I'd had enough of the lathe and needed a break, figured the next job would be the tiller, and what better than the trusty old electrical conduit !!!
problem with it is that the conduit whilst nice n light is also very bendy so to stiffen it up I figured a lump of timber (wooden curtain rod) shoved up the inside would do wonders....

so why in this day n age when we've been a metric nation for god only knows how long ... why cant we get METRIC materials that work..... 20mm conduit needs 20mm curtain rod....
we have a choice of the trusty old 3/4 rod which flops around inside or 7/8 rod....22mm don't fit into 20mm

so back to the metal lathe for some wood turning

mutter mutter mutter just what I needed



15mins later.....





the old tiller gets the dismantling treatment...



that's got to be a better length




and then I notice something that's not quite right....

after 5 mins of digging around and removing some old n crusty silicone/pvc/ & wood and what might have once rubber I finally managed to pry out an alloy tube from within the old tiller arm

huh



another 5mins and hey presto...



and after yet another 5mins....



as of this post the 2 alloy tubes have been thoroughly cleaned of all the debris that was fouling it up, the 2 bits now slide easily in an out and the concentric lock is also working a treat, half a twist and its locked in place turn it back and its unlocked and the length can easily be adjusted...

how good is that
and now I even have a spare conduit tiller extension as well


what else can I attack that means I don't go near the lathe...

This is my old sail-box from way back when, I think I made it around my 2nd last year at school, so that would be ~1976 at a guess and it held my first mosquito's (245 Stinga) gear way back then too, in really good nick for its age hey (unlike the owner )

yep its old but as you can see it holds a large amount of kit, in this case its Jurassic Karps gear in it

going to need another one for 1182....



Number 1 son is a carpenter.....

so now we have.....





the hinge.....

I hate ...... WITH A PASHION ..... piano hinges

great for piano's...... that's all
back in ~1976 ish, I hated em too, and thats when I came up with this hinge system, not sure where I got it from or why it came about but its the best damn hinge system I've ever had on equipment like this. I've converted heaps of other containers over the years to much the same setup...

The alloy strips are the stuff you find joining carpet to timber floors it has several other uses in the caravan world as well.
Under the 2 alloy strips in this case is a piece of fire hose, its been opened and closed thousands of times and its the original piece thats still fitted, these days I prefer to use old seatbelts, the webbing is nice and strong and flexiable....

and it's lots cheaper than fire hose





tomorrow its back to the lathe, more bits of stainless to be machined down for those tent poles....


till then

Happy new year to all
may you all have fair weather and smooth sailing in 2014

Kingy

Lathe work completed

all the stainless bits are now lathed / shaped / drilled / tig-welded / and test fitted into position.
&
the timber rudders have also had the circular saw / drill / router thrown at them and we have done a full mock-up assembly

resin gets added tomorrow to complete it all....



tops of the blades were cut square and then a 30mm slot cut along the top and front edge, the front edge slot is around 100mm long only.

Main plate.
the hinge bolt will pass through this plate adding extra strength.

several other holes have also been drilled in the plate and this will allow resin to form a "pin" through the plate. Once the resin has cured enough to be worked on (I'm using 7day cure resin), I'll bore 3 more larger holes (12mm) through the rudder and main plate and add timber pins which will also be resined in. These pins will be hard wood.

all the bits in place and ready for resin

this is how its sitting in the shed as of Lights Out tonight

the front lockdown and lockup setup I've come up with will be posted when I take some pics of it




number 2 son Andrew (also crew for 1182), has been busy on the lathe giving me a break
He's cut and trimmed and made various bits for the tiller which is now fully re-assembled and ready for refitting.

Might have to do some work on my old girl and get
The same sort of system together on the rudders
Looking forward to seeing her hit the water,
The best thing about the water levels been down??
If it sinks there isn't far to go ;p haha

yeah Phil said he was half tempted to get a couple of sets done when I posted the rolled alloy tube, as for the rest of the lockdown contraption..... we both know who to blame for that








hopefully next Saturday we'll be up your way or you'll be down this way, which ever drop of water suits will do, will ring Phil during the week and we'll go from there

This is the main plate that has now been resined into place....

