I went down to my workshop this morning to move to the next phase of the boat build. Shaping the rudder blade. It's been sitting in the jig for several days and its time to set it loose. I had A coffee in my hand and my Ipod was belting out some music over the old shop speakers. It's days like these I love working on my boat.
The glue has set and it's now time for the real work to begin. I broke the rudder blade blank out of the jig and stripped the plastic off. I planed down one face nice and flat so I could trace the pattern for the rudder.
I placed the pattern for the best area I could see in the wood.
I then traced the pattern onto the wood and marked the center point for the pivot.
I used my random Orbital with 80 grit to smooth it more. Then 150 on my sanding block, and finally I moved to my sanding sponge. A cheap and durable little piece for furniture use. their about 250 grit I believe. I just wanted to see how clean my profile looked so holding the finely sanded piece to the light would show the possible high spots. I used a straight edge down the length for high spot checking too. Marking with a pencil and sanding off.
It turned out well I believe. My wife thinks so too. It's not finished but the hard part is done for this part of the boat. I still need to drill the pivot hole, lift hole, and the down haul hole before I do any epoxy work. But that's for another day.
The glue has set and it's now time for the real work to begin. I broke the rudder blade blank out of the jig and stripped the plastic off. I planed down one face nice and flat so I could trace the pattern for the rudder.
I placed the pattern for the best area I could see in the wood.I then traced the pattern onto the wood and marked the center point for the pivot.I cut the end square and scribed the section the same shape as the plan. I cut a template out of wood as a guide for when I start shaping the blade.
The lines shown here are for when I make the transition from the foil shape to the flat area near the rudder case. I also scribed center lines down the length of the blade as a guide so I know where the middle of the blade is. Time to make some wood dust fly!
The grinder with attached heavy duty sanding pad was used first. I would make several light passes and eyeball it down the length. Once I roughed one side I checked it with the template. This process was repeated until I got the basic shape. I then moved to a 40 grit on my Belt sander. All the time checking with the template. (Belt sanders also remove a great deal of wood so be warned)
I used my random Orbital with 80 grit to smooth it more. Then 150 on my sanding block, and finally I moved to my sanding sponge. A cheap and durable little piece for furniture use. their about 250 grit I believe. I just wanted to see how clean my profile looked so holding the finely sanded piece to the light would show the possible high spots. I used a straight edge down the length for high spot checking too. Marking with a pencil and sanding off.It turned out well I believe. My wife thinks so too. It's not finished but the hard part is done for this part of the boat. I still need to drill the pivot hole, lift hole, and the down haul hole before I do any epoxy work. But that's for another day.Time: 4 hours of shaping and sanding. (most enjoyable 4 hours thus far)
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