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AlanH
10-28-2017, 06:05 PM
Since no spare J-29/J-30 rudders seem to be forthcoming, I'm going to make my own new wood core rudder.

The basic idea is to build a core of 2 inch thich, 1 3/4 inch wide doug fir strips. They're cut from straight grain doug fir 2 x 8's. Then you randomize the strips by reversing a few and mixing them up so that the strength in the rudder goes everywhichway, and also, in case any water gets in there, any distortion in one strip isn't carried out through the whole rudder as it would be if it was all one piece of wood.

Glue the strips together into a 2-inch thick, 16 inch wide, 7 foot long board.

make a NACA foil jig for a the rudder, and use the router on the jig to form the foil.

Sand. Fair. Sand

overlay with epoxy in 8-10 oz cloth...maybe consider putting a layer of kevlar along the leading edge.

sand, fair sand..paint.

Make hardware... put on antifouling, mount on boat.

I will document all this with photographs, etc.

OK, $208 later, for straight grain doug fir, plus some re-sawing
$40 for two more bar clamps that are bigger than 1 foot span ( I had two already)
$50 for a Ryobi 1.75 hp router of of craigslist, and we are on our way.

AZ Sailor
10-29-2017, 09:06 PM
Neat project. Looking forward to the pics and reports.

AlanH
11-02-2017, 03:22 PM
Lookie what I generated....

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The inner shape is the foil x-section itself, printed at real size. The outer line is the shape for the top of the router jig. The router bit needs to be set at a depth of 38 mm.

How did I get that? Look here.

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/09/howto/foils/index.htm

This is what I'm doing. Read the article, download the foil generator and router-template generator.

AlanH
11-05-2017, 09:53 PM
OK this weekend saw me do the rudder blank glue-up.
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Rudder is 7 feet, 10 inches long, overall. Essentially, 50 inches of that will be submerged. The bit on the left is the trailing edge, which is thinner pieces than most of the rudder. I epoxied that on, tonight (sunday) along with two strips that will be the leading edge. This rudder will be about 12% balanced. The chord is 15.5 inches. That's close enough to 16, which is what I planned.

My shortest piece was 7 feet long. I cut everything to 7 feet, which was stupid, as I wanted a 7' 6" + rudder. Me=dummy. So I wound up offsetting some joints. The ones you see in the rudder closest to the camera don't worry me even though they line up a bit too closely, as that's the absolute bottom of the blade and the loads are minimal down there.

I wouldn't make a mast like that, though. Also, there are NO joints anywhere near the point of maximum load, which is right near where the bottom gudgeon will be.

AlanH
11-05-2017, 09:57 PM
Here's the final glue up...leading edge and trailing edges are on. I ran out of wide clamps so I'm resorting to taping...yes, taping on a couple of small pieces that are really only there for shaping and fairing. There are a few bit of wood in there to support things while they dry. They're covered with wax paper so I don't glue them to the rudder. The leading edge is to the upper right in this picture, trailing edge to the lower left. There's a little strip in there between the main body of the rudder and the piece that will form most of the leading edge. I needed that to make the 12% balance. Without it, it would have been 10% and I wanted just a scooch more than that, but not 15%. Most of that wood will be removed by the router forming the leading edge of the foil, but if it's not perfect, I'll just fair it. It's going to be close, anyway, and there's a lot of gluing surface holding everything on..

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I cut off a few bits along the bottom that I epoxied together...these are squares roughly 2 x 2... and I can't tear them apart. So that seems pretty strong.

The whole thing probably weighs about 45 pounds right now.

AlanH
11-10-2017, 12:13 PM
On to the rudder foil templates. They're made out of plywood.

Look at this image-

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/7mAeU0YPbYbzi4p9aEEIYOQvBFZqucpeky5iJWfw_CcNS8-lNQcMz4qj7SSXJgJttQ3VVefAgCpvDdFaWXoti602hwnrkv5rh t1YrH_FNps1Z4mzY0hB6DBiAQ54J2PfEF1DsMEJsoT_VheKaD-MUOq9oG2ZpWJWVN4gjGhxx_Lj26-Yj7oxf_fScD_qivYU4P5pkJ6D2QGz-AKSOlPYSdf98lO-kmB5I_UPxcfmmz44oDdct9mcrYcJQIO4PX44pSMwrKpoO2CdVb oelz6uHhZhCXVnrhSbcxGcnfY6hX0q0TshQR4oMU2jocrfmvM3 oYeftJzcO4TdljYxHhAXtKidYGjOkTCCNRZUMfDemoigJlTKZ2 RXg2fVOn1i1lYOkBJRki-HrPcAXSTG5WcFwqW-cbRU1oCBm0lnfngmnU5NjtaTSa3l77FnBwRekWh0xy9p5hMQ_I 8-M04rUV4o_Of0M61qPG08iAnKjUJgK3bB0hOx-mQFvzgrxjn5ui_iEnnlVhM7c1S13mFhBfad8wVM0Qf1eqrgabL BEFGHq8mO33iMT8Lmx3z5WJvPpa5Jadn3KjQAKNvTKwh04y64g DawWbyoGFRx6DtwTSmYzvRi5_ndGzx0G9RHgfRw2p6GxmygB1p 94U8w83L4IhEQOdFzRYjIAo2smDRK=w700-h500-no

This guy made his template foils out of particle board. I'm using plywood. No big deal. I mucked up the first foil template by not paying attention while running the jigsaw... moron mistake, so started over. The second one came out fine, but that meant a visit to Orchard Supply to get a cheap 2 x 2 piece of plywood for the other template. Since they had no 3/8th ply, I bought a sheet of 1/4 inch, cut two 5-inch widths to size and I'm glu'ing them together with Weldwood to make a 5" by 24" x 1/2" piece.. OK, so one side of the router carrier will be 3/8 and the other side will be 1/2. It's just the router carrier. While I was at OSH I bought a couple of new jigsaw blades, "many teeth" and narrow profile for cutting curves in wood. That worked like a charm and I now have one remarkably accurate foil template. Handholding the jigsaw and going slow was just fine, I didn't need a scrollsaw, which saved a drive up to San Bruno to get a used one off of Craigslist.

I'm contemplating whether I need to run my whole rudder blank through a planer to take down the high spots. Hmmm. Who's got a 16 inch wide planer, I wonder.

Progress!

AlanH
11-10-2017, 12:53 PM
It occurred to me that this would be a great way for someone to knock out a simple emergency rudder for the TransPac for a smaller boat. You could "go simple".... Three dry and straight 5.5 - 6 foot 2 x 4's plus a 2 x 2 would give you a 12 inch chord with a rudder thickness of 1.75 inches. That's very roughly J-24 size, and significantly thicker. If you wanted a bigger chord, just use another 2 x 4 instead of a 2 x 2. Glue all the pieces edge-to-edge with epoxy. Make a foil template like what I'm doing if you're hardcore, or even rough one out with the table saw, a surform plane and a bunch of sanding. Just shape the leading edge to be nice and round, and taper the back half of the blade to about a 1/8 inch wide at the back. It won't be perfect, but it's easy to do, just time consuming. So, in summary, shape the bottom half into some sort of foil, leave the top half un-shaped...just rectangular. Front and back should be straight up and down...parallel.


