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[Jerry C]

I’ve been working on the rudder for quite sometime. Started off with a cardboard one to get some ideas of shape. Next a full scale “drawing”, followed by a few tweaks.
Transferred the shape of the blade itself to a brass sheet through the paper with a fine nail and a little hammer. Used a nibbler in the lecky drill to cut the sheet without distorting it and finalised the shape on the 6” sanding wheel. Made an identical copy, cleaned and fluxed The mating surfaces and soldered both together using a pen type torch.
I soldered the blade into a groove cut into the shaft with my dremel and added a heel plate to take the bottom bearing.
I made up three hinges  at once then cut through the tube to separate them tidying them up on the sander. Bending them to shape with a pair of pliers and little hammer. Added a steering yoke before fitting the whole caboodle to the sternpost.
I also put some proper sections into the propeller blades with the disc sander and finishing off with a fine file and a polish with the Dremel.
Jerry.

[rhavrane]

Bonjour Jerry,
Quite original rudder but I have a doubt about its future effciency. As far as I know, it needs to be in the flow of the propeller to operate.
In your case, will it stay enough in this flow to do the job ?
Il like the idea and the shape, but have never seen such a realization, so it is very interesting 

[Jerry C]

You may well be right. Only time will tell, but I hope, because the propeller is very large, that it will work with this rudder.
Jerry.

[Mark T]

Hi Jerry I really like your solution its very in keeping with the look of your launch.  I do see Raphaels observation but who knows once on the water it may work very well 

[southsteyne2]

Hi Jerry a lot depends on the size of the boat I believe up to 16 ft the used pintles and gudgeons to allow the quick removal of the rudder
Cheers
John

[steamboatmodel]

One of the Sea Scout groups I was with for a while had an 18' diesel powered launch that had a rudder like that and it worked fine. Most of our model boats use a balanced type rudder, but that is mainly because that is what the plastic ones are designed like. I see no problem with this one a great job on it. Just remembered the African Queen uses this type.
Gerald.

[Jerry C]

It’ll work. Finished the servo installation and push/pull rods. Will cover the gaping holes in stern with tiddly slotted brass plates and rubber seals courtesy of my next puncture on my road bike.








Jerry.

[Tug-Kenny RIP]

I like your way of fixing the plate to the servo.   

This is a fixture that always needs thought when working out the steering.

Cheers

ken

[ooyah/2]

Hi Jerry,


Have you thought of an alternative way to fix the rods to your rudder.


I am at present modifying a boat with pointy ends and I have used some brass chain running inside 5/32" copper pipe and like your boat the linkage is well above the water line with little possibility of letting in water.
In your case you could use some brass or copper tube with a bore near to the dia of the steering rods and then fill the tube with grease.
Just a thought to save the time in making plates and rubber seals.


George.

[Jerry C]

Hi Ken, I’m using micro servos and as such I’m limited in what will fit on the splines of the drive shaft. The servos came with a box of various cranks and screws. For this arrangement I used a circular crank wheel? and drilled through the holes in the brass arm into the plastic crank in the space where there were no holes and secured arm with two servo mounting screws. It’s really quite solid. I then ground off the plastic that showed just to please the eyes.


George, hi, agree that chain looks better but as I’m using micro servos I needed to take friction out of the equation. If running through fixed tubes then as the rudder moves through its arc the chains move laterally in and out with respect to the keel. Hence my slot. My slots are a disgrace caused by poor lighting, bad eyesight, and a Dremel with a mind of its own. I’m not operating under the same conditions I had at home. I’m really schooner rigged with hardly any tools. The brass plates I will fit are largely to disguise a cock up but they will be something for the boats future crew to polish in line with the Edwardian Steam launch practices of titivation! Also those clevises are listed as gold not brass so are a cut above. Stuff is really difficult to get here in Canberra. Post is really slow. There is one model shop but they really only cater for fliers or car drivers. When I ordered the plans for Wear 6 years ago in Oz I had to download the order form, fill it in in biro then fax it to them and send a cheque. I had to go to the post office to find a fax and it cost me $2.50 a page. They’ve still got faxes now.


Jerry

[southsteyne2]

Hi Jerry thought you might be interested Bunnings now stock 2mm x 500mm silver solder 5% @3 bucks a stick very good for all the little stem bits pipes etc
Cheers
John

[Jerry C]

Cheers John, I saw that the other day. I wasn’t sure as it stated temp about 280ish so passed it by but now I think about it maybe it’s gotta be better than what I’m using. Thanks I’ll look into it.
Rgds
Jerry.

[Jerry C]

Today I’m making a dog drive coupling to connect engine crankshaft to propshaft such that steam plant can be remove and replaced with the minimum of fuss. The crankshaft output shaft I very close to the propeller shaft but not perfect being 0.5 mm laterally 0.5 mm verticaly and 4° axially.
Yesterday I blagged this piece of brass rod remnant from a CNC works in Fyshwick.





