Awning (?) Window Brass Hardware - Where to find solid brass rivets?

G'day All,

My wife (mostly) and I are doing a bit of renovating of our ~50 year old house. The windows are wooden framed plain glass, of the awning(?) type, I think. They look like this:
http://www.renovateforum.com/attachm...ets-window.jpg

The mechanism (coloured red in the picture above) is entirely brass, with the slider set into the folded brass groove with a bit of spring steel under its "foot" to provide the friction to hold the window in the position you set it. The windows are out for painting and so I've had the bright idea of polishing the mechanism up nicely. First attempt looks like this:
http://www.renovateforum.com/attachm...-mechanism.jpg

I've hit a bit of a snag in that due to the angles and shape of the mechanism it is:

a) Very time consuming and
b) A bit dangerous (with the cloth wheel on the bench grinder)
c) Very hard (impossible) to get all the visible parts of the mechanism nicely polished (see following pic)

http://www.renovateforum.com/attachm...vets-rivet.jpg

So what I'd like to do is drill out the solid brass rivets holding the mechanism together, so I can separate the parts, polish them individually and then re-assemble them. And therein lies the rub - where can I get replacement rivets? I think they have a Brazier's head (see following pic), and I guess they're about 3/16" or 1/4"" in diameter.
http://www.renovateforum.com/attachm...rivet-head.jpg

They'd need to be at least 3/8" long. If I knew I could get some, I'd have the courage to drill one out and measure it properly... The mechanism itself was made by a company called Whitco in Brisbane, but I am pretty sure that they don't deal in this gear any more.

http://www.renovateforum.com/attachm...ets-whitco.jpg

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Mick
Attached Thumbnails http://www.renovateforum.com/attachm...ets-window.jpg http://www.renovateforum.com/attachm...-mechanism.jpg http://www.renovateforum.com/attachm...vets-rivet.jpg http://www.renovateforum.com/attachm...ets-window.jpg http://www.renovateforum.com/attachm...-mechanism.jpg

http://www.renovateforum.com/attachm...vets-rivet.jpg http://www.renovateforum.com/attachm...rivet-head.jpg http://www.renovateforum.com/attachm...ets-whitco.jpg



Read and reply to the full thread at RenovateForum.com....