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After it's tacked up the shaft can be withdrawn 30mm or so, till it's clear of the stub and then lift the rear axle up and pull it backward to clear the plastic bush from the stub at the front.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.

G'day Paul,
to get the steering shaft as close to 30 degrees as possible.
(mine is still only 27.8 degrees by my electronic angle finder http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Mini-Digital-Protractor-InClinometer-Angle-Gauge-Finder-/330555325495?pt=AU_HandTools&hash=item4cf6a1fc37
These little babies are brilliant and I use it constantly.)

With a 400mm wheel diameter, my maths don't add up for a slight 5mm trail in the wheel with a straight chassis. Am I doing something wrong.

In my mind the wheel is too large in diameter for the 30 degrees to intersect the contact point without lifting the front of the chassis.
I know the bushes being of a larger diameter, have made me have to raise it more. The spin off of this is, it seems to keep more of the splash/mud under the yacht rather than flicking up, due to the higher cross piece under the steering shaft.

The chassis next to "Code Red" has only 70mm of ground clearance, so a bigger swan neck. All my others clear 90mm.

Am I being too pedantic, about the 30 degrees??????

Hope this makes sense,
Chook

For what its worth; I've never used the 30 degree angle for my steering and it has worked great so far (so long as the steering shaft intersects or has slight trail, to the wheels contact point). I weld the 'headstem' straight onto the front of the 60mm chassis tube with no offset.

My 2 cents...

i have shed envy. sadface

I do like goood sheds....with lotsa fine tools

..but i do have a problem when i see dancing pumps in the background

old tip, never show your weaknesses.

Yeh I live in my play pen!!!
The wife loves it, as it gets me out from under her feet.



You won't believe me, but they are my sons "footwear".



This is one of the handiest things I've built. It has docking length stops for both saws and the cheap saw is left at 45 degrees. It saves heaps of time on repetitive cuts.



Chook

Cheeerist! What are they doing in your shed??? You gonna fit them up with a couple of Cummings 671 Turbo Diesels and and use them as Tug Boats?? Bloody things may even be a little large for my little boy and Gawd only knows he uses his for Ski Boats.
Ron

Hey can anyone tell me (Keep it nice) what is going on in this site?? where certain Key Word are being Dot Highlighted and used to redirect us to Commercial Pages??

www.surfcanyon.com/search?f=sl&q=footwear&partner=wtiffeub "Footwear" for one on this lot of Posts. I do not think it is right to be Hijacked like that.