Shan's Tiller

Having just come back in to the bush from being in town for a while, I didn't have a lot of time this weekend for anything but laundry, laundry, and more laundry... oh yeah, and unpacking boxes and boxes of food and trying to organize it all. Imagine only getting a grocery run every 2-4 months.

But I did manage to get some little bits here and there, during which I managed to glue up one more paddle blade, and even better, construct the tiller for Shan Skailyn's rudder. I was concerned about using a bolt at the pivot point (at the base of the tiller) for fear that the thing might work itself loose. Since I still have some leftover brass rod, and some loose stainless steel washers and retaining pins, I decided to rig something up with that. My only concern with the retaining clips is that they're yet another little pointy, grabby thing that a rope is bound to snag. We'll deal with than when it becomes necessary.

For the paddle blade, I'm not sure what kind of wood I'm using. It's the same stuff that the Mibu folks use for making siding for their huts. It's very very lightweight, long grained wood. Hope it's strong enough for a paddle blade.

Response to comment

Hey Bob from Arkansas, great info! Thanks a ton! A blacksmith, eh? I've been emailing Gary on occasion with my questions. Yes, he's always great to respond with helpful info. I'm trying not to bug him too much though! But he does seem happy to help when he can.

I'm curious what the wall thickness of the bamboo you use is. We've got some stuff here that is really thick walled. It's usually dried in the sun and doesn't crack unless you leave it out for a year or so. When it's dry, it's extremely lightweight and more rigid than an equal size diameter hardwood timber. The stuff I have drying now is just a bit bigger diameter than Gary recommends in his book (that should answer your other question about the book or the plans, BTW) but I'm thinking I'm going to give it a try anyway.

Stay tuned. I've had a busy week so haven't had the time to take and post pix of my final rudder and leeboard. I'm really pleased with how the rudder assembly turned out. It's got nice smooth action with just a small tolerance, seems like it's going to be really strong, and looks halfway decent. I sure used up some of my saw blades and drill bits cutting and shaping that stuff though! Wish I'd known about the cold chisel thing back then!

So, you're a blacksmith, eh? I'll have to keep you in mind sometime with some of the other practical projects I that are so inevitable around here.

Hey, any idea how I can drill a small hole through the end of a 1/4" diameter stainless steel shaft? I want to put cotter pin through it, but have only managed to bind up and break my small drill bits. Any ideas? I first hammered the end flat to make it a bit easier to drill through. Helped, but still no go! That's hard stuff!

(You'll have to pardon my method of responding here. No internet from out here in the bush. But I can generate new posts via email. So welcome to my way of responding to comments!)

Hardware finished

Not the prettiest things in the world, but I finally got all the metal hardware done that Shan Skailyn is going to need. One is the 6-1/4" diameter aluminum reinforcing plate for the leeboard. The welded nut was done by a friend of mine stateside some months ago and then sent to me here in Papua New Guinea. Then the other piece of hardware other is the rudder hardware. Even though the rudder hardware isn't super pretty, it's got real smooth action when mounted. I know, I know... $20 could have gotten me some proper rudder hardware, but at this point I'm needing to avoid any more spending where possible. Can't wait to see how it all works!

Beginnings of leeboard and rudder

I didn't get a whole lot of time this weekend to work on Shan Skailyn. I'm out of 3/4" ring nails at this point. So I'm waiting for more of those so I can start assembling the hull which sits, just about ready for that next step.
Instead I started working on some of the other parts. I cut and laminated the timber for both the rudder and the leeboard. Got both of those planed down to thickness, and even managed to cut out the blank for the leeboard. Regarding the leeboard, I'm a bit concerned about the weight. I imagine that it undergoes a fair bit of stress, so I used a fairly strong wood that also ends up being a bit heavy. Actually, when I laminated it, I alternated between the heavier wood and a lighter wood in an attempt to cut down on the weight. Anyway, what I've ended up with after I've planed it down to thickness, cut out the blank, and not having yet shaped it, is a leeboard that weighs just over 7 kgs (about 15.5 lbs). Isn't that weight a bit excessive for a leeboard? Seems heavy to me. I would guess about 3-5 more pounds will be taken off once it is all shaped. Based on knowledgeable feedback, I may just have to re-make it with lighter timber.
I also began cutting up my sheet of stainless steel into pieces to use for the rudder hardware. That is some hard stuff to cut! I broke my last sawzall blade for cutting metal. So then I switched to my skil saw with a metal blade. I did manage to barely finish cutting my pieces before the last of the blade was worn down. Hopefully I can manage to avoid any major mistakes with these. I have nothing left to cut new pieces with! It's tin snips and grinders and files from here on out. Once I finish cutting these, I'll have to find a way to bend them all with a fair bit of precision so that all the holes for the through bolts (for securing to both the rudder and kick up assembly) as well as the holes for the hinge pin match up. If I end up not finding a way to bend them that precisely, then the other option would be to bend them before drilling the holes, then put a scrap piece of lumber between the bent 'flaps' and then drill through all of it at the same time.

