In Veeduber wrote:

Nowadays, the hardest part of making up a buck is finding a suitable
lump of steel without having to take out a second mortage. For me,
those Harbor Freight hammers and sledges have been like money from
home :-)

I've been blessed by having a small quantity of 3/4" steel plate and
other scrap to work with. So far it has been used to make press brake
dies for forming fittings, some small jigs, and a few bucking bars.
Here is a picture I took of my homemade bars and the leather storage
pouches which protect the polished surfaces when not in use:

http://www.rawlinsbrothers.org/buckbars.jpg

Bar #1, from left, is made to a pattern published in the Bear-Tracks
newsletter, and is what Bob Barrows recommends for bucking "all" of the
rivets on the Bearhawk. #2 is similar to the heel/toe bars included in
riveting kits except the big end is 1-1/8 rectangular steel, and the
handle is a piece of steel pipe filled with lead to give it more heft. #
3 is something I made for bucking rivets inside wing leading edges, and #
4 was the scrap left over after cutting #3. It looked like it might be
useful at some point. These were cut out using the taiwanese bandsaw
that should be in every homebuilder's garage, with the working edges
polished down to 400 grit and buffed with emery compound on a sisal
wheel.

I probably spend too much time making tools and not enough making actual
airplane parts, but it is all part of the fun I guess. Thanks for the
tip on the el cheapo hammers as a source of material. I have another
bar in mind but haven't been able to find a suitably thick piece of
scrap steel.

----------------------------------------------------
Del Rawlins-
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