Making a tiller

[sighmoon]

My tiller's become delaminated, and is generally looking rather tired, so I'd like to make a new one.

The rudder stock at cockpit floor level, and in order to have sufficient clearance, the tiller needs to rise to about 18 inches within about 18 inches horizontaly (i.e. cockpit benches are 18 inches deep, and the cockpit is 3 foot wide) . Would a tiller with one curve, joining the stock at about 45 degrees to the floor be significantly weaker than an S shaped tiller which joined the stock approximately horizontal?

Is a laminated tiller going to be much stronger than a non laminated one?

Would a laminated tiller be much more work to make than a solid one?

What sort of wood would work best? I was thinking teak.

Any other advice / considerations would be most welcome.

Thanks,
Simon

 

[NPMR]

My tiller was completely delaminated when I bought the boat - even with fibreglass repairs that had gone rotten.

I simply pulled all the laminates apart and reglued it, putting a couple of (birch) strips in where the wood was too rotten to re-use. Use clamps to hold it.

Then sanded and varnished, it looks really superb. Desperately easy job.

That was seven years ago and am now re-varnishing it for the third time but it still looks great.

Don't be put off by it simply looking tatty - wood buffs up beautifully with a bit of TLC.

 

[earlybird]

Hi Simon
For a tiller with much curvature, a laminated tiller will always be stronger than a solid one. I've made one, there's a fair amount of work, but the final result is very satisfying. I purchased teak from Howells, 0.25 x 2.25 inch to finish at 2 inches, a power plane is useful for this part of the job.. Glued with West epoxy against a former consisting of short blocks screwed to a baseboard. You can't have too many G clamps! My tiller has about 40 degree curve in 40 inches, mostly in the forward half. Myself, I wouldn't like to go much more than that. Your S shaped proposal sounds a bit severe to me. Go for it

 

[bazobeleza]

Taking a second mortgage out for the teak?

A laminated tiller will be much stronger than a solid tiller, and IMHO probably look much better.

With a laminated tiller you can choose thin pieces of timber that are fault free and cheaper than a solid piece, on my old boat I got offcuts from the timber yard in ash and mahog for nothing, it made a lovely tiller.

Probably more difficult to make than a conventional solid piece one, but have you priced up a piece of solid hardwood to do the job - frightening. also if its curved, cut from a single piece it will be very weak at points on the curve where the grain is cut.

You can mould shapes easily with thin strips, mine was with 6mm strips steamed in a short length of drain pipe with a kettle, crude but effective them shaped round block fastened to a polythene covered piece of 18 mm ply board. Glued with a water activated epoxy expanding adhesive you finally end up with a tiller curved to perfection with a nice candy striped effect, the ash gives a note of flexibility, the mahog resilience.

as for wether it arrives at the stock at right angles or not depends on a host of things, clearance required in the cockpit? how its fixed to the stock? are you re-using existing fittings?
but I would have thought a copy of the original shape might be best.

generally ash is easily available and flexible. cherry is similar in appearance, darkens gently with age and fairly flexible, chestnut similar to ash, all easily worked, For the dark stripes, any of the false mahogs will do except keruin which is awful to work, hard and brittle.

you stand a good chance if you go round to your local woodyard or joiners shop of scrounging enough of pieces of the above from their offcuts rack, they're notorious for keeping bits that 'might come in useful someday'

If you catch them at the right time,they will probably stand and chat and say things like 'use this rather than this, it steams better'

 

[sighmoon]

Thanks all!

 

[rob2]

For examples of what laminating can achieve: www.tonymackillican.co.uk

 

[Burnham_Bob]

don't give up on the delaminated one. Mine was literally coming apart. I took it off and dried it on the radiator. Then forcing it apart stuck as much two part epoxy in as i could in all the cracks. Then the tricky but was squeezing it tight. I used my Black and Decker workmate to close it, then slipped a clamp on to keep it shut, moved the tiller up, tightended the black and decker again, added another clamp etc. The clamps won't allow you enough pressure to close the gaps but a vice or a workmate will, and then the clamps will hold is shut. Epoxy oozed out the sides and i scraped it off before it dried. Then once it was all set solid, scraped and sanded back down to the bare wood. There are a few tell tale grey lines in the laminate but it all seems perfectly strong and now its varnished looks attractive. The end was crumbling so I built it back up with epoxy putty and shaped it, finally painting the end with a red spray car enamel to match the boat's overall red colour scheme.

Its a day's job rather than hours of steaming, sticking and cutting. Try repairing the old one first - but do dry it out properly. Its the black lines that show you where water is getting in.

 

[andrewbodenham]

Laminating is an easy concept, but not always so easy in practice. Given that the tiller is a safety-critical part of the boat you need to get it right. I suggest you do a few experiements first, and put the job out to a professional woodworker if you feel less than 100% conifident. Compared to some of the other costs of boat ownership a new tiller is not likely to be too painful.

The long-term success of a laminated part depends on getting all the mating surfaces in close contact with each other, and achieveing first-class glue joints. So the wood needs to be dry, flat and carefully finished. Moisture content should be compatible with the adhesive to be used. I'd avoid steaming to bend the laminates, as this raises the m/c of the wood and introduces dimensional change where you don't want it. Instead, make the laminates an appropriate thickness to take up the desired bend, and use a strong former and substantial cramps to ensure tight joints. A few hours spent reading up on the theory will be time well spent.

Regards choice of wood: teak is durable but can be difficult to glue reliably due to its oily nature. One of the tropical hardwoods (e.g. mahogany) would work well if you can square the eco-conscience circle - maybe look out for some reclaimed stock. Ash is often suggested for tillers, but is non-durable so needs to be well coated. A common failing of laminated parts is when the coating breaks down and allows moisture in. If two different species have been used (for stripey effect) then differential expansion can cause tiny dislocations along the glue lines at the surface, leading to a vicious spiral of further cracking and water ingress. Hence all the other posters with their delaminating tiller stories.
However, a well made laminated tiller in good condition will nearly always be stronger thana sawn-from-solid one if there is any appreciable curvature.

 

[Vamoose]

My tiller gave up the ghost last year (It was solid Oak) I decided to laminate up a new one . Teak would have cost a small fortune so a local timber merchant cut and planed strips of Sapele & Ash - 3 ft long 2.5 inches square cost £40.

Previous tips are good You need lots of clamps. Plus a solid wooden base covered in newspaper to create the shape I used West Epoxy to glue it and to finish it off . I think it looks pretty good But there again I am biased ! And it is incredibly strong

Practical Boat owner had a VG article on the subject some months ago.