Cut the leading edge, in the unshaped top half of the rudder back about 20%. That's right, 20%, which will be about 2.5 inches for a 12 inch chord. That's a lot. Why so much? Read on. Put a layer of 8oz glass in epoxy over the whole thing. Sand, and sand some more. Now you probably have a rudder blade with a 12.25 inch chord and almost 2 inches thick. That's pretty bluidy strong. Epoxy/bolt something to the top so the rudder doesn't slip all the way through the cassette. Paint, and admire.

Now build a cassette that will accept a rudder that's the thickness of the upper half of your blade, but with an fore-and -aft dimension big enough that you can slide the bottom half down inside. When it's all the way in, it will wobble fore and aft because the top half of the rudder is 2.5 inches smaller in chord than the bottom half. Now, make a 2.5 inch wedge/spacer out of some 2 x 4. Tap that into the cassette behind the rudder so that it pushes the rudder forward in the cassette and jams it into place. No more wobble.

Upshot...semi-balanced emergency rudder in cassette, U-Bild-It-At-Home-4-Cheep

The major problem with my e-rudder from 2008 was that while it steered the SC27 just fine, the leading edge was a good 3-4 inches behind the rotational axis. It was horribly UN-balanced and loaded up immediately. This system I outline above would make a somewhat balanced rudder, depend on exactly how you fit the cassette to the pintles on the back of the boat.

For reference, my S-2 7.9 has a kick-up rudder (until I finish this one). That's the stock, 1-D rudder. The rudder is 3 inches thick, about 20 inches chord at the top and 13 inches chord at the bottom. Top to bottom of the submerged part is about 44 inches. The cassette is made up of hardwood, basically 2 x 4's at the front and back, and approx. 1/4 inch aluminum plates for the sides. It's all held together with about 5, 5/16ths through-bolts at the front, and 5 more bolts at the back. The gudgeons are massive custom stuff that wrap around the front 1/3rd of the whole thing. Any metal shop can make them up but they'd cost a mint. I can think of other ways to make gudgeons that would cost a LOT less.

This is an ENORMOUS rudder. It's bigger than a J-29 rudder, on a 26 foot, 4500 pound boat.

Submarino
11-10-2017, 04:13 PM
That is neat! I would love to see a seminar on how to make your own.

AlanH
11-10-2017, 10:16 PM
You can buy foam "blanks" from flyingfoam.com

That's what I did in 2003, to get ready for my disastrous 2004 attempt. I got one of those and then glassed the snot out of it.... like used this stuff that I can't name right now...it's heavy mat and roving stitched together... two layers of that with Unidirectional carbon in between.

Then I made a cassette out of doorskins, reinforced with carbon. I did all this in my garage.

It's do-able. ---just a lot of work. Or you can do this, what I'm doing here, which is also a fair bit of work but it's at least half wood-work and not so much epoxy-yucky-work.

AlanH
11-11-2017, 07:58 PM
Today I made the router carrier/foil template for the project. I cut the foil shape in one piece of plywood the other day with the jigsaw, as explained a couple of posts, above. I then used the printed pattern from the Excel spreadsheet to mark the cutouts where the plywood foil template has to fit over the unsawn board. Then, fortunately before I cut that out, I went and compared it to the rudder. It was a good 3/4 of an inch too big. Not only that, but the offset for the router bit depth was 4-5 mm too big. What the heck?

Come to find out that apparently the Excel program works great, but just because it generates an accurate foil and router-offset pattern does NOT mean that your printer will print the exact dimensions. BE WARNED....print your pattern and compare it before cutting! I had to go back and enter new numbers in the Excel spreadsheet to generate an exactly-sized paper pattern to work from. This is trial and error, but I guessed well, and the second time I taped the printed pieces of paper together, I hit the right sizes.

Once I did that, I re-marked the plywood I'd already cut, which was fine as the new template is smaller than the earlier, wrong one. So I cut out two plywood foil templates, and two blocks, exactly half the thickness of the rudder blank for the foil templates to ride on. Add Weldwood glue and clamps and....


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Here's the router carrier/foil template...the dark wood was cut from a lap tray I made for Joan when she got her hips replaced a couple of years ago. I didn't need the plywood or the tray, so now it's been re-used. The other stuff is junky plywood and scrap, cut-up 2 x 4's. It bugs me that the two templates are different thicknesses, but it totally doesn't matter.

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AlanH
11-11-2017, 08:31 PM
So this rudder will be comparable to a J-29 or J-30 rudder except that this one will be balanced and the One Design rudders for those boats are not balanced. The entirety of the One Design rudder blades for those boats are behind the axis of rotation of the rudders; the entire rudder is aft of the gudgeon/pintle pin axis. Balanced rudders are not class-legal...though maybe the classes should make them legal as those guys all talk about how their rudders load up something fierce on a long, heavy-air reach.

Anyway, Competition Composites..aka "Phils Foils" makes a balanced rudder for the J-29/J-30. It's a beauty.

http://www.fastcomposites.ca/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/J30BR-gallery-2.jpg

...It's also $2400 (Canadian dollars) cha-chiiinnnnggggg....though honestly probably worth every loonie you pay for it.

Rudder Craft also makes a balanced J-30/J-29 wood-core rudder. It's $2100 USA. Waterline Systems makes a class rudder theoretically for $1400, but it's not balanced and they didn't return either of my e-mails. Larry Tuttle at Waterrat quoted me $2K for a much "hotter" elliptical rudder, and I thought about that but two thousand dollars is a lot of moolah for this guy.

Rudder Craft makes rudders which are somewhat smaller than these which would probably work for my boat, but the largest one they make and market for 24-26 footers is made of machined HDPE plastic. That stuff bends under load. If I was just cruising around I might not care, but.... They also make an $895 wood core rudder, but it was just a scooch smaller and thinner- aka "less robust" than I wanted. It probably would work, but it would suck to find out that it didn't on the LongPac Racae, 185 miles out. On the other hand that $895 plus shipping includes custom rudder gudgeons for 5/8th inch pins, and those are about $350, right there. But still, their wood core rudder was just a bit too small and thin for what I wanted. I wanted ridiculous BEEF.

So here I am, making a rudder. I should also add that I am NOT a "fine woodworker". I have Orchard Supply level tools...a small table saw, hand drill, cheapo jigaw, cheapo circular saw, and now a pretty decent router, but seriously...I'm making this on my garage floor.

AlanH
11-12-2017, 09:08 PM
Today I made the *Flat* surface/table that the rudder and router guide rest on. That was pretty straightforward, glued-together particle board and 2 x 4's, with outdoor deck screws. it rests on the sawhorses that I use for working on cabers.

