Rudders, Steering

I will be using 3 Rudders to steer. This picture shows the placement of the lower rudder supports and a paint can of chain to weigh it down as the glue dries. I am using water proof glue for the wood connections, it is just more economical than epoxy resin.
I have glued the lower rails for the seat. The controls will be placed inside of this.
I cut 3 1X8 supports and drilled a guide hole into them to accept the 3/4 inch EMT tubing for the steering.
This is the steering setup, very basic, 2 plates welded on to a length of EMT, and a stick bolted between those plates.
At the back of the end of the EMT pipe I welded a 12 inch piece of flat bar, also notice that I have enclosing the pipe in a larger PVC pipe, this will allow me to run the steering under the thrust duct. The upper rails are also put in place these are 3/4 inch square.
A rear view

from view with the duct dry fitted
A rear view. The duct will be foamed in, the pictures will be in the thrust duct section.
I cut a couple of slots into the duct so that the supports for the horizontal stabilizer could be slid in. I calculated the length of the stabilizer to be 43 inches. And positioned the supports so that they would accommodate that space. The pipe is just there so that I could level the supports.

This picture shows the shape of the support.

The plans used 3/4 inch EMT strapped to the lower rudder supports. I did not like that Idea so I cut holes in the supports and slid in the EMT. The EMT is centered 7 inches away from the duct.
This picture shows what I did for the rudders and stabilizer, I cut a tongue and groove using 3/4 inch doweling and 1 inch wood strip. This will allow for smooth movement.
The doweling from the rudders slide into 3 inches of 3/4 EMT. The EMT needs to swivel to allow for the stabilizer to move. So they are attached with aluminum brackets with a 1/4 bolt in place to allow for the swivel.
This is what it looks like before I add the foam that forms the rudders.
This picture shows the back of the duct, I have covered it with a piece of ply and used 2 oz fiberglass to seal the seams.


Here you see the components that form the rudder. I will be gluing these components together then use a hot wire to rough cut the airfoil shape.
This is the fist rudder after epoxy, I wanted to make sure they were square so I weighted them down and boxed them in.
This is a rudder that has been cut with a wire, sanded, and any imperfections corrected with a light filler. All that is left is to epoxy the rudder bar connector to the bottom and fiberglass with 2 oz cloth
I have dry fitted the steering cable. I used a piece of 1X5 steel bar as mounting brackets for the pulleys. I could not find the size of pulley that were specified in the plans, so I will be using a smaller pulley and 1/8 cable

Here I have counter sunk 3/4 inch dowel into the deck to give the mounting brackets some strength.
This is the steering mount for the other side of the craft
One cable end is attached to a turnbuckle and the other the rear steering bar.
The other end is attached to the Rudder Bar. This completes the triangle steering cable system.

The Rudders are attached to the steering bar.

Here you see the cable and bungee cord that will control the horizontal stabilizer.
The Bungee connection. I will be beefing this up a little later.
This is how I attached the steering cable. One end is attached to the stabilizer by sandwiching the cable between to pieces of aluminum.
Top view
The other end of the cable runs through the cabin and connects to the steering stick.
In this picture I show the washer that I fabricated. It is made of the same plastic that the skid plate is made from. After these are greased there should be smooth movement.
The Stick was offset to allow for the steering tube. In order to get the 60 degree movement of the rudders I had to cut away the side of the seat. I will fix this up later.
This is the cabling that is seen from the front of the craft. I think this is a cleaner set up than the original plans.
Ok, We are jumping around a bit here, this is the horizontal stabilizer after it has been fiberglass with 2 oz cloth. I have taped it to a piece of sheet metal that has a strip of duct tape on it as a release mechanism.
Here is a better picture of the trailing edge of the rudder, the sheet metal with the duct tape on it. The goal here is to add a top sheet metal layer to sandwich the rudder in. Then add a mixture of epoxy and fiber to complete the trailing edge.
This is a picture of the trailing edge in the sheet metal. I will push a thick paste of epoxy and fiber into this crack. This will create a hard trailing edge.
This a picture of the sandwich setup for one of the rudders.
If you look closely you can see epoxy/fiber mix that I pushed into the seam with my fingers.
This is the horizontal stabilizer again, you will notice a nice clean trailing edge, very strong, very clean looking. In this picture I also put some epoxy with micro balloons over the entire rudder, this will remove any pin holes and provide a very smooth surface. My understanding is that if you have laid your glass correctly you will be left with the weave of the glass showing. The epoxy micro balloon mixture is not very strong but will do a nice job of filling this weave. I have been told that the Weber's crafts are done with bondo, but I feel this may be too heavy. This stuff sands out easily.