$4.00 Back Riveting Bucking Bar
 

Just thought I would share this.
I have a friend with a scrap yard and asked if he had any round stock kicking around. Wouldn't you know it the very next day he shows up with the rusty old bar pictured below. I asked him what I owed him and he said a beer. I think I owe him a few. I tossed the old rusted hunk in the lathe and 45 minutes later I had a new polished up bucking bar for back riveting skins. Amazingly it feels very well balanced and fits great between the rivets.
I am not a machinist just kicking around.
It works great and kind of fun to whip up a tool instead of waiting for delivery of the commercial stuff.

Nice!

You'll probably find 2 or 3 other times throughout the life of the project where you'll need to improvise a bucking bar for some of the more-difficult-to-reach rivet locations. Any hard heavy mass will work, some builders tend to forget that and get tunnel vision.

Ha, I remember using vicegrips attached to a flathead screwdriver, a couple different types of wood files, even the claw side of a hammer.

bucking Bar
 

I have a lathe and a mill in the basement and I have made some tooling for my 7A build. Things usually start with "How am I gonna do this?" I take some dimensions, find some metal that meets my needs and make some chips. Whats left over is my tool. I am sure that I will make a few more tools.

I plan to make a pair of pitot static ports that will be flush with the fuselage and any little bracket (non structural) or fitting that I may need.

Recently I used the back of a Stanley punch. Rubbed the paint off the back and wrapped the other end in wire tape (so it wouldn't hurt my finger). I set the pressure really low on the gun, and just let it rattle for a while. With a bucking bar that light, it probably took 10-15 seconds to set the rivet properly.