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I then "microadjusted" the router guide/template with the table saw so it fit to close tolerances over the rudder. It's great at the top and to about 2/3rds of the way down the submerged part. I'll have to shim it below that. This photo is taken just where it's starting to get a bit loose. I also had to plane down some of the epoxy dribbles, since this was the underside, while I glued it. That wasn't bad, though.

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Then I started to set up the router. I'd bought a nice 3/8 round router blade at Home Deport, so after futzing around, trying to figure out how to change bits, I finally got it in the chuck, only to discover that it's not long enough. Come to find out that there are "router bits" and there are "extra long router bits"..... GRRRRR. That's $20 shot, as I destroyed the packaging getting it open. Oh well, now I have a router, and I expect that I'll need some bits someday. So no foil shaping today. Instead, I trimmed off the top and cut the angle in the back edge, above the waterline.

AlanH
11-18-2017, 06:47 PM
I was going to post a video of myself, happily routering-away, removing wood at a great pace and forming a perfect foil. Haha! One of the guys on the Wooden Boat Forum said that he'd made his centerboard in 45 minutes, each side. Haha!

NOT.

After 4 hours of work I have about 3/5ths of one side done.You know how it is, about 1/3rd of the way through the job you figure out the best way to do the job.

Gaaaa.... I discovered that router bits drift in the chuck after a while. You have to check them every 10-15 minutes. Imagine how I figured that out. Except for the godawful area where the bit moved, which will have to be faired, bigtime, most of the body of the thing is tolerable. The trailing edge is OK. The leading edge is disgraceful. Now I know why the guy in the YouTube video used an elliptical edging bit for his leading edge. I'll be able to fill with epoxy and wood dough and it will be fine, but yeeeecccchhhh.

I refuse to show you all photographs of this mess.

AlanH
11-22-2017, 01:38 PM
All this stuff about emergency rudders got me inspired. I grabbed some lumber that's been sitting down the street, in an empty lot that used to have a house on it, a few years ago. This stuff has been outside for 18 months-plus. I thought it was doug fir, or "construction hemlock" but when I cut it, come to find out that it's redwood. Hmm. This is for an emergency rudder, that will go in a low-tech cassette.

Anyway, I cut the bits out and put in two pieces of mahogany from Home Depot to add some stiffness. I carefully chose bits of redwood with the fewest knots, and actually scored pretty well, there are almost none in the rudder. And then in a fit of cheap, I edge-glued them with Loctite PL100 polyurethane because I had a tube of that lying around but no epoxy.

Before everybody loses their minds over the PL100 I have to say that I use the stuff to fix cabers for the Scottish Highland Games and that stuff is strong. The cabers stay out in the rain and weather until we finally bust 'em and invariably the wood goes before the PL100- wood bond breaks. AND, the stuff is $6 a tube. Cheapo home-builder dudes who knock together semi-disposable plywood boats use PL100 to seal seams and glue stuff together all the time.

I dunno about redwood. It's light, I'll say that. This will be an experiment. The blade is now 7 feet long overall, but that's because I have to cut the top off at an angle so the rudder can get over my transom. The thing may get used on George McKay's Capo 30, too. The foil part of the blade is going to be about 40 inches. While I was at TAP plastics today they had 4 1/2 feet of linear carbon, 12 inches wide in the "2/3rds off" bin. WTF, I bought it, it was $7.. I'll cut some 2 inch wide strips and lay on there, to reinforce the rudder/cassette line to help the redwood. Then laminate over it all with bi-directional glass in epoxy. The chord is 13 inches, the stuff is 1.75 inches thick, by the time I fair it and glass it, it will probably be close to 2 inches thick. Beef, I think. It might not be pretty when it's done but it will be strong. I'm sort of mentally assuming that the redwood will contribute minimal strength. It will be more than foam, for sure, but way less than douglas fir.

AlanH
11-22-2017, 01:58 PM
Actually, turns out that it's not that bad. --- looking here: http://www.woodworkweb.com/woodwork-topics/wood/146-wood-strengths.html

I'm guess that "compressive strength perpendicular to grain", is probably the most likely thing that would be applicable to shearing off a rudder with side loads..

Doug Fir, depending on where it grows, is 1100 - 1400 psi
Young growth Redwood - is 1100 psi. so, in the ballpark.

Lanikai
11-22-2017, 11:30 PM
Sounds like progress to me.

On an only ever-so-slightly related note, TechShop just shuttered operations with zero notice. Bay-Area-Tech-Shop-announces-closure-of-locations (http://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Bay-Area-Tech-Shop-announces-closure-of-locations-12363430.php) The place was a major boon to us apartment dwelling sailors. I had all sorts of boat project hopes based on the tools I learned to use there, including e-rudder and windvane foils on the CNC, but alas.
There are other "maker spaces" around the bay, but nothing I've seen yet really compares.
This event has me considering - god forbid - putting my priorities in their proper order: home ownership (+garage+basement+yard workshop space), THEN boat ownership!

AlanH
11-23-2017, 06:36 PM
Sounds like progress to me.

On an only ever-so-slightly related note, TechShop just shuttered operations with zero notice. Bay-Area-Tech-Shop-announces-closure-of-locations (http://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Bay-Area-Tech-Shop-announces-closure-of-locations-12363430.php) The place was a major boon to us apartment dwelling sailors. I had all sorts of boat project hopes based on the tools I learned to use there, including e-rudder and windvane foils on the CNC, but alas.
There are other "maker spaces" around the bay, but nothing I've seen yet really compares.
This event has me considering - god forbid - putting my priorities in their proper order: home ownership (+garage+basement+yard workshop space), THEN boat ownership!

Oh, man. that SUCKS. I know a dozen people with memberships, who will be upset by this.

On the home front, I smoothed over the worst of the part that I gouged up pretty badly with the router, when I first started. This is on my primary rudder. The leading edge is now acceptable for this stage. I built up the worst gouges with epoxy and sawdust...not even wood dough, sawdust. They're back to acceptable now, but for one dollar-sized high spot and a ragged inch on the trailing edge. I'm going to need another box of wood dough.

Tomorrow, back to the router.

AlanH
11-24-2017, 09:25 PM
Today I finished off routing one side of the blade, flipped it over and did the leading edge of the other side. It's not turning out as thick as I'd wanted, so I'm scabbing on some"cheater" 3/16ths inch fir strips, which I will rout and belt sand. I also got the first "fairing" coat of epoxy and sawdust on the leading edge side that I did today.

Tomorrow I'll use the surform plane to even out the leading edge on that side, and then fair some more with epoxy and wood dough. If I can, I'll route out the trailing edge. If that's the case, then the basic forming of the overall shape will be done.

AlanH
11-25-2017, 10:25 PM
OK, I used the router for about 2 hours again today, and finished the essential shaping of the foil. I'm adding on some thickness at the thickest part, as that's undersized, but the basic shape is done.

