I did finish up both Tillers so that they would fit in the rudder. Since I made them slightly thicker than 3/4 inches, I needed to narrow it down in the part that fits into the tiller. I just marked the ends on both and used a belt sander. That did a quick job of the task.
I need to figure out how to keep the tiller from coming out of the rudder. I have seen some pictures of builders using a pin of some type, but there doesn't look like a lot of extra room to drill a hole.
Below is a couple pictures of the tiller in the rudder. You can see there is not much wood coming out.
Now for the mast. I had previously glued up 2 of the 16 ft pieces for the mast and finished gluing up the other 2, so I have all 4 pieces.
Now the next part was how I was going to cut these 4 - 16 foot long pieces. I purchased a Festool Skill Saw TS 55 Req Track saw for the job and other jobs I plan on doing. After spending a long time marking out the 4 pieces from the plans and double checking things a few times I put saw to wood!
I setup outside with my tent, since it has started to get warm. The track is too wide to sit properly on a small piece of 3" wood, so I just used multiple pieces to give me a good work surface. I lined the track up to my markings and cut away. I think this worked out very well. Moving the track to the next section was no problem and you could barely tell where I started/stopped cutting.
Now for the rabbet that needs to be cut on the 2 side staves. I followed the manual and used my table saw. Unless you have a long in/out feed table, you are going to need some help cutting the 16 ft. pieces. Luckily my son was home and he help me out. Being on the cautious side, I set the saw a little bit too short for the width of the side staves. Since it was getting late and I was cleaning up, I just decided to cut the 1/16 inch portion off with my router at later time. I set that up yesterday and made the final cut. Now they fit flush as they should.
Below are a couple shots of the Mast dry clamped together. Thats where I realized that they pieces were not fitting together properly. I did the router trick yesterday and then cleaned up things with a hand plane. I will go over things again before I glue up. I will probably see if my son can assist with the gluing up as well. Sort of awkward trying to get the 4 pieces together and glue up with just one person. I also realized that I didn't have enough clamps. I picked up some yesterday at the Home Depot.
I also need to finish up the top of the mast piece that fits inside the mast. Or to be clearer. I need to start that project! The bottom piece of wood doesn't require any adjustment.
Next post should have a completed mast! But in the time being, headed out of town again! Got to keep the admiral happy!
