Well like most of you guys I guess, I have spent a good deal of time fiddling round to get the steering shaft spot on.
Today I bit the bullet and made an addition to my LLMini jig.



I mounted a socket made from 20mm shaft and a heavy washer, with a 7/16" hole drilled into it 25mm deep and then turned the shafting with a stub on the end to fit snuggly into it.



"sn" had flicked me some nylon bushes to try and they work a treat.
Before you ask, I'm still tracking down a part number from fallshaws for them.


I machined out a 130mm piece of 32NB heavy wall pipe to take them and also took some material off the outside to lighten up the 4mm wall pipe. They now have a 2.5mm wall thickness when finished.
Now after fish mouthing the short piece of 60.3mm pipe the steering head that takes the bushes can be welded in.
I have a cardboard template for this that when you trace around both end of the template (while it's wrapped round the pipe with rubber bands) it fits perfectly.
When it cooled after welding the bushes were tapped in and the setup can then slip over the socket and the shaft wriggled down into the socket and the front is ready to tack on.
After it's tacked up the shaft can be withdrawn 30mm or so, till it's clear of the stub and then lift the rear axle up and pull it backward to clear the plastic bush from the stub at the front.

The first one took about an hour and a half to set up (and make the addition to the jig) and the next two were aligned and welded up solidly in less than 10 minutes.


So if all goes well, I should have 2 new yachts for Lefroy at the end of the month.

This will also help/speed up the process with the 5 LLM's we will be building at the Ag College this coming term.