Here's my setup in my "workshop" aka, the driveway.

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and some close-ups of the process, showing the degree of smoothness (not much) and accuracy (so-so) that I'mm getting on the trailing faces.

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AlanH
12-17-2017, 06:34 PM
Work has been progressing, but nothing big until today. The little stuff? After doing my thing with the router I noticed that it was cutting almost nothing at the thickest point of the chord. That seemed odd so I did some measuring. I decided to glue a couple of 3/16th strips, 2 inches wide, most of the length of the rudder, at the thickest point of the chord (on both sides of course). Then I went over it with the router again. --MUCH better. Also, since I'd developed some technique with the router/template, and I was using a larger ball-shaped-bit, I went over the back 1/3 of the chord over most of the rudder and cleaned it up. That really made a difference on one side, in the bottom 1/3rd of the foil.

Anyway, that was yesterday. Today was belt-sanding out all the router grooves, which went very fast. Then I blopped in some spooge of wood dough and epoxy and filled in the worst of the gouges, faired part of the leading edge to the first "strip" and shaped the bottom of the rudder.

The bottom was an issue...what to do? Should I leave it more or less square, like and old-skool J-24/29/30 rudder or an an "elliptical" (haha!) trailing edge to the bottom? OK, well "elliptical" I don't know but this is what I have. It still needs a lot of smoothing, but the shape is there.

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And here's a view of the "One-side-is-wood-dough/epoxy faired-step one" setup on my workbench. The chain is holding down a strip of the extra wood that got lifted during the routing process. There's a piece of plastic between the chain and the wood/epoxy.

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The "really brown" part in the lower right is where I did the very first few passes with the router. I cut way too deep so there's a LOT of epoxy/sawdust or epoxy/wood dough in there to build it up. It needs one more "go" with the wood dough/epoxy and then some sanding before I'll call it good.

AlanH
12-17-2017, 06:53 PM
I'm also, sort of simultaneously, working on an emergency rudder. Here are a couple of pictures of my killer woodworking shop. Yes, you can totally be jealous of my driveway. This is the emergency rudder under construction, not my primary rudder. You should see the workshops that most of the guys on the wooden boat forum have. I feel like a real piker when I show my photos over there.

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Finally, here's an offcut from the emergency rudder. I tried to torque it apart. The rudder is weathered redwood that's glue'd up with PL100 polyurethane adhesive... NOT epoxy, $6.99/tube Loctite PL100. You'll note that the wood broke before the joint gave up. Admittedly, the wood broke at a weak point near a knot, but still.


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Sailronin
12-18-2017, 07:30 AM
Your workshop looks very similar to mine, even down to the blue and green work benches!
Good to know about the PL100, that will be very useful when I start my e rudder. Thanks

AlanH
12-18-2017, 12:10 PM
Your workshop looks very similar to mine, even down to the blue and green work benches!
Good to know about the PL100, that will be very useful when I start my e rudder. Thanks

So PL100 is actually no longer sold. Its been replaced by PLPremium. I'm just so used to writing and saying "PL100" that I still do it.

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It's the same stuff. Don't get the Loctite PL stuff for mirrors, for example, or for drywall. PL200 is the drywall stuff if I remember correctly. PL Premium is somewhat flexible, totally waterproof and seriously strong stuff. If you want to glue piece of wood A to piece of wood B, watertight, it's a much cheaper alternative than epoxy.

What's it's NOT, is something to goop all over a surface, and then embed fiberglass cloth, or even something like yellowjacket, in.

Wylieguy
12-24-2017, 11:00 PM
Is the "yellowjacket" reference sort of akin to embedding an insect in pitch and after several centuries making an amber necklace?

AlanH
12-29-2017, 06:05 PM
Is the "yellowjacket" reference sort of akin to embedding an insect in pitch and after several centuries making an amber necklace?

Ha!....nope. Yellowjacket is a "boat thing", but only if you have a wooden boat. I spent a lot of time many years ago, as the A.) head instructor B.) Chief Scientist and C.) assistant wooden ship fixer for the Marine Science Institute. Our ship was a WWII vintage air-sea rescue boat, 85 feet long. We had to replace the decks, there was bad rot aft of the wheelhouse. That meant tearing up acres of plywood, pulling hundreds of copper nails, and slathering everything with cuprinol. Then the plywood, also slathered with cuprinol, went down, two layers of it. On top of that...the surface we all walked on, we put on Yellowjacket and Arabol.

Yellowjacket is a yellow-colored polyester mesh. It's kind of like a very loose weave fiberglass roving, only it's not glass. Arabol is made by Borden, and it's basically white glue. So we stapled down two layers of yellowjacket with copper staples and then smeared about 10 gallons of arabol over everything...really thick. Wait 48 hours, pray it doesn't rain, and paint with a latex paint that has crushed walnuts in it for non-skid..

It sounds hokey but it held up for almost 15 years until they finally sold the ship. Wooden boats that don't have teak decks often use this for their deck covering, especially work boats.

Anyway, on the rudder front....

This is the boring part. Smear on epoxy and wood dough---wait overnight --- sand. Repeat. Repeat again. Use the belt sander to shape in some of the oddball tapers here and there. Turn over, and repeat. I'm one smear-wait-sand away from being done with one side. However, I've belt-sanded the second side, and then gone over it with the surform plane and then belt sanded again, so the basic shape is there. I'm shocked. The trailing edge is ramrod straight and pretty much exactly 1/4 inch thick for the entire length of the blade.

AlanH
12-29-2017, 06:40 PM
I just discovered that Arabol isn't made any more. It had some anti-fungal stuff added to it, that might explain it. Apparently the commericial fishermen use lagging compound...more or less the same stuff. ....sort of.

Philpott
12-29-2017, 07:30 PM
There are several rudders at Blue Pelican.

AlanH
12-30-2017, 10:41 AM
There are several rudders at Blue Pelican.

I wish I'd known that before I started this project. The one with bottom paint looks like an old-style Catalina 25 rudder, which would probably work just fine. Ah, well.

OlyJeff
12-31-2017, 09:16 AM
I know your well into your project but this outfit north of Seattle could be a good resource for used parts.

The Sailboat Wrecking Yard


http://sailboatwreckingyard.com

AlanH
12-31-2017, 10:29 AM
I know your well into your project but this outfit north of Seattle could be a good resource for used parts.

The Sailboat Wrecking Yard


http://sailboatwreckingyard.com

I contacted them twice and actually they came off as rather unpleasant via e-mail and even though I asked twice, they never sent along a list of the rudders they had in stock.

That's a pity, as they seem to have a lot of great stuff on-hand.

AlanH
12-31-2017, 06:48 PM
I must be making progress because I did about 45 minutes of sanding and then flipped the rudder over, today. The second side got it's first layer of fairing spooge... router shavings in epoxy for the areas where I need to build some volume quickly, and wood dough in epoxy for the little stuff. I expect there will be two more iterations of this.

