On Dec 9, 7:41*am, "Lloyd E. Sponenburgh"
lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote:
Bruce In Bangkok fired this volley :

You could equally well cut a slot in the rudder blade to accept the
rudder stock which can be done easily with a cutting torch, a plasma
cutter or a 4 inch grinder. You will probably have to tack the upper
and lower rudder stock to a piece of angle or pipe to hold them in
alignment before you weld them to the blade, but you'd probably have
to do that anyway.

I'd envision the job as a hybrid of the two: *mill slots in the shaft
only about 1/4" deep. *Cut a matching slot in the rudder. *Slide the
two together (self-aligning), then weld.

LLoyd

Is your approach based on ease of allignment or strength issues? I
evision corrosion problems where the weld does not completely
penetrate the slot. Upon typing this It is no worse (void penetration
wise) than my original approach with slotted shafts.

With regards to some of the other suggestions: I envision problems
with my buddy (owner of the mill) and his wife with me vaporizing
gallons of sulfurized cutting oil in his garage. So I am leaning
towards no milling of the shafts at the moment.

Thanks again for all the responses.
I will post a pic or two in the dropbox upon completion.

Andy