Planning to Glass my repaired Tiller arm. Should I oil it first?

[GrowleyMonster]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Are new tillers really that expensive?

No, if you find one that fits. You would think that they would be standardized, right? But apparently they are not. Got a Catalina 27? Buy one at Worst Marine. Got a Halman 20? Too bad. I broke the tiller on GF's little Halman sloop moving it from Mandeville to New Orleans. Ended up making two new ones. (two tillers, that is.) Easy enough. Get a piece of oak about 2" x 8" x 48", profile it from the old one or its pieces, cut with jigsaw, thin and taper the rudderpost end until it fits, then thin, shape and smooth the rest with a Stanley Sure-Form and lots of hand sanding. Sun dry for a couple of weeks, apply gel coat. Twice, if it will still fit. Drill pin holes or whatever. Done. Half day's work. We used pine cause we didn't have a source for nice white oak and we wanted to go sailing next morning. Mahogany looks nice. So does curly maple. Teak? You tell me.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by GrowleyMonster

No, if you find one that fits. You would think that they would be standardized, right? But apparently they are not. Got a Catalina 27? Buy one at Worst Marine. Got a Halman 20? Too bad. I broke the tiller on GF's little Halman sloop moving it from Mandeville to New Orleans. Ended up making two new ones. (two tillers, that is.) Easy enough. Get a piece of oak about 2" x 8" x 48", profile it from the old one or its pieces, cut with jigsaw, thin and taper the rudderpost end until it fits, then thin, shape and smooth the rest with a Stanley Sure-Form and lots of hand sanding. Sun dry for a couple of weeks, apply gel coat. Twice, if it will still fit. Drill pin holes or whatever. Done. Half day's work. We used pine cause we didn't have a source for nice white oak and we wanted to go sailing next morning. Mahogany looks nice. So does curly maple. Teak? You tell me.

I made one for one of my boats once. It wasn't that hard. I used 1/4" thick strips, alternating Mahog with Oak, glued them together and used a sheet of plywood with pegs in it to shape the strips adding them one at a time with glue on them. Let it set up, band sawed the rough edges, sanded and done!
Seeing various styles from $130 on up on line. Unless there's a deck obstruction, shapee is not too critical.
One thing I learned is the shape isn't that important really, sure it needs some general semblance so the end ends up where you want it.

[Ken Z]

Do not oil prior to epoxy, it won t stick good. I built 2, both for pearsons out of clear mahogany, one piece and put 4-5 coats of varnish, both are in great shape in fl. one has a tiller cover, homemade, something I recommend.I don t know why the older boats chose laminate tillers in lieu of solid wood, money... made 1 of white oak that held up weoo with varnish. you need to protect the epoxy from uv rays.

[Compass790]

We did something similar when our teak unlaminated tiller broke. Just epoxied up break line & wrapped kevlar fishing braid around split & epoxied over that ( at sea at the time).
When we got back wrapped it in glass tape & more epoxy then painted. It's not that pretty but 5 years service so far.
No oil if you want epoxy to stick as others have said

[Vancefish]

My Tillar is 56" long. Which seems to be a difficult length to find pre-made.

So although I DO have lots of Walnut, I opted to just re-glue this one, and customize it.

Honestly my Custom Walnut additions have been 80% of my work so far. Glassing is simply to avoid needing to do this again any time soon.

As I have not actually sailed this boat yet. My thought is to see how difficult the Tiller pull actually is. I'm told it's very light on my boat. However until I actually know, I don't really know!

Once I DO know.. I may opt for a significantly shorter Tiller Arm.

[Boatyarddog]

Originally Posted by Vancefish

I've argued with myself on the overlap or precision cut. Currently the piece I cut is significantly larger then I need. One edge is factory straight.

The precision cut ending on an underside edge/corner seems to make the most sense to me. A little extra time and care, saves a lot of sanding later.

However the Extention Standoff, and Tiller pilot "block", as well as the Nub on the end of the handle (which I also added) will all need slight overlap pieces to tie it all in. So overlap may be the way to go.

I've hunted for any videos of people doing this. There don't seem to be any.

