Blog — August 1-5 , 2018

August 1-5 , 2018

Lewis’s shaft boring project is progressing steadily. A pilot hole has been drilled and now the boring bar is set up to cut progressively larger diameters at an oblique angle through the chock.

An electric drill drives the cutter as a brass bearing surface at each end (above) keeps the bar steady. One end of the bar has a fine pipe thread which keeps the cutter moving steadily through the threaded bearing at an even pace.

The final hole diameter (above) was reached after several passes.

The shaft log was then dry fitted in a final alignment check.

With the shaft log in place, the center of the rudder has to be found using the center of the stern post that carries the rudder and a centerline on the deck.

We used fishing line and plumb bobs to check the rudder position from the deck center.