I have a "vintage" Pac-Flat Candle Lantern Reflector–some of you will remember this item made of stainless steel sheet. It's a two-part lantern reflector that assembles by hooking holes in the two pieces of sheet metal over specialty rivets that allow the sheet to slide under the rivet head. The result, when assembled, deforms into a perfectly shaped conical surface for the reflector that's sturdy. Tension keeps the reflector rigid. To disassemble, you flex the sheet metal a bit until you can slide the holes back over the rivet heads, and you're back to where you started: two flat pieces of sheet metal.
Anybody know where to get these amazing rivets? The heads stand off the sheet metal just enough to allow the mating sheet metal to slide between the rivet head and the sheet it's lodged in. Looking at it closely, the rivet is of three descending diameters: the head of the rivet is the largest; the body of the rivet is necked down (this is the area that traps the mating piece of sheet) and the actual riveted end (permanently attached to the sheet metal) is yet another, smaller diameter.
This is hard to describe with words so I'll try to get a photo up tomorrow. But maybe someone knows what I'm talking about and has a source? I looked all over McMaster-Carr and came up dry.