[size=78%]I’ve no drill press other than the Dremel which is not up to this job and I’ve no lathe. I have a cordless drill and an ALdi tap and die set- metric and BSP. and a bench disk sander. [/size]
I cut two rough discs off it with a hacksaw drilled a 5mm hole through the centre of each disc as near centre and as square to the disc as I can by eye the drilled a 2.5 mm hole from the outside rim of each disk through to the centre hole. I tapped these out M3x 0.5mm.  I mounted each rough disc on one end of the propeller shaft and secured them with a 3mm grubscrew.





Using the mitre gauge on the table set to 0° and clamped I ground down one side of a disc using marker pen as an indicator and shaft up against fence. until it’s face was square with the shaft. I re mounted the discs and ground away until all four faces square an discs of similar thickness.





Removed fence and using the corrugated surface of the table as a guide by eye and felt tip pen as an indicator ground the discs circumference uniform diameter and concentric with shaft.








Will clean up with an old linisher belt and and tap one disk for a dog pin and drill a mating hole in the other disc.
Jerry.

[Mark T]

Jerry that is brilliant it’s amazing what can be done with limited tooling and a bit of imagination 

[rhavrane]

Bonjour Jerry,
Thanks to you, I am happy to enhance my English, what you call a "dog drive coupling" is called a "TOC" in France,
I use this system on several of my boats, example ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utYZJDJPBVg and I think it is the most efficient coupling system if the steamplant is correctly aligned to the propeller shaft, otherwise you have to apply other solutions as gimbals : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIoFeZV-MhM

[Jerry C]

I just made up dog coupling but now I think about it maybe better to throw a bucket of water over them.
Any, here it is fitted in the boat. Looks as though a bit more support needed at the coupling end of the propeller shaft outer tube. I plan to have a bulkhead behind the engine to separate engine space from the cockpit. I’ll give it some thoughts.
Jerry.

[Jerry C]

Should have said I made up the name “dog coupling”.  I don’t know what it’s really called but it’s meant as a noun, not an adjective.
Sorry for any confusion. Maybe dog drive would be more appropriate.
Jerry.

[Jerry C]

Yesterday and today I added extra support for the forward end of the propeller shaft.
Then I added a pair of out board supports for cockpit decking.



[size=78%] [/size]


Next I re-made new metal decking around engine/boiler that is a better fit after I levelled same deck area with gunwales. The whole shebang was a bit lower on the stbd side.



[/size][size=78%][/size]


Then I made up some fairing pieces to tidy up the holes in stern planking for the steering rods.
[/size]
[/size][size=78%][/size]
[/size]
[/size][size=78%]Jerry. [/size]

[xrad]

Nice work Jerry. I like the rudder! I built this orion mouldings launch a few years back. With an untrimmed hull, I had about 3-4" freeboard before balast.

[KBIO]

Hello!
She starts to look good!
If I can make a suggestion: it is to replace those screws by hexagonal nuts.
You'll have with the sunny days coming back.
Regards.

[Jerry C]

As mentioned before I have few tools here in Oz. When I got the Dremel I also bought the tiny circular saw attachment. It just screws on the Dremel drive end and gives you a 1 1/4” circular saw nearly at right angles the drive. I tried it freehand and it’s a total waste of space. Until a used table saw comes along at a giveaway price I’ve had to make one.


















On completion I tried to cut the half round off a J section 4mm piece of Tasmanian Oak trim. It wouldn’t look at it, useless. The blade just choked in the cut and no amount of adjusting the fence would get it to cut freely more than an inch.
I need something so I removed the little blade which is quite sharp, and, using a pair of long nosed pliers I put a small set on every othe tooth then did the same to the remaining teeth in the other direction and hey presto I have a tiny table saw which made short work of removing the half round with only a minutes worth of sanding gave me two nice bits of stock for floor boards and rubbing strakes.







Jerry.

[Jerry C]

I’ve spent some time thinking about the woods I’m going to use to panel out the interior of the boat. I don’t know any of the available local timber here in Oz. Last evening we went for a pre concert meal in The Hogs Breath Café in the city and the rustic tables were made out of wide board of timber with both heart and sap wood. The heart was a deep red similar to mahogany while the sap wood was white or light yellow. A combination of the two would be ideal. After having a word with the management it turns out it is Tasmanian Oak. This is a puzzle cos what I’m using for the bottom boards is also Tassie Oak which doesn’t look like either of the above. Please ignore the blue markings, they are from helping out a friend on this site.





Anybody help?
Jerry

[southsteyne2]

Hi Jerry boat looks great but as for tassie oak in Aus I believe it is just a trade name fake unfortunately so the reason for different colors.
 I have some genuine red cedar and some huon pine i can let you have if interested pm me for approx needs
Cheers
John

[Jerry C]

Would that also be known as “Red Gold”? 
What I think I’ll do his head to the Big Green shed here and find a bit of old furniture which I can pick up for a song. That’s how I got the wood for SL Wear and my toolchest. Thanks for the offer but you hang on to that stock. I’ll find something and that’s half the fun.








Jerry

[Jerry C]