Also, the foil template for the emergency rudder is done.

AlanH
01-05-2018, 11:32 AM
I thought I was done and ready for vacuum bagging, but I set up the rudder on the trailing edge and took a good, hard look at the leading edge and what's right behind it. It's good in the bottom third of the blade but one side is fatter than the other side in the top 2/3rds, with a significant divot, probably where I joined two pieces of wood. Aside from that divot, it's impossible to find that join, so that's good. Anyway, today I added some bulk to the "skinny side". I'll let it kick off tonight and hopefully sand it fair tomorrow, though it will probably need a treatment with epoxy/wood dough and another sanding.

I'd hoped to have the vacuum-bagging done before I went back to work on Jan.8th, but I don't think it's gonna happen. With luck, I'll have it for the Cruise-In.

AlanH
01-06-2018, 07:31 PM
OK, that's the last mix-spread-kick-and sand. We're in the "overnight kick" phase right now. After I spread some more wood dough and shavings for filler on the "skinny" side of the leading edge, I got to work on the Emergency rudder. I'm not going to be anywhere near as fussy about having a perfect shape for that rudder, and I think I'll use it for "practice for vacuum-bagging. I'd hate to screw up the primary rudder.

$148...$83 of stuff and $65 of shipping... worth of triaxial fiberglass, peel ply and bleeder has arrived at my house , enough to do both rudders and I'll probably have a lot left over.

OK, so this afternoon I spent about two and a half hours doing this...2968

Which resulted in this..

2969

This rudder is going to be a bit slab-sided, but not terribly so. I'm not worried about it. Note that I just did the after part of the rudder. I did one pass at the leading edge and the bit dug deep. So I stopped and it finally hit me why the leading edge on my primary rudder is so wonky and requiring so much build-and-fair. It has to do with the radius of the curve of the template, where there's lot of curve, and the flat surface of the router.

Instead, I'm going to cut a couple of 30 deg. cuts, lengthwise down the leading edge and then fair by hand.

AlanH
01-06-2018, 07:38 PM
Here's a close up of the freshly routed redwood surface. This makes a bluidy lot of sawdust! To smooth it, I go over it with a surform plane and then belt sand with 80 grit.

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AlanH
01-06-2018, 08:02 PM
I am working in my driveway, right?. I both drool and chuckle at the guys (and a few gals) on the Wooden Boat forum with their heated workshops, vacuum-evacuated planers and so on. One thing for sure, if I did this a lot, I would wear a respirator. That was a lot of dust, today.

Philpott
01-06-2018, 09:49 PM
I am working in my driveway, right?. I both drool and chuckle at the guys (and a few gals) on the Wooden Boat forum with their heated workshops, vacuum-evacuated planers and so on. One thing for sure, if I did this a lot, I would wear a respirator. That was a lot of dust, today.

Alan, think of all those people in the midwest and northeast who are living through minus degree weather. I'll bet they envy you your nice warm driveway. Heck, today I was sailing off the city front in blue skies wearing a light jacket. It's all in the perspective. You look like you have a nice work surface there in your driveway.

AlanH
01-08-2018, 08:48 PM
I spent my last day before going back to work doing -- 1: shaping the leading edge of the E-rudder with an archaic tool called a drawknife instead of putting it on the table saw. Also used a surform plane and a lot of sanding. It's not as sexy a shape as the primary rudder, but it's something like elliptical, sort of. It'll work and it's a good size. If the boat didn't come with a 1-D rudder the size of the Washington Monument, I'd say that the E-rudder i'm making was about the right size. this will be about 15% of the work as the primary rudder, for about 95% of the performance.

2: filled and faired the "skinny side" of the primary rudder 2x, due to the judicious use, off and on, of a heat gun. I could probably do this another 2x but I'm heartily sick of the activity and the "skinny" side is appropriate chubby now, to match the opposite side. This isn't as good as a CNC-cut pro job, but it's a lot better than some rudders I've used. Time to vacuum-bag.

NOTE TO ALL: If you ever have a chance to go see Greg Nelsons shop, do it. WOW. Just...so cool. Thanks for the loan of the vacuum pumps, Greg!

I need to prep the other side of the E-rudder ASAP 'cause I'm going to bag that one before doing the primary rudder. I figure, mess up the rudder that didn't cost anything but time, right?

I'm about $425 into this project.

AlanH
01-13-2018, 11:49 AM
Today is the last "routing day", which will also involve sanding and fairing with epoxy/redwood dough spooge. Tomorrow is the final sand, then then the E-rudder goes in the bag for the big experiment! If all goes well, Monday, the primary rudder will go in the bag. I may have enough triaxial cloth to do two layers of 19 ounce cloth, which will make it heavy but completely indestructible. Hmmm. Maybe too heavy. I gotta think on that.

EEEeeeEEEEeeeeEEEEeeeeee....:eek:

Joan is going to be bluidy glad she doesn't have to listen to that router again.

AlanH
01-13-2018, 11:48 PM
The nagging little sore throat that I've had for two days went nuclear this afternoon. Like, to Urgent Care, steroid injection,antibiotics injections and X rays nuclear. I couldn't swallow. It's strep throat, but this wan't your regular no-fun sore throat. Not so good. Four hours in Urgent Care, later I'm down to just a "bad sore throat", but I can at least eat popsicle.

I got that side of the rudder all routed out and spooge'd, this afternoon before it got super-bad. I don't think I'll be vacuum bagging anything tomorrow.

AlanH
01-15-2018, 07:40 PM
VACUUM BAG DAY!!

what a shi*tshow!!. I'm so glad I did the E-rudder first. Now I've made all my mistakes and know what to do differently for the primary rudder.

Mistakes...#1 I thought I cut the triaxial glass wide enough to cover the blade with an inch overlap for "flash". Nope. There might be some overlap at the trailing edge. Might not. It's that close. Lesson - cut 4 inches more than you think you need. #2.. well, mistake #1 took so much time to readjust that by the time we got the rudder in the bag, the epoxy was starting to gel. So I doubt that the breather pulled anything out. I certainly can't see any resin in the breather. The cloth and the peel ply are well soaked, though, so there will be a good bond.

Also, cut all the cloth out FIRST, BEFORE coating the rudder. Oh, well. This is why I did this rudder, first.

Here's what my garage looked like, cutting out breather while the rudder was on the table. Me=Dummy! I won't do that 2999again!

AlanH
01-15-2018, 07:41 PM
Joan helped me get the rudder in the bag I had for it, after doing all the layup, finding out that I hadn't cut enough triaxial to quite get to the trailing edge on both sides, removing it and laying it all in, again. Here it is, hanging from a line between two sawhorses.3000

One end of the line is tied to my truck, the other end is tied to some Highland Games weights. There are bolts driven into the end of the rudder, with big washers on them. The bolts/washers fit into loops in the rope, to suspend the rudder off the ground, trailing-edge down.

