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Old 05-23-2009, 06:54 PM
Kerry Pinkerton's Avatar
Kerry Pinkerton Kerry Pinkerton is offline
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: Near Huntsville, Alabama. Just south of the Tennessee line off I65
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Ok, I was wrong ...partially anyway. Hard bucks are QUITE valuable.

My hand is about .85 now and I'm just dealing with it. Yesterday I tried to fit the previously welded subpanels to the buck and they were not having any of it. There is so much shape and the reverses in the panel make it incredibly stiff and just won't change arrangement. After fighting and thinking evil thoughts for a while I cut them apart at the welds and started over.

Really, REALLY helpful to be able to fit the panels to the buck and weld directly on it.

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If you're really sharp eyed, you might see a small crack between the panels...Because I had already trimmed them, they don't fit together and I'll have to make a small panel, probably 2" wide to blend the two panels.

And as I started putting the adjacent panels in place, I was able to manipulate them into arrangement easily:

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I'll probably NEVER try to build mirror image panels without a hard buck again. I still want my flexible shape patterns to tell me WHAT to do and WHERE to do it but as for welding everything together, the hard buck is the way to go imo.

[quote = Abarth Dave]
Ok, I was wrong ...partially anyway. Hard bucks are QUITE valuable.

My hand is about .85 now and I'm just dealing with it. Yesterday I tried to fit the previously welded subpanels to the buck and they were not having any of it. There is so much shape and the reverses in the panel make it incredibly stiff and just won't change arrangement. After fighting and thinking evil thoughts for a while I cut them apart at the welds and started over.

Really, REALLY helpful to be able to fit the panels to the buck and weld directly on it.

If you're really sharp eyed, you might see a small crack between the panels...Because I had already trimmed them, they don't fit together and I'll have to make a small panel, probably 2" wide to blend the two panels.

And as I started putting the adjacent panels in place, I was able to manipulate them into arrangement easily:

I'll probably NEVER try to build mirror image panels without a hard buck again. I still want my flexible shape patterns to tell me WHAT to do and WHERE to do it but as for welding everything together, the hard buck is the way to go imo.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Abarth Dave
What do you use to cut the wood ?
and what to sand it to get it closer to size ?

I know a bandsaw would be best , but I do not have one ,

but will a bench mount jig saw also work even if its a little slower ?

thanks for the info

Dave
Dave, I cut most everything with a Dewalt saber saw. Some of the smaller sections were done on the bandsaw... a little quicker but not much. A belt sander softens the edges but I didn't worry about it unless it was too jagged for comfort.

Five or 7 ply plywood would be better but this works for what I needed it to do. That is, provide an arrangement to assemble the sub panels into the big fender.

As far as how close it is...give or take a 1/16 or so... closer than I or anyone else will ever be able to see.

This was the easiest one yet. Fit perfectly without any serious work at all. Took about an hour to weld it in.

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I'll clean up the back side of the weld and grind when I get it off the buck.
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