Hairies Rudder Build

hairymick · Post by **hairymick** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:45 am

G'day fellers,

I am having a go at building a simple rudder for my Southwind. there was a little interest in it on Oldsparky Forum but I will post my build here. With all the kayaks being built here now, it might be of use to somebody.

Rudder blade is cut and fibreglassed on both sides.

the rudder pivot brackets are made from 4mm ply, laminated into a right angle section and then cut to shape. This is the left over piece. If my idea works, I will be making more of these.

Oh yeah, the brackets themselves are fibreglassed inside and out.

Cut Pivot brackets

hairymick · Post by **hairymick** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 1:09 am

A tilting rudder needs two pivot points. One horizontal so it can tilt up and down and one vertical so that it can swing from side to side to actually steer the boat. I am trying to make as much of the assembly as I can out of timber and fibreglass. This is what I have come up with.

The wood concerned is a piece of Aussie Red Iron bark. Very strong and very heavy but the piece is only small and will weigh no more than a few ounces when machined.

I started off with stock 7/8" X 3" and took a rebate off each side. Leaving a centre piece 4.5mm thick. I did this on a router table with an end cutting bit.

After docking the machined piece to length, I drilled a 5/8" hole through the thick piece left.

Will now do an end pout and fill the hole with wood-flour.

hairymick · Post by **hairymick** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 2:44 am

End pours are done.

Using left over epoxy to knock up a chopping block for the missus. (should be some brownie points in that),

maybe

Bit like building a boat. Take some big bits of would, cut em up into little bits then stick em back together into a big bit.

dangermouse01 · Post by **dangermouse01** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:08 am

hairymick wrote:Using left over epoxy to knock up a chopping block for the missus. (should be some brownie points in that),

Maybe Robin will just make you some brownies for that. Much better than points.

Mick,
Looks good so far.

Will point out for the casual viewer, Mick's tape rule is metric. I did the double-take myself when I saw the pivot brackets.

DM

hairymick · Post by **hairymick** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 11:49 pm

Heya DM,

It helps a bit to be a little bi-lingual.

Oz is supposed to be completely metric now but lots of us older blokes remember the good old days of feet and inches and miles and such.

Metric is way easier but I still have to convert back to standard or imperial measurements in my head to know how big something is.

You will probably have noticed in some / many of my rants, my measurements are sometimes in metric and sometimes in inches, or, a combination of both. I'm a geezer and sometimes I get mixed up.

hairymick · Post by **hairymick** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 4:03 am

OK,

Getting there very slowly. been held up with a lot of "Honey Doos" lately and a lot more left to do. I sneak in half an hour here and there.

Rudder brackets are cleaned up and glued together.

I found and old piece of Stainless steel plate lying in my metal shop. it is 3/16th thick and should do nicely for the mounting and pivot frame.

Still working on it.

Standard kayak foot braces and a hinge I will use to try to convert into steering foot braces.

Backing plates glues in place to take the foot braces.

Raumati · Post by **Raumati** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 5:13 am

Nice work Mick, are you planning on doing a bit of marquetry on the rudder?

hairymick · Post by **hairymick** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 5:35 am

G'day Raumati,

Thanks mate. i made something similar to this for my wadefish only that one was all metal and I thought it was pretty ugly.

I think this one might be a little prettier.

Kept sneaking away today to get a little more done.

I teed up the eldest daughter to distract my wife at opportune times. the moment her back was turned - I was gone.

Trial foot pedals

Rudder pivot and steering frame

Rudder blade with final coat of resin on - two layers of clother each side.

prototype stainless rudder mounting bracket. This one is pretty rough but will do to see if my idea will work. if all is OK, I will make a much prettier one next week

Kayak Jack · Post by **Kayak Jack** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 7:49 pm

Mick,

To steer the rudder, will the pedals slide or pivot?

hairymick · Post by **hairymick** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:55 pm

G'day Jack,

The pedals pivot.

Rough draft is done.

if this thing works, i will re build it, taking more care of detail, but for now, the blade is vertical, moves freely and should be OK. The only concern I hve really is if the blade is heavy enough to stay down while underway. Will find out tomorrow.

Jack, this is my pedal set up. i pought a set of kayak braces from a local kayak manufacturer, fitted a nylon hinge to the foot plate and then the steering pedal to the upper half of the hinge. A rope leads from there back to the steering wire.

Rudder up

Rudder Down.

As I said, it is not real pretty and my mounting bracket is not quite square but it will do for now. This one was only to see if it would work in ply. If it does, ore needs some refining, the next one will be much better.