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AlanH
01-15-2018, 07:49 PM
Then, on with the pump....and another lesson...get the butyl tape on the bag BEFORE hanging it. Sealing the bag took 45 minutes, seriously. Oy, ve.

3002

And finally, two space heaters going, and all tented up...

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AlanH
01-15-2018, 07:51 PM
Inside the tent...

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AlanH
01-15-2018, 07:58 PM
Greg says that the orange pump pulls air faster, so I ran it for about two hours. He loaned me another one, which I set up in the other end. It's been running for about an hour, now. I'll shut it down pretty soon. I never got a really excellent seal, so needed one or the other to be running to keep the bag down on the rudder. At this point the epoxy has started to seriously set up, so I doubt anything is going to get pulled into the breather. Anyway, neither of the pumps will run for more than 2 hours at a time.

I'm going to be moving the space heaters around under the "tent" until about 9:00 PM. That means they'll have been under heat for about five hours. Incidentally, there's more plastic on the "tent" now, so it's more or less touching the ground everywhere but one end. I estimate it's about 85 degrees at the "top" of the tent and 70 nearer the ground.

{{sorry for the big images}}

AlanH
01-15-2018, 08:48 PM
This has been a high-stress day. Hopefully what I've learned will make the next one lower stress, and with better results!

Also, very curious to see this rudder when it comes out. I'm concerned that I was a bit skimpy with the epoxy

AlanH
01-16-2018, 11:08 AM
It's the next morning. I un-tented the rudder and turned off the heat at about 10:00 PM last night. I strung it up in my 50-deg. garage overnight and went to bed. This morning I went out and pulled the peel-ply off. It did not want to come off all that easily. The laminate was very sticky. It was very tightly adhered to the wood, but sticky.

3005

AlanH
01-16-2018, 11:13 AM
Good news, I have contact/coverage all along the trailing edge of the blade.
Badd, but not unexpected...The impossible "inside angle" of the leading edge where the stock is set back 3 inches from the blade is ugly...big surprise. I'll have to grind out about 5 inches of stuff. No biggie.

However, now I know why the bleeder didn't absorb any excess epoxy. There wasn't any. The mixture is rather epoxy-starved, darnit. There's a lot of bonding to the wood, but also areas that need more. I only found two very small "silvery" areas, in non-structurally important places, where the glass didn't wet out at all. However, this *meh* bonding is not good.

Upper half of rudder close-up..
3006

Blade close-up..

3007

AlanH
01-16-2018, 11:19 AM
Well, the rudder was still very tacky, so there were still chemical bonds forming. I quick-like got the rudder outside and hung it on some sawhorses. Then I mixed up some epoxy and wiped it on there. It took a surprising amount to fill in the weave, but it did wet out really well. Lesson Learned!

So this rudder is less than optimal. There is now probably too much epoxy in the epoxy/glass mixture for optimal strength. It'll be really strong, no question about that, but not optimal.

3010

Here's a closeup of the top half.
3008

Here's a closeup of the blade.

3009

The fact that I did this while the overnight-coat was still pretty tacky is good. It will probably bond really well, and from the appearance of the rudder, it SEEMS like there's a lot more wood/glass/epoxy filling-in-the-gaps going on. Still, it's frustrating. However, this is why I did the E rudder first, before the primary rudder. Next time...MOAR EPOXY in the layup!!.

AlanH
01-16-2018, 12:49 PM
I really want to finish this one off, but I need to get the vacuum pumps back to Greg. Next weekend is the cruise-in, the weekend after that is the 3BF, but I have the afternoon, after I do RC to set up the primary rudder and bag it.

AlanH
01-17-2018, 09:11 AM
The epoxy kicked off all day yesterday and last night in the garage. Rudder finish looks really good, tight to the wood and smooth, yay! On to the primary rudder!

AlanH
01-24-2018, 12:03 PM
The primary rudder got it's second layer of unidirectional carbon today. As in, it got a 6-inch wide "tape" of it on the second side. One side already had carbon. This time I was a bit more generous with epoxy. Mentally processing what went less-than-optimally with the E-rudder, I also coated that whole side of the rudder with a light layer of epoxy. Hopefully that will seal the wood and it won't absorb so much on vacuum-bagging day, which is Saturday afternoon. I'll flip the rudder over tomorrow morning and give the other side an overall coat, as well. It's pretty cold in my garage so I bet the epoxy will still be forming a few chemical bonds, come Saturday.

I actually aligned it with the wrong edge...set back from the trailing edge instead of the leading edge. Fortunately I caught the goof pretty quickly, pulled it off and squeegee'd it back on again.

THIS time I will cut the cloth, peel ply and bleeder fabric BEFORE setting up the blade. I also have my friend Greg from church coming over to help. I put the non-glassed rudder on the bathroom scale today and it weighs 46 pounds. From the Class Rules..

"2.7.A.1. The minimum weight for the rudder assembly (rudder blade, box, gudgeons, tiller, normal hardware, and corrector weight, if any) is 61 lbs. "

AlanH
01-26-2018, 01:24 PM
This morning the other side of the primary rudder got a coating of "sealer" epoxy. The carbon strip on that side decided to drink some in, too, so I might have been kinda skimpy with the juice when I bonded it. Vacuum Bag #2 is tomorrow! I have a buddy coming over to help so there will be two pairs of hands. MUCH better..

AlanH
01-28-2018, 09:25 AM
Yesterday the primary rudder got vacuum-bagged. My friend Greg S. came over in the afternoon and between 1:00-5:00 we got it done. We prepped all the fabric before beginning, and with the two of us it was immensely easier than doing it alone. The rudder sat under vacuum and heat for about 2 1/2 hours before I turned stuff off and went to Burns Night. I'll un-bag it this morning. The only downside is that one end slipped off the sawhorse while I was adjusting it and fell about 10 inches straight down on my toes. I now have a broken big toe on my right foot. I'm headed to Urgent Care here in Palo Alto later this morning for some x-rays and probably a boot to wear for a month. There goes what remains of any training during the Highland Games off-season.

While we were at it, I cut off the extra flash on one edge of the E rudder stock and Greg got some 6 oz. glass and epoxy on it. I got two layers of 6 oz glass on the bottom of the e-rudder, so that is getting very close to being done.

AlanH
01-28-2018, 09:55 PM
I de-bagged the primary rudder today. This time the bleeder has pulled a significant amount of epoxy out of the mixture. 93% of the rudder is absolutely pristine. The bonding is tight, the weave is filled, the peel-ply finish is smooth. The center of the rudder where the loads will be highest is rock-solid. The ends aren't so great, and a bunch of glass will need to be cut off and patched in. The lower, aft corner of the trailing edge , well the glass got folded over somehow in the bag on one side, so there's about 4 inches of the trailing edge of that curve that will have to be patched in. However, this is a low-load zone so it's no biggie. There's one sort-of medium-sized bubble in the aft part of the transition from "boxy" to "foil" that I'm attempting to heat up and mash down. I've slit it with a razor, heated it up to melt the nearly-hard epoxy/glass, and got some fresh epoxy under it. I've energetically mashed it down, and a bigass Highland Games weight, which is round, is now sitting on it overnight. Yeah, there are some bits here and there that will need cutting out and patching in. But all in all, this rudder is a *Significant* improvement over the E-rudder. It will be plenty strong. Wherever the loads are high, the glasswork is really solid. I'm pleased.

