anvils. He also took a few photos of his all of which is much appreciated.

I planned to have a go at making some more anvils but didn't get around to it until today. I was able to combine making anvils along with a bit more recycling. Last year my compound Mitre saw gave up on me after 20 years service but before binning it I stripped it down and anything remotely useful went into a might come in one day bucket. From this bucket, two pieces of rod were just over the right size allowing for a bit of skimming.

Actually making them proved quite a challenge because I have never done any offset turning indeed, I have only used a four jaw chuck once before in my life and that was to turn a round section on some square stock when making a tap wrench at school. Initially I couldn't get my head around centring the stock in the chuck before setting up the offset. Quite frustrated, on the first anvil I resorted to milling multiple different faced flats on it to create the rivet spacing.

Not wishing to be beaten I watched a couple of YouTube videos on how to centre stock and tried again. It still wasn't (isn't) clear but I muddled through and managed to turn an offset on the next piece. When I did the last one the base stock was a little thicker prior to final turning to size and I made a slight miscalculation which resulted on my offset not being quite circular.

So now I have four anvils, the standard one that came with the rivet press with a 0.7mm hole, one with 0.8mm, one with 0.9mm and one with 0.5mm. With lots of options for spacing of rivets.

It was only after I did the last one that I thought that it might have been much easier to turn the offset on the mill with the rotary table. A method I will try if I find that I need any more or if I feel that I need to refine any of those that I have.

 

[Rob Pulham]

Rob, a few months ago, with G0G member David Atkinson's help, I was able to purchase a couple of different sized anvils from Denis Leakey, if that is of interest to you...

Thanks Paul,

I have made some now, but had I got around to posting this back in June I may have saved some work. That said it was very much a learning experience so I am glad that I did make them.

 

[MarkR]

Hi Rob,
A useful bit of kit, I brought mine many years ago, together with the guillotine and rollers, which, like my rolling skills are a little rusty!
Mark

 

[Overseer]

Rob
You will find it easier to use if you grind the other end of the guide rod to match the original provided by LL. The half milled off allows the guide to rest on top of the anvils. The square end helps keep the brass sheet in line while riveting and the chamfer on top allows the punch to work right on the edge of the sheet.





For strips I usually punch rivets along the edge of a sheet and then guillotine the strip off as it is a bit easier to handle but narrow strips can be riveted without difficulty, and only slight curving.

 

[Rob Pulham]

Hi Fraser,
I have done exactly as you suggest on the other end of the rod, but I think that I will modify the rounded end to match.