Rudder Construction

This afternoon Kyle and I made some rudders for Nassau. I decided to make nice looking airfoil shaped rudders out of brass. It turned out to be a lot easier than I expected. Its actually a fair bit easier to make the airfoil rudders than soldering up flat brass rudders. Here are the steps we took when making the rudders.

I made a template out of card-stock which was mirrored images of the rudder. The mirrored images are attached at the back of the rudder with an additional 3/16" of paper to allow for the bend. I then traced this pattern onto 1/64" thick brass sheeting and cut the pattern out.

I then gently bend the part around some 1/8" brass rod so that it forms an airfoil around the rod. I pack the entire airfoil with LocTite Epoxy putty, clamp it to shape and let the putty harden.

The paper is to help insure that the epoxy does not glue the part to the clamps or the bench. Once the epoxy putty hardens all that is left is to clean up the extra and polish the brass.

Here is the finished product. I probably should have taken more care to securely clamp the part but they still came out surprisingly well. The whole process takes less than an hour.