After an uncomfortable night, I went to Urgent Care this morning. The PA melted a hole in my toenail, which soon was very messy. However, that relieved a lot of pressure. X Rays, to my surprise, reveal that there is no break. Considering the pain and spectacular colors I figured I broke it for sure. I've spent the day in an open toe'd orthotic shoe, and managed to walk several blocks around Berkeley to go to a concert and meet Mrs. Alan H's nephew for dinner. No surgery. No titanium pin in the toe.....things could be worse.

I'll put up some pics tomorrow.

AlanH
01-29-2018, 12:26 PM
OK, here are some close-ups of the laminate, taken in the middle of the rudder where the stresses are highest. I'm very pleased!

3043

3044

AlanH
01-29-2018, 12:33 PM
It's not perfect. In the interests of honesty and helping the poor sucker who comes along next month or next year and reads this thread as preparation for making their own rudder...here goes.

3045

That one is a result of the rudder slipping off the sawhorse and onto my foot. The rudder is suspended by two bolts, one at each end, driven into the ends of the rudder. Each bolt sticks out 3-4 inches and the structure rests on that, on the sawhorses. My friend Greg S. and I pushed it back up on the sawhorse but probably caused this displacement. It's not a big deal, as it's not in a high-load area. I'll cut it off, grind it flat and wrap the top 5-inches of the rudder with another layer of triaxial, anyway.

The bottom of the rudder is kind of ugly. We got layers of breather in between the glass and the wood, so that messed it up. Also, one side of the cloth got turned over in the bag, but we couldn't see it through the breather. Ah, well... I'll have to grind out and fix that trailing edge, but again, not a super high-load area.

3046

AlanH
01-29-2018, 12:38 PM
See that big weight? That's the only place on the whole rudder where there's a flaw that affects the strength in any way. After I unbagged it, I found a "bubble" where the glass hadn't adhered to the wood. I cut the semi-hard laminate in this area with a razor in the longitudinal direction in a couple of places. BAsically, I "popped the bubble". Then I warmed it up pretty good with a heat gun until it was really flexible. I smooshed some fresh epoxy underneath it. Then I added some weight!

3047

I let it sit overnight and took a look this morning. Wow, it worked! Now, the whole bubble is not "perfect", some of it will have to be ground down and faired, but the part I smooshed with the weight and chain actually conformed to the wood pretty well. It just needs to be faired, now.

I've shown you all the flaws. The other side is essentially ~perfect~.

Here's a view of the table and layout. You can see my trucks rear-view mirror on the right. The truck wasn't there when we did the layup on this table.

3048

AlanH
02-04-2018, 11:47 PM
This weekend I cut off the "flash", the excess fiberlass, with a cutoff wheel on a Dremel rotary tool. Well, OK, I have the Craftsman version of that tool. I ground out the worst of the "bubbles", not that they're bad, with an attachment on that tool as well.

This weekend I cut off the "flash", the excess fiberlass, with a cutoff wheel on a Dremel rotary tool. Well, OK, I have the Craftsman version of that tool. man, that thing is the ticket for that job. I ground out the worst of the "bubbles", not that they're bad, with an attachment on that tool as well.

What remains is the following...

1.) fill in the cut-out "bubbles" space and the "folded over" part at the bottom with a mixture of glass fibers in epoxy, and build them up to more-or-less flush with the rest of the rudder.
2.) get a layer or two of 6 ounce cloth on the bottom...sand and fair
3.) the trailing edge is a little thick, it's pretty darned straight, just thick. So I'm going to buy a 4 foot long strip of pultruded fiberglass rod, square in cross section rather than round. It'll be 1/4 inch on a side. I'll epoxy it in there on the trailing edge and fair it. That should give a nice, squared-off edge.
4.) once over the whole rudder with epoxy/microballoons to fill any little divots or places where the peel ply didn't quite stick
5.) paint - probably a two-part epoxy below the waterline and Interlux enamel above the waterline. Below the waterline will get two coats of black Petit Hydrocoat antifouling
6.) Install the custom pintles that I'm having made at my local welders
7.) Install and sail

All of this is pretty obvious to anybody else coming along in the future who is thinking about making their own rudder, so I think I'll leave this thread until the rudder is done. That's why I did the thread in the first place, for the next poor slob that thinks they want to build their own transom-hung rudder. There's no point in belabouring it. I'll post one last pic of the rudder before I mount it on the boat and call it good.

AlanH
02-07-2018, 03:22 PM
Actually, I bought the s.s. bits for the rudder gudgeons today. $90 at Alan Steel in Redwood City. That's just the cut and punched pieces of stainless, which still need to be welded together. Considering as Rig-Rite doesn't carry rudder pintles with 5/8ths inch holes, or holes larger than that which allow for a bushing between the pintle and the pin, I kind of had to do this. IN fact, NOBODY but Rudder Craft carries them, and RC won't sell theirs.

The closest thing that Rig-Rite has takes a 1/2 inch pin (not 5/8ths) has two holes (not three like mine) for bolts through the rudder, has 1 1/2 inch straps (same as mine) and is used on old Pearson 27's. Here are the specs on the P-27

Displacement 5800 lbs.
Ballast 2175 lbs.
Sail Area 330 sq. ft.

Here are the specs on my boat

Displacement 4500 lbs
Ballast 1750
Sail Area 326 sq ft.

I think I'm good to go as what I'm building is constructed the same way as those P-27 rudder gudgeons are, only beefier. You have to ask Rig-Rite for a quote to get a price on those puppies, they don't list the price on the website but I would guess they're around $350 a pair. Schaefers cast stainless J-24 gudgeons are $150 each, $300 a pair at West Marine.

AlanH
02-10-2018, 07:24 PM
It appears that I'm continuing to update.

Today I filled in all the places that didn't bond well under vacuum. I cut up a mess of fibers from leftover triaxial cloth and mixed them in to some epoxy. Then I artistically applied this stuff, which I will call "flooge", by hand to all the appropriate places. I had to go to TAP plastics for another quart of epoxy and hardener. While I was there I bought some 4-inch wide glass tape. The top of the rudder, where the tiller straps will be, is now wrapped in two layers of tape in epoxy.

This is probably preposterous overkill, but you know, halfway to Hawaii or something, I might be glad I did that.

AlanH
02-11-2018, 04:30 PM
Much sanding today, and then fairing compound on one side. I think there's a light at the end of this tunnel.

