New to the industry....

[Scott Romero]

I just started working for a sign company. I asked a few of the employees why we don't use zinc plated or stainless self tapping screws instead of rivets to assemble channel letters and no one could answer other than "this is how it's done." I know the screws might be slightly more expensive, but it would cut the labor involved by half, at least. Has anyone tried screws?

 

[3Dee]

Is the shop UL listed?
UL doesn't like pointy screws in raceways and lighted cabinets / letters

 

[MikePro]

rivots have a smaller profile, & clamp the material together. screws don't have much material to bite-into, and easily strip-out the hole, when you're binding two pieces of ~.040-063" metal together.

that being said....we stopped using rivots years ago, when we got one of these clinching setups. no more wood blocks, no more drilling, no more rivoting, just line it up and step on the pedal and move onto the next one.

 

[kcollinsdesign]

Time to crawl out of the cave and look around. Screws and rivets have been replaced by mechanical clinching, or press joining. I do not see how any shop could be competitive without using this process.