Laminated Tiller Project

[ShotgunSlim]

Since I love playing around in the wood shop, working on the boat, making things for the boat, improving the boat and actually sailing the boat, I decided to try my hand at making a laminated tiller. My trial run out of walnut/mahogany turned out looking great but not too functional as some of the dimensions aren't where they needed to be. (Dang it!! I should really wear the reading glasses when adjusting machinery using a vernier scale.) So back to the loft I go, this time to grab some good old southern red oak since I didn't have any Ash on hand. A week of gluing up and clamping one ply at a time, some careful surfacing and shaping, multiple coats of Cetol yielded this "swoopy" looking piece of work I can't wait to try out. Hopefully the extra length, knee clearance and tapered hand hold will be worth all the effort. It sure feels good in your hand off the boat, I imagine having some water under the other will feel GREAT!!

 

[StanFM]

That looks beautiful! Did you have to steam the wood, or just bend it as you glued it up?

Stan

 

[Nahart51]

Since I love playing around in the wood shop, working on the boat, making things for the boat, improving the boat and actually sailing the boat, I decided to try my hand at making a laminated tiller. My trial run out of walnut/mahogany turned out looking great but not too functional as some of the dimensions aren't where they needed to be. (Dang it!! I should really wear the reading glasses when adjusting machinery using a vernier scale.) So back to the loft I go, this time to grab some good old southern red oak since I didn't have any Ash on hand. A week of gluing up and clamping one ply at a time, some careful surfacing and shaping, multiple coats of Cetol yielded this "swoopy" looking piece of work I can't wait to try out. Hopefully the extra length, knee clearance and tapered hand hold will be worth all the effort. It sure feels good in your hand off the boat, I imagine having some water under the other will feel GREAT!!

Here is my store bought tiller that I'm varnishing now. Just to give you an idea of shape.

 

[Ken Secor]

Came out nice !

 

[ShotgunSlim]

That looks beautiful! Did you have to steam the wood, or just bend it as you glued it up?

Stan

I built the jig using the old tiller for patterning, then adjusted the jig to get the bends I wanted in the final project. The first two plies were sprayed with water to dampen the gluing surface, glued together, then pulled tight against the jig with pipe clamps. From that point on, I just kept adding one ply at at time until after a week, I had an ugly laminated blank to shape and sand to the final dimensions.

 

[dscribner]

Great job! Looks professional.

 

[StanFM]

I built the jig using the old tiller for patterning, then adjusted the jig to get the bends I wanted in the final project. The first two plies were sprayed with water to dampen the gluing surface, glued together, then pulled tight against the jig with pipe clamps. From that point on, I just kept adding one ply at at time until after a week, I had an ugly laminated blank to shape and sand to the final dimensions.

Wow! Thanks for showing us your work!

Stan

 

[Merlin Clark]

Great job Slim!

 

[Chris Patterson]

That IS some pretty work. I couldn't build that if I owned everything in Home Depot..

 

[agprice22]

Very nice! Can I see apicture of the jig?


Thanks,

Andrew

 

[ShotgunSlim]

Very nice! Can I see apicture of the jig?


Thanks,

Andrew

Here you go. Real easy to build on a fairly straight 2 X 12. Made the plywood cleats out of plywood scraps glued together and then screwed to the 2 X 12 with 4" deck screws. That way I can adjust the tiller's curves any way I want to, plus take the whole thing apart for storage or later projects.

 

[agprice22]

Thanks! Nice job!


Andrew

 

[ShotgunSlim]

That IS some pretty work. I couldn't build that if I owned everything in Home Depot..

Sure you could, from what I gather from all your posts, you are one of the deans of this here "Catalina College" and gluing up a couple of strips of wood, shaping and coating them would be no problem. If you have enough pipe clamps, thinly planed stock and the patience to glue and clamp one piece of wood every 24 hours, then shape and sand, every one of us can do it. In fact, I'd encourage anyone interested to give it a try. It's easier than you think and I'm pretty sure some one out there can top my work...

 

[Hamsandwich]

Very nice. I think over the next winter I will give myself a project to make one. So you used mahogany and red oak? I'm thinking of making one with a pretty good rise in it, maybe 6' or so.