AlanH
02-18-2018, 09:08 PM
It's been two days of fairing compound, waiting, and sanding... The important stuff is really smooth. The fore and aft edges of the rudder, above the waterline, not so much, but that doesn't really matter.

Tuesday night I go to my friend Len's house and we grind, shine and weld the gudgeons.

AlanH
02-21-2018, 12:06 PM
Welding night at Len's place. He has a new toy, I should have taken a picture of it. It's a 3-D 6 cutting head CNC metal shaper, complete with containment hood. woooo. For the price of a new tank of argon gas and two boxes of stainless welding rod, we did this....

3149

3150

3152

3153

AlanH
02-21-2018, 12:09 PM
All cleaned up...custom boat jewelry!

3154

3155

AlanH
02-21-2018, 12:11 PM
What amazed me was that the contraction of the side bracing pieces after welding, actually slightly bent the thick transverse piece that everything is welded to. That chunk is 3/8'ths stainless and it's only about 3 inches wide. It's pretty bluidy rigid.

Lanikai
02-22-2018, 10:25 PM
Welding and wine, why not? What I wouldn't give to have my own garage.
That's beautiful work. I tried to get the hang of TIG welding stainless when I was at TechShop. Fail. The upside is I can now spend inordinate amounts of time wandering the docks and admiring good welds that I used to take for granted.
If your e-rud fails, I'm pretty sure it won't be Len's fault!

AlanH
02-23-2018, 12:42 PM
Welding and wine, why not? What I wouldn't give to have my own garage.
That's beautiful work. I tried to get the hang of TIG welding stainless when I was at TechShop. Fail. The upside is I can now spend inordinate amounts of time wandering the docks and admiring good welds that I used to take for granted.
If your e-rud fails, I'm pretty sure it won't be Len's fault!

Those are actually the primary rudder gudgeons. I'm taking a page from a couple of other folks e-rudders when it comes to putting the gudgeons on my cassette. They will be plywood and carbon with a s.s. inset for the pin bushing. That will be another thread.

Around the corner from Lens welding area, which is separate from the machine shop area, which is separate from the extra-metal-storage/grinding wheel/CNC/electric guitars area... is an ENORMOUS refrigerated wine storage locker. It's HUGE, like 200+ bottles. There are cases of bottles on the floor. Lens wife, Kathy used to co-own a restaurant and they have friends who get them to go in on cases of upscale wine. Kathy told me that one of their New Years Resolutions is to "drink more". sheesh.

Lanikai
02-23-2018, 01:41 PM
Those are actually the primary rudder gudgeons.

Ah, yes, duh. After seeing some of the more recent posts I did think "gee, that's a lot of work for an awfully stout e-rudder" without giving it further thought (like reading the thread's title).

AlanH
02-26-2018, 01:02 PM
Two coats of one-part polyurethane went on above the waterline this weekend. I'll probably do one more. Still up...final sanding below the waterline, esp. the trailing edge.

I discovered that the tiller I made is about a foot shorter than I need it to be. OK, I now have a dandy emergency tiller. It took maybe 30 minutes to shape, no big deal.

AlanH
03-03-2018, 07:05 PM
Bottom paint went on, today. I got a quart of West Marine's ablative paint in black. I'm stunned. The rudder is nowhere near as smooth as I thought it was. I sanded that thing and sanded it and sanded it. I filled the weave twice, and sanded. Damn.

AlanH
03-04-2018, 09:45 PM
Bottom paint went on, today. I got a quart of West Marine's ablative paint in black. I'm stunned. The rudder is nowhere near as smooth as I thought it was. I sanded that thing and sanded it and sanded it. I filled the weave twice, and sanded. Damn.

I guess I'm going to sail with it as it is this season, as I've already submitted my handicap rating application listing this rudder. However, the boat will go in for it's biannual haulout in December and I will strip the bottom paint off of rudder and fair some more while the yard works on the hull. I'd rather not miss another race.

Today the tiller fitting went on and I knocked out a somewhat crude tiller, but it will get me back on the water. I also sanded down the bushings I bought , as they were a touch too big, and tapped them into the gudgeons. The above-the-water parts got a final coat of polyurethane. And finally, I made an emergency tiller.

We are getting very close to putting the thing on.

AlanH
03-14-2018, 02:20 PM
What's left is a last coat of bottom paint, and then installing the rudder gudgeons. I can't put on bottom paint in the garage, so this weather is not helping...

AlanH
09-18-2018, 04:28 PM
The rudder has been on the boat for two-plus months, just sitting there while I recovered from rotator cuff surgery. This weekend I FINALLY got the bushings on. oooo. smooooth twisty-turny and no CLUNK.

I'll *FINALLY* find out if wiggling the tiller makes the boat turn while on the SSS cruise-in.

AlanH
10-08-2018, 12:04 PM
It worked, and in moderate winds was pretty light. When overpowered on a broad reach, it does load up. Big surprise. The lower gudgeon bushing needs re-thinking and the tiller and tillerhead functioned fine but could be stiffer. I might replace the aluminum tiller-head with a s.s. one, 2-3 inches longer for more tillerhead / tiller contact surface.

Otherwise, a success!

BobJ
10-09-2018, 11:11 PM
It worked, and in moderate winds was pretty light. When overpowered on a broad reach, it does load up. Big surprise. The lower gudgeon bushing needs re-thinking and the tiller and tillerhead functioned fine but could be stiffer. I might replace the aluminum tiller-head with a s.s. one, 2-3 inches longer for more tillerhead / tiller contact surface.

Otherwise, a success!

I admire people who can do stuff that I have to write big checks for. Nice job Alan!

AlanH
10-15-2018, 12:35 PM
I admire people who can do stuff that I have to write big checks for. Nice job Alan!

Thanks, Bob! Now to fix that bushing issue and move on.

AlanH
09-28-2019, 06:47 PM
The rudder has been on the boat for a year and she REALLY needs a haulout but I'm short of boat bucks. So I pulled the rudder off the boat...blew off the tunicates and algae, realized that there was essentially no bottom paint on the rudder and decided to bring it home. After a good scrub with a scotchbrite pad and a once-over with 180 grit sandpaper I realized that...wow, it's nowhere near as fair as I remembered.

ugh.

I ground off a couple of places where the topsides polyurethane was cracking and re-coated. Today I took a close look at some cracks near the top of the rudder. One is surface stuff, I just ground off the polyurethane and used some epoxy and microballoons to smooth it out. I'll sand it pretty tomorrow. However, the same crack above the upper gudgeon is actually a crack in the triaxial fiberglass. I will need to take a hard look at that soon. It could be that the very top of the rudder needs another wrap of triaxial.

I discovered that the 6 ounce glass I put on the bottom had pulled away from the bottom of the wood, so I ground that off and laid on some more 6-ounce in spooge. It dried out for two weeks so it's probably fine. The epoxy is kicking off right now.

And while I was at it, I made a new tiller. I also prettified up the e-tiller. Projects