A brief tutorial on attaching a purse hanger to a belt. We bend the straps with a round-nose pliers, but you can do anything that leaves you with the strap bent evenly around the arm of the purse hanger, and with the two ends of the hanger aligned.
Put it on the belt wherever you want it. Press it down to tighten so it will stay in the right place while you are drilling.
Charlie likes to mark the center of the “saucer” where the hole (and the rivet) will be with a sharp center punch mark to keep it tighter and to help align the drill. Billy finds this technique effete. The rivets we supply fit the hole made by a a 3/32″ (2.4 mm) drill bit.
Drill through the resulting sandwich of strap front/leather/strap back (3 layers). In this way, all the holes are lined up perfectly.
Put the first rivet in immediately to keep the strap from shifting on the leather, but do not rivet it.
Make sure the strap is still straight and drill the second hole. Proceed one hole at a time, dropping in rivets as you go.
When all the holes are drilled and the rivets inserted, you are ready to rivet the purse hanger to the belt. We use a diagonal cutter and a light cross pein hammer.
Clip each rivet off very close on the back. The amount left proud of the surface should be less than the diameter of the rivet stem.
Use the light cross pein to set the rivets. You are trying to spread the rivet stem out, like a mushroom, to fill and cover the hole. Expect it to take 15 to 20 tiny taps in one direction, then the same number at a right angle to the first set. For additional information, please refer to our general instructions for putting belts together.
Hooray!