When riveting two pieces together, you need 1mm of material sticking up to make a good, secure rivet. I made myself a riveting "stick". It's really a flat piece of copper wire, 1mm thick. I drilled some different gauges of wire in it and marked it.

It is mandatory that the punched or drilled hole you make in your metal, corresponds with the correct size of wire you are using for your rivet. If the hole is too big for the rivet, you won't be able to rivet them together. There are many ways to make holes in metal. Here are a few that I use: metal hole punches, Eurotool has a great hole punch with 4 different sizes of holes that correspond with wire gauge size, a Dremel with a drill bit and a flex shaft.

Quick riveting instructions: First, use a marker for exact placement of your rivet. Tap the mark with a punch. Layer the metal you want to connect. And add the rivet. I'm using a handmade fine silver rivet.

There are different kinds of rivets to use. You can purchase premade rivets with a flat nail head or you can make your own. Premade rivets can have fancy head or flat nail head.

You can also make your own rivets with fine silver. I use fine silver because you get a perfect round ball.

Back to riveting, turn your cold connection stack upside down on a soft surface for a round rivet (like a piece of wood) or a hard surface, like a bench block for a flat rivet. Use your spacer and trim excess rivet material away.

Use a riveting hammer and tap lightly on the exposed end of the rivet. Then turn the work half a turn and continuing tapping the rivet flat. Use the ball end of the chasing hammer to tap any rough edges out.