The large holes allowed resin to flow through the plate and form a solid plug as such, additional 'grip' on the plate has been done by roughing up the area to be resined with a severe grind.
The pilot holes on the actual board aren't real deep, they are there just to mark where to drill once the resin has cured enough to be worked on.
These pilot holes will be drilled right through and to a 10mm diameter then a hardwood dowel will be resined in.... that should hold it all together nicely

and this afternoon the wind was blowing quite strongly, so what a brilliant idea it was to do this....




and now you see why I had to retain the green..... just wouldn't have worked any other way



Figured if I stepped the mast I'd get a better idea for some of the bits I might need, as such none are required, although there is an excessive rake on the mast at the moment so I'll need to address that...

Then the wind eased

so with a spirited dash we threw the jib on..... Oh what the hell and up goes the main

At the moment, the boom-vang rope needs replacing and the cleat that locks the foot adjustment needs a service to free it up a bit.

other than that.......

looking good

the missus snapped this one, as you can see the mast rake is well up there

rudders were an absolute mess, god only knows how many coats of varnish had been applied over the years and even after 3 coats of industrial paint stripper there was still varnish to be found....

This is AFTER the paint stripper !!!




deep sanding trenches were also uncovered, gotta hate orbital sanders

after some serious sanding, a bit of wet n dry sanding we had....

Rudder in place with the 4 hard-wood dowels glued in



closer view of the dowel



Since this pic was taken the dowels have been countersunk and the resulting cavity has been resined up, sealing them in entirely !!


I seriously hope I never have to remove the plates from the boards, it will be easier to burn them and collect what's left

lock-down plates ready for a test fit....



they a re a bit like chainsaw teeth in their shape and there's a reason for that shape, one side holds the locking shaft and the other side holds it centrally so it cant slip out sideways from the lock.





in this pic you can see the interference of the lock pin to the tooth, with the flexible glass rod between the rudder and the lock it snaps in and out with a similar noise like a mousetrap going off
Its also very easy to lock and un-lock one-handed, and yet cant unlock itself

the final stage of the dummy fit and test runs.....



this has now all be securely fixed to the arm and the entire rudder system is now fully functioning including the lock-up teeth.
pics to come later

all in place and working ....




and the best bit......

the flex in the glass rod is really good, I can get the blade out to ~45degrees and it may well go a lot further before it snaps.
Yeah the photo isn't anywhere near 45degrees but I was balancing on one foot and using the other foot to push the blade out and the resistance was beating me, this was the best focused pic I got after half a dozen attempts.... & my leg got tired


I think seaweed and other hidden underwater objects wont be an issue like they would have been with the old system, even other systems like the rope and cleat would be damaged or cause damage if such things are struck....

Very happy with it....



Now its all assembled and working I already have design changes in mind where I can make it work for me much better..... that system will go onto Jurassic Karp
I can easily modify this one to the new line thinking so again 1182 will be the test-bench for Jurassic Karp.
The simple bit is I only have to change 1 part and slightly modify another to achieve what I have in mind.

sail-box is finished
it will get a sand and re-coat when the decks are replaced.







Only one thing left to do

get it wet

handing your smart phone over to elderly people doesn't always work that well, I got lots of picks of fingers / sand / the dogs butt / more fingers / & ...... half a dozen 3sec videos of the same




Ideal day..... very light winds to start off with, and they freshened up after a couple of hours, we flew hulls later in the afternoon and got that distinctive mosquito hum through the wires.
As evening approached the winds stepped it up another notch and we got wet from the spray and found some very interesting angles.
For Andrew (#2 son and crew), it was his first time out on a boat and he enjoyed every minute of it, even the trap work and getting drenched from the spray as the cooler winds swept through...

yeah.... Ideal day