Think about using fiberglass cloth, instead of mat, it follows contours well,
And can be purchased in a continuous lenght, just overlap your edges, wetting it out as you go.
Cheers,
SV Cloud Duster

[mawtty]

Teak is an oily wood and has been used in boat building because of its lasting properties in the tropical conditions.
It does not take well to glue. Much better used in solid pieces.

[Vancefish]

Yea.. this Tiller arm is not Teak!

I'm sanding, oiling and resealing what little teak my boat came with. It is a VERY different wood then this Tiller..

Because Teak is so god awful expensive. I might use a solid piece of Black Walnut. Assuming I could find a long enough piece.

Most of Northern California's Walnuts are English Walnut trees, grafted to Black Walnut Stumps and root systems.

So I've been watching for some of the longer stump Orchards to get ripped out and burned (Yep.. they burn it all).. I plan to attain a few stumps if I can.

There are a few very old ones on the property. Dried and cracked. Those are where my current smaller pieces are coming from now.

The English Walnut Trees are a dime an acre. Many won't give it away because they might get sued.

[Compass790]

Originally Posted by Vancefish

Yea.. this Tiller arm is not Teak!

I'm sanding, oiling and resealing what little teak my boat came with. It is a VERY different wood then this Tiller..

Because Teak is so god awful expensive. I might use a solid piece of Black Walnut. Assuming I could find a long enough piece.

Most of Northern California's Walnuts are English Walnut trees, grafted to Black Walnut Stumps and root systems.

So I've been watching for some of the longer stump Orchards to get ripped out and burned (Yep.. they burn it all).. I plan to attain a few stumps if I can.

There are a few very old ones on the property. Dried and cracked. Those are where my current smaller pieces are coming from now.

The English Walnut Trees are a dime an acre. Many won't give it away because they might get sued.

Laminated wood is waay stronger than solid pieces of the same timber if it can be glued successfully just as a solid piece would be much stronger wrapped in glassfibre than bare.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Compass790

Laminated wood is waay stronger than solid pieces of the same timber if it can be glued successfully just as a solid piece would be much stronger wrapped in glassfibre than bare.

Indeed. For a walnut tiller I would cut it horizontally fore to aft and glue it back together with a 1/4” strip of hard maple or other contrasting hardwood in between

[Spot]

I wonder if a piece of fiberglass sleeving would do the trick on most tillers?

https://www.sollercomposites.com/FiberglassSleeves.html

[Compass790]

Originally Posted by Spot

I wonder if a piece of fiberglass sleeving would do the trick on most tillers?

https://www.sollercomposites.com/FiberglassSleeves.html

Those sleeves look like a good idea to me. A brother made a tiller out of an FRP axe handle but it depends on what you require for appearances sake I guess.
I've certainly learn't my lesson about solid wood teak tillers but our boat is particularly hard-mouthed on a broach reach. ( should modify rudder probably) Can see why most wood tillers are laminated now.

[Matt Johnson]

Originally Posted by Spot

I wonder if a piece of fiberglass sleeving would do the trick on most tillers?

https://www.sollercomposites.com/FiberglassSleeves.html

I made mine with a 2-1/2" fiberglass tube with a second 2" tube that pulls out to go from 36"-50" length... both of these were 1/4" thick tubes. The base is made of 1" pieces of solid glass that I shaped to fit the round stock, epoxy glued , and then wrapped in glass.

Here it is flipped in the upright position.



Matt

[Vancefish]

Originally Posted by funjohnson

I made mine with a 2-1/2" fiberglass tube with a second 2" tube that pulls out to go from 36"-50" length... both of these were 1/4" thick tubes. The base is made of 1" pieces of solid glass that I shaped to fit the round stock, epoxy glued , and then wrapped in glass.

Here it is flipped in the upright position.

Attachment 191745

Matt

Nice!

[Vancefish]

Do any of you happen to have one of these Spinlock Tiller extentions, the 1200 size??

I'm hunting for the dimensions of the Tiller mounting piece. Not the U-joint itself, but the part you install in the Tiller arm itself.

I've looked at many sites. Just not finding that bit of data.

http://www.apsltd.com/ea-1200ds-asym...BoC4QEQAvD_BwE