Laminated Tiller construction

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Raya
Posts: 314
Joined: Sat May 05, 2012 4:25 pm
Investigator Boat Name: Tme Out
Location: Gold Coast

Laminated Tiller construction

Post by Raya »

I’ve mentioned before how impressed I was with the laminated tillers that were on the American site that Countrypiper found and that I thought I’d try and make one myself. Well, I had a go and this is what I did.

The first task was to build a steam box to soften the wood. I made the box out of structural ply and the steam generator out of a petrol can and a few plastic fittings. I put several dowels through the box to act as a rack to separate the pieces inside and to stop any staining. I also bought a cheap temperature gauge off ebay so that I could see read the inside temperature of the box. The heat source was a double ring gas burner.

I experimented with using pegs on a rack to bend the wood around but found that that the curve produced wasn’t smooth enough. I then built a solid jig from pine and ply and this worked well.

For my first attempt, (tiller number 1) I used cheap 12mm pine and meranti purchased from Bunnings. This resulted in a tiller that was 36mm thick which required the butt to be machined to fit the rudder stock. I stained the clear pine to put a bit of colour in the wood.
Tiller number 2 was made from Tasmanian Oak, as I wanted to see how well I could bend hardwood. I machined the 12mm timber back to 10mm using my recently acquired Aldi thicknesser (great machine) so that the final thickness would be correct. This time, I soaked the timber for a couple of days before steaming and bending. The timber bent perfectly and this tiller turned out well.

Now that I had worked out the process, I splashed out on some quality timber. I had intended to use American Ash and Mahogany laminated but replaced the Mahogany with American Walnut for the darker central wood. The timber came in 6”x2” planks and were sawn so that I could cut my strips as quarter-sawn pieces. After steaming and bending, I glued the pieces using Epiglue and finished the timber using a router, plane and sander. I feature I liked on the American tillers was the knob on the end, so I replicated this on this tiller.
I’m fairly happy with the finished product but might do some more experimenting. I purchased some Australian Ash along with the American timbers so I’ll make one more, all Qld timber, tiller to add to my collection.

Here are a few photos of the process.
Attachments
Steam Box.jpg
construction.jpg
Clamping Jig.jpg
Ray
Investigator #39
User avatar
Raya
Posts: 314
Joined: Sat May 05, 2012 4:25 pm
Investigator Boat Name: Tme Out
Location: Gold Coast

Re: Laminated Tiller construction

Post by Raya »

Here are my three finished tillers. Click on the pictures for a bigger view.
Attachments
Tiller No 1.jpg
Tiller No 2.jpg
Tiller No 3.jpg
Ray
Investigator #39
Yara50
Posts: 835
Joined: Mon May 25, 2009 7:10 pm
Location: Sydney

Re: Laminated Tiller construction

Post by Yara50 »

Beautiful!

Now you have got the hang of it, you could go into production and make a business of it. Or at least sell off your prototypes. Most of us would be happy with the earlier versions.
Ian B
Ex Investigator 563 #50 Yara
User avatar
Raya
Posts: 314
Joined: Sat May 05, 2012 4:25 pm
Investigator Boat Name: Tme Out
Location: Gold Coast

Re: Laminated Tiller construction

Post by Raya »

Not a big market for Investigator tillers so think that I'll stick to retirement.
I'm happy to give away a prototypes to an Investigator owner as long as they can collect it from the Gold Coast. PM me if you want one.
Ray
Investigator #39
no way
Posts: 187
Joined: Thu Jul 08, 2010 6:48 pm

Re: Laminated Tiller construction

Post by no way »

Have had laminated tillers on all of our family's boats since the early 60's. The current one on the I563 may be the last as I've virtually run out of the Beech used for the lighter color. The darker timber is Australian Cedar.The Beech was originally 25 years seasoned when my late father found it hidden at Wallis Bros Timber(now Cresent Timber) at Annandale in Sydney - we were living in Newcastle at the time. It was machined into 2" x 1/4" strips and dad laid it, over plywood, diagonally, both sides to the centre-line on our Star class yacht. The left-overs has made tillers and they have all been bent cold/dry to a form. The Aussie red cedar has come been recycled from various demolition jobs. All of the tillers had been made to hinge upwards
Attachments
tiller 3.jpg
tiller 3.jpg (82.79 KiB) Viewed 2572 times
tiller 1.jpg
Mark
Posts: 246
Joined: Sun Jun 19, 2011 5:08 pm
Location: NSW

Re: Laminated Tiller construction

Post by Mark »

Although I am no longer an I563 owner, some here will remember I posted avidly in the past when I was the owner of Aminee. As a keel boat owner now I still find it of great interest to keep up with the I563 community, as everyone says they are terrific boats and I still miss mine.
I am now sailing an Adams Tasman 26, fully restored and in great shape.

I was taken by the posting here on laminated tillers and a reference somewhere in the discussion about a US site Anytiller, which makes these bespoke. I have tried in vain to find an Aussie wooden tiller maker but alas nothing. So I have contacted Jonathan at Anytiller and after much discussion I have ordered one for my new boat. Cost is very decent, under US$200, but the killer and hence prolonged discussions between us, is the shipping of the finished product to AU. Its going to cost about the same as the tiller, whichever way we have tried to find a better shipping method nothing much changes. He says he would probably be able to do a deal on shipping if he was fulfilling lots of orders to AU.

I just thought I would post this info here for anyone interested. His final products are very fine indeed.

Best

Mark Bradley
Batemans Bay.
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