Posted on by Yrvind

FITTING BEARING IN RUDDER FITTING BY GRINDING

At present I am at work at the lower rudder fitting. There has been some welding on it. Welds tend to distort metall so also in this case. The Delrin or POM or Acetal bearing did now not fit. Best way would be to ream the hole. Reamers are expensive and I did not have one 29 mm that was required. As an alternative I grinded it down to size using emery tape wrapped around a stick. To help me I used my dear Blomqvist lathe. Now in general it is not proper to grind on a lathe, but Exlex is more important than the lathe. Also I very carefully vacumed the lathe after finished work.

Below photo and a video.

The lower rudder fitting with the Delrin bearing finally in place
The pintle inserted and it turns nice and smoutly. To the pintle will be welded 4×40 mm stainless steel plates 400 long to hold the rudder head. The bottom plate is 6 mm thick . The triangular 12 mm thick piece with two 13 mm holes is to protect the pintle. The holes is there so that me can insert a 10 mm Dynema rope if I need to lift the boat or drag it or handle it

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind