Your source for good quality rivnuts?

[Veloo]

Since I may end up replacing some water bottle bosses, might as well start looking and practicing.

Where do you get your quality rivnuts? If you have a source in/ close to Toronto, even better.

What metal would you recommend? It'll be for an aluminum frame.

[Mike V]

Harbor Freight

[prototoast]

Aluminum for an aluminum frame, for sure.

[David Kirk]

McMaster-Carr is the ticket -

https://www.mcmaster.com/products/ri...rial~aluminum/

dave

[fmradio516]

Please do report back on the difficulty of the replacement!

[Veloo]

I'll experiment for now on a scrap department store frame.

I've seen some threads elsewhere about using epoxy as a bonding agent/ gap filler/ corrosion inhibitor.
Others using anti-seize.

Any experiences for or against this practice?

[David Kirk]

Originally Posted by Veloo

I'll experiment for now on a scrap department store frame.

I've seen some threads elsewhere about using epoxy as a bonding agent/ gap filler/ corrosion inhibitor.
Others using anti-seize.

Any experiences for or against this practice?

I would remove the old ones before ordering the new ones. Rivnuts have different O.D.'s and they need to be sized to fit the hole....or have the hole sized to fit the rivnut. It needs to be a close fit or it won't lock into place properly when installed. So I'd remove the old ones and measure the hole and select the proper sized rivnut.

That said - getting the old ones out could be challenging. One would normally drill them out and that works well if the rivnut is clamping the tube very well. If you have a loose fit or some corrosion it's possible that the rivnut will simply spin when you try to drill it. Good fun.

If it spins one needs to grind the exposed flange off until the rivnut falls into the frame. This is tricky without the right tools. It's all too easy to grind the tube when trying to grind the rivnut.

One last thing - I'd look inside the BB to see how big the vent holes into the down are. It's entirely possible that the holes are smaller than the rivnut is and that after drilling it out you'd have the remnant stuck in the down tube making a wonderfully effective rattle.

dave

[bigbill]

The Rivnuts on my Serotta Ti Fierte were loose and rotated when I tried to install or remove a bottle cage. I was able to use needle nose vicegrips to hold the flange and reseat the the nut with a long bolt and some nuts.

A possible cause of a loose rivnut is a cross threaded cage bolt. One of mine was like that so I first ran a tap through the nut, then was able to reseat it.

[xlbs]

Princess Auto carries both aluminum and steel rivnuts.

[tellyho]

Originally Posted by David Kirk

I

One last thing - I'd look inside the BB to see how big the vent holes into the down are. It's entirely possible that the holes are smaller than the rivnut is and that after drilling it out you'd have the remnant stuck in the down tube making a wonderfully effective rattle.

dave

Recently faced this issue with a Litespeed MTB frame. Vice grips + judicious Dremel got the flange of the rivnut off and only once it dropped into the frame did I discover that there was NO egress through the BB. A **** ton of Elmer's glue later...no rattle

I just ordered rivnuts on eBay. Aluminum was recommended to me.