[Public-List] Alberg 35 Rudder Rebuild

[George Dinwiddie]

Len,

I'd be happy to post your pictures, and accompany them with your 
description of the job.

  - George

On 1/7/12 12:31 AM, Len Payne wrote:
> Good Evening, All,
>
> Well, the rudder rebuild did not go exactly as planned - but, what ever does.
>
> I decided against using the "U"-straps and re-used the existing bolts.
>
> After the two sections of plank were epoxied together, I laid out the rudder dimensions and trimmed it to rough shape.
> Then I drilled for the drift pins ... the first hole went fine, a 3/8" blind hole bored 16" deep into a plank 1- 3/4" thick - not much room for error. I had made a jig that was supposed to keep the 3/8" ship's auger lined up. The second hole .... can we say "plunge"? The last 2 inches of the hole broke through the side of the rudder plank. So, I made a dowel out of some of the off-cut and epoxied that into the hole and sanded flush to the rudder face. Then I re-bored the hole 90* to the bad bore, that hole went fine, as did the third hole. To set the brass drift pins, I poured epoxy into the holes and drive the drift pins in then finished plugging the holes with more homemade mahogany dowels - that part was done!
> Since I had had a fair bit of success drilling blind 16" deep holes for the drift pins, I decided to go ahead with the original bolts. The deepest bolt hole was only going to be 12". A couple of those holes did plunge a little but none of the nut pockets that I routed into the rudder broke out the other side. I cleaned the old bolts and chased the threads, made new 1/2" thick nuts out of 5/8" hex stock and 1/8" thick 'washers' out of 3/4" hex stock. Speaking of the "stock". A well-driller friend of mine and I decided to straighten the existing stock and re-bend it in the proper orientation - all said and done the upper two bolts were aligned perfectly and the two bolts in the prop aperture were only 3-5 degrees off. The holes were drilled, reamed, and swabbed with epoxy on a .40cal swab and the nut pockets were also swabbed with epoxy. Then the upper stock was mounted by tapping the lower two bolts just a bit to get them into their respective holes. Then the washers and nut
s
>   were mounted and tightened - these were retightened a couple of times with a couple day relaxation in between.
> While the bolts were being tightened, I started shaping with a power hand planer - wonderful tool - if you are careful. The rudder was fully shaped and sanded, the rudder stock bolts were fully tightened and the rudder was hung from the roof supports in the shop. Then, I started coating with epoxy that had been thinned 50% with acetone. Two coats were applied then I waited about an hour and applied two more coats - currently waiting for that all to set. Then it will be sanded back down and a slightly thinned coat of epoxy will be applied, finish sanded, then, the rudder will have a number of varnish coats applied. I am going to make a canvas cover for the rudder to keep the sun off it when she is hauled for winter. If the rudder starts to look bad I can always sand it down a bit and apply a few coats of good bottom paint. Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep the garage warm when it's 20 degrees out and you are using acetone thinned epoxy ..... and the only heat avail
ab
>   le is a gas heater or a wood stove?????
> Anyway, Guess I ran-on a bit. If anyone is interested, I'll see if George would put up some pictures and text for the rudder rebuild. Even though she is a 35, just about everything still applies to a 30 with mahogany rudder.
> Thanks for listening.
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-- 
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   When I remember bygone days                         George Dinwiddie
   I think how evening follows morn;            gdinwiddie at alberg30.org
   So many I loved were not yet dead,           http://www.Alberg30.org
   So many I love were not yet born.                          also see:
                'The Middle' by Ogden Nash     http://idiacomputing.com
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