Bulkheads, Perimeters and more

(I sent this before, but something with our email server messed up the message... so posting again here)
Another productive weekend. Not a lot of time, just a few hours overall, but got a lot done on Shan Skailyn in the time that I did have. Last week, I did manage to squeeze in little bits of time for gluing here and there, to keep the process going. Again, 15 minutes one day, 20 minutes another... it all adds up.
So this weekend I was ready to finish cutting the station 1 bulkhead perimeters. I did manage to finish gluing up all the perimeters as well. I ran out of my 3/4" brass ring nails before I could finish gluing up the station 1 perimeters so I had to settle for using my brad gun. I'm hoping to get more nails within the next couple months when I can then reinforce these perimeters with them. The struggle for me, is going to be NOT going ahead and gluing the hull together. It's a major milestone! Can't wait to begin to see Shan Skailyn's form emerge from all this work! And the only thing holding me back is not being able to reinforce my bulkhead perimeters! Ugghhh! There is plenty of other stuff I can do in the meantime, like working on the hardware, or gluing up timber for the kick up rudder and/or leeboard, building the motor mount bracket, etc.
One goofy problem I had, from which I hope someone else can learn, is when I was drilling my 5/16" bolt holes through the station 2 bulkheads, I ran into an easily avoidable problem. I kept hitting nails with my drill bit! Now when I was nailing the perimeters on, I thought briefly, "What if I put these nails right where the bolt holes are supposed to go... Eh, what are the chances!?" Well as it turns out, the chances are pretty good! About half of the holes I drilled happened to intersect with some part of the ring nails! Wasn't too terrible, except it messed up my nice precision point drill bit. I did manage to make do pretty well though. Once I heard the familiar nick-nick-nick of the bit hitting metal, I backed off. Then I came back with a harder drill bit to slowly cut the rest of the way through the nail, making a clean hole. One of the holes, however, had something go wrong. All I can figure is that a piece of the nail came out, swirled about in the hole like shrapnel and opened up the hole considerably. I don't think it's going to be a huge problem. But I am thinking about maybe filling with epoxy and re-drilling that one. The inside of the hole is all 'fuzzy' since it wasn't actually cleanly drilled. What's the lesson learned? Mark your hole placements before you drive your nails! Chances are good you're going to put one right where you need to drill!
One other problem I realized this weekend. I messed up on the measurements of the bolts for connecting the bulkheads. They're too short! Had to order more. Now I have to find an inexpensive way to get them over here in the next couple months... along with more brass ring nails.
At this point, my focus is going to be to continue finish getting everything ready to get glued. Not quite there yet. But I did manage to get the notches for the chines cut out of the bulkhead bottom edges (see pix). Got all the bulkhead sides planed and matching very closely to each other. Need to round a few edges here and there, mark up the sides for the station placements, cut the miter on the chines at the stern and bow, along with some other smallish tasks. Once everything is ready, I need to wait for my nails which I probably won't see till September. Can't just go to home depot and buy stuff out here!
As I mentioned before, I've got some of my own hardware I'm going to have to fashion. One is, per Gary's plan, I need to make the leeboard 'plate' out of 1/8" out of aluminum (or 'aluminium' if you're Aussie!). The other thing that I just figured I could make easily enough is the hinged rudder brackets; the brackets on which the rudder pivots for steering. We have an old, broken washing machine tub made of stainless steel. I did manage to cut a sheet of this stainless steel off the tub this weekend. It's from this sheet that I'm planning on cutting and forming the brackets. Need to draw up plans for those and get cutting and shaping. Tin snips and a collection of files, along with various drill bits will be my tools of choice for the brackets.