mustoskiff.com

I am thinking about bushing my rudder as described in Pimp my Skiff.

The instructions suggest drilling out with a 12mm bit but the bushes I have measure 11.5mm in dia which I would have thought would give a pretty sloppy fit.

I am also nervous about drilling acurately to maintain alignment with the pin. The whole think is too big to get under my pillar drill so I would have to do it with a hand drill which seems a bit dodgy to me.

Can anyone who has done this comment?

I would always go under and work your way up on the diameter.

I thought it looked like a tricky operation and got a friend who has en engineering firm to do it for me. From memory the bottom of the rudder stock is fairly straightforward as you can drill unimpeded from the outside. The top hole is harder as you have to drill from below, which creates an access problem - luckily he had a special 'drill round corners' attachment. In the end he did a brilliant job. Therefore I would recommend asking around and getting it done professionally.

managed to do it myself quite satisfactory. need a vice and a good quality drill. Since there is already a hole there, just need to try to follow the 'lead', not to force it to sides. And as Paul said, "go under and work your way up" if in doubt.

Further to what Dan is saying the other thing that crossed my mind is that the bush is much shorter than the top hole through the stock - so if I understand what you are saying correctly, you have not drilled the top hole clean through, you have just drilled it out to the required depth from the bottom?? That definitely doesn't sound like a home job!

Correct -mine is drilled to the required depth from underneath.

I have now fitted my rudder bushes.

I used a 29/64 inch drill which produced a big enough hole and gave a tighter fit than the 12mm recommended.

I also found that the "brim" of the top hat bush lifted the rudder so that the pintel wouldn't quite go through so I had grind of a little off the bottom of the top gudgeon.

On reflection I was worrying too much about aligning the top hole. As the casting is hollow and you are only going through a few mill' of metal it isn't such a big issue.

I am now wondering if at some time I may need to bush the rudder gantry. Has anyone needed to do this?

Yes - I bushed the gantry (sounds wrong), prior to that it was the most oversize of the holes. I was dreading it, but in the end it was straightforward. The job was done while it was still on the boat. In order that the gantry didn't bend and move as the drill pushed down on, I cut a piece of wood to fit snugly into the gap between the gantry and the lower gudgeon? then rested the transom on some padding on the floor. That way I could push down and everything stayed more or less where it should. I asked a friend to keep on an eye on the alignment of the drill, but as you are drilling through an existing hole it isn't that challenging. Then I gently persuaded the bush to go in- from underneath - so that the overall length of the pin would still be Ok. The final result was a tight fitting rudder with no 'jiggle'.

DanV193 wrote:... with no 'jiggle'.

oohh you don't want any jiggle when you ram your pin snuggly into the bushed hole ... somtimes a bit of lube helps ...

My rudder is like new, all the ware is in the gantry, no gain would be achieved by bushing my rudder, is it legal to bush the gantry? are a lot of boats like mine that the pin sticks in the rudder so all movement is on the bottom plate and gantry, I have always put waterproof grease on mine from the start.
Thanks
Chris

Yes, you can bush the gantry and stock

Was going to do this earlier but thought I would seek advice first. looking at the existing hole in the gantry it doesn't look like there is enough metal there to enlarge the hole to a 11.5mm or 12mm hole for the bush. Will this not dramatically weaken the gantry.

Am I also right in thinking then that you all only have bushes in the top and bottom of the stock and in the top gantry only. (3 bushes used?)


Popeye

I was thinking of bushing the ganty with a very thin bush or using hard as steel putty, mine has only a very slighty oval hole in it(ganty), you could drill it out to make it round and use a loose thin bush? or the bush would only be 1mm and a light iterference fit, what material would we be allowed to use?
What material would be best to use as a bush, i dislike plastic? most people I know only open the bonnet of the car once a year now, how many people can use a reamer now?
Chris

Class rules...

If it doesn't say you can, then you cannot.

In this case it's the supplied bushes or nothing please

paul manning wrote:Yes, you can bush the gantry and stock

So we can or can't bush the gantry Paul?