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A Simple Door Pull of Copper and Wood

comments (24) September 12th, 2011 in blogs

jtetreault John Tetreault, Associate Art Director
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Here are all the parts you need: a copper rivet and a tiny piece of wood. I used a 1/2 in. square of redwood to contrast the birdseye maple cabinet door. The redwood was a scrap from the ship-lapped back of the cabinet.
Clamp the wood to the rivet and use a second square of wood as a little caul.
Hammer all four sides to pinch the piece of wood in place.
Heres a photo of the rivet out of the clamp, holding the little block of wood.
Put the rivet in a vise and add a tiny chamfer detail.
The finished pull.
Drill a hole in the door the diameter of the bottom of the rivet. (In this case, 3/16 diameter and 1/2 in. deep.) Use a tapered round file (In this case, a chainsaw file) to get the rivet to seat at the depth you like.
Add a bit of epoxy and push the pull into place. An adjustable wrench helps align the square with the door style.
The completed cabinet with its new door pull. Were getting ready to pack it full of spices.
Here are all the parts you need: a copper rivet and a tiny piece of wood. I used a 1/2 in. square of redwood to contrast the birdseye maple cabinet door. The redwood was a scrap from the ship-lapped back of the cabinet. - CLICK TO ENLARGE

Here are all the parts you need: a copper rivet and a tiny piece of wood. I used a 1/2 in. square of redwood to contrast the birdseye maple cabinet door. The redwood was a scrap from the ship-lapped back of the cabinet.

Photo: John Tetreault
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I thought I'd share this idea for a door pull I made recently. It's no more than a copper rivet hand-hammered around a square of wood, and epoxied into a tapered hole.

Here's how I did it
With the wood clamped to the copper rivet using a c-clamp, I hammered down all four sides of the rivet’s head, where it protruded past the small wooden block. This serves to pinch the wood into place. Now with the pull clamped to your bench, you can add a small chamfer around all four edges of the wooden block and install. It’s that simple! See my photos for more detail.


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posted in: blogs, copper, epoxy, door pull, rivet
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Comments (24)

mikezip mikezip writes: I Love the look. Folding the rivet's edge is what I appreciate the most. Ignore Dreamcatcher. This is your work and it Looks Super!
Posted: 6:31 am on September 24th

splinters007 splinters007 writes: Amazing, great job on joining the two materials. Aesthetically, beautiful.
Posted: 6:48 pm on September 21st

jtetreault jtetreault writes: Martino23,
Thanks for the kind words.
I'm not sure if the cabinet will be in a future FW issue - the sides are dovetailed to the top and bottom. The shelves and dividers sit in stopped dados, and the door is made with bridle joints with pegs. I'm making drawers for the dividers, one of which will be a removable salt box with a sliding lid. Thanks again,
John
Posted: 2:58 pm on September 20th

CharlesDParker CharlesDParker writes: You are the artist. We are the students.
Posted: 7:12 pm on September 19th

Pitzik Pitzik writes: The adhesion of epoxy to copper (or brass) can be improved substantially by abrading the surface with a CLEAN file or non- stearated sandpaper, then apply the epoxy within an hour or two. Once the surface is prepared try not to transfer skin oil to it. This may seem like overkill but it will be helpful keeping the destructive forces of seasonal expansion from loosening the bond over time. It's worth the effort if you want to avoid the embarrassment of having things come apart from your beautiful project.
Posted: 4:23 pm on September 19th

schmad schmad writes: I second that. Top to bottom would be much preferred.
Posted: 10:57 am on September 18th

Dreamcatcher Dreamcatcher writes: BTW: If we're complaining to the webmaster today, I would like to request that comments post from top to bottom in chronological order. It is so annoying following comments from bottom to top - who's dumb idea was that?
DC
Posted: 7:53 am on September 18th

Dreamcatcher Dreamcatcher writes: I like the pull idea alot; simple yet elegant!

However, the attachment method seems quite hokey.... to me epoxy (glue) is about as elegant a solution as duct tape. Couldn't you instead have tapped the inside of the rivet then attached using a [copper] screw. In that case you could still use the tapered hole method to seat at the desired depth OR you could also take advantage of the fact that copper is so easy to solder and solder a copper washer to the shank/shaft of the rivet as a depth stop + escutcheon around the hole when seated.

DC
Posted: 7:51 am on September 18th

Gwspies Gwspies writes: Very good looking pull.
Posted: 4:03 pm on September 17th

uueagle uueagle writes: Really terrific idea and relatively simple to do. I see all kinds of variations.

I have a minor complaint to the web master - I'm tired of "click here to enlarge photo" only to get the same size picture. If you could do something about that. I would appreciate it.
Posted: 1:42 pm on September 17th

Martino23 Martino23 writes: The door pull is really neat, and I also really like the cabinet.

Will the plans for the cabinet be in a future issue of FWW?

How did you attach the top and bottom to the sides?

Thanks for posting the pull instructions.
Posted: 12:51 pm on September 17th

txmesquite txmesquite writes: Clever idea. You might also try your local Tandy leather store as a source for small quantities of rivets.

Len
Posted: 10:14 am on September 17th

pitbully pitbully writes: Now that's thinking outside of
the (rivet)box.Super idea John.
Posted: 9:14 am on September 17th

gmlhl4 gmlhl4 writes: Great idea...I'll try it for my next project.
Posted: 8:49 am on September 17th

Dennis in Mtl Dennis in Mtl writes: Surprisingly nice pulls. Thanks for sharing
Posted: 7:55 am on September 17th

Bergsma2 Bergsma2 writes: Great, I have just received some rivits from a friend who went out of the leather business and I am building a Wooten desk, so I will need many pulls what a great idea, I willsee if this will work for me
Posted: 7:36 am on September 17th

saschafer saschafer writes: Tandy Leather Factory (http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/) also sells copper rivets, in slightly smaller quantities.

-Steve

Posted: 10:38 am on September 14th

jtetreault jtetreault writes: Hi APO,
The rivets I have are old belt rivets. From the box, (background in photo 2) they look to be from the 40's. The dimensions are 3/16 in. dia. at the point, 11/16 in. dia. at the head, by 1 in. long. I did a quick search online and you can get any size you want to try. (www.rivetsonline.com had a whole bunch of sizes, sold in one pound increments, for a reasonable price.)
John
Posted: 8:27 am on September 14th

Bruhah Bruhah writes: Nice and simple and beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
Posted: 6:04 pm on September 13th

APO APO writes: Where would I find the copper rivits like that and with is the dia of the head
Posted: 12:32 pm on September 13th

APO APO writes: Where would I find the copper rivits like that and with is the dia of the head
Posted: 12:32 pm on September 13th

John_Como John_Como writes: Thanks! I was looking for a way to use small crystals and gemstones as knobs on small boxes. Epoxy the stone to the rivet and attach to the box. Should work well.
Posted: 12:06 pm on September 13th

GEide GEide writes: Thanks for posting John. Do you have pictures of the finished cabinet too? When your ready we'd love to see them.

-Gina
Posted: 9:12 am on September 13th

JPSzcz JPSzcz writes: That's pretty cool. Thanks for the idea!

Jonathan
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Posted: 7:51 pm on September 12th

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