| The rudder and drive line on the Amsterdam is held in position by some wooden supports. The pieces require some shaping to get a good fit on the plastic hull. This piece is the rudder shaft support that is attached to the hull behind the keel. It required the leading edge to be sanded so that it followed the slope of the hull to the keel. |  |
| Here you can see the slope that was sanded into the piece. A lot of trial fitting went into getting a good shape. |  |
| Here you can see how the front tangs are slightly rounded to match the hull. Again, a little time spent assures good results (even by someone as unskilled as me!) |  |
| Once the the rudder shaft support is glued on, the driveline support in a similar fashion. I found that the support came up a little short of the keel but not enough to worry about. After the drive line support is glued on, an additional rudder shaft support is glued on and rounded to match the other support. A good file makes short work of this. |  |
| A hole is drilled in the center of the rudder shaft support. Surprisingly, I managed to drill it somewhat straight as there are no guides for positioning the hole. It was slightly off however so I opened up the hole by .5 mm so that the rudder shaft tube would wiggle a bit so I could position it perfectly and glue it in place in a later step. |  |
| The lower rudder bracket requires some filing to provide clearance for the rudder. Once it is clear, it is temporarily held in place and a line is drawn on the drive line support where the lower bracket ends. |  |
| Measuring down 4mm from the line, I drilled an 8 mm hole. After a little bit of work with a round file to increase the clearance, the drive shaft tube was slid in place so that 5mm of it stuck out past the wooden support. It was glued into place making sure that the glue formed a water tight seal between the tube and the hull. |  |
| Press in bushings are inserted into the drive shaft tube. I had to file the tube end slightly to get them to slide in. |  |
| A plastic propeller with a brass insert is supplied with the kit. At first I thought I would have to cut some of the threads on the drive shaft because the prop did not seem to want to thread in all the way. I discovered that it will fit but requires a decent amount of force to get it to go on all the way. The thread of the shaft extends past the brass insert in the prop and actually cuts threads into the plastic past the insert. I had to hold the shaft in a vise while screwing the prop on. |  |
| The shaft is held in place on the inside with a brass collar. It probably would be a good idea to replace the screw with a set screw so that it is better balanced. |  |
| I added a brass washer between the prop lock nut and the drive shaft tube to act as a thrust washer. |  |
| The rudder shaft tube is glued next. A brass washer and a rubber o-ring is placed on the rudder shaft before it is inserted into the rudder shaft tube. Be sure to get a good water tight seal between the tube and the hull. Line up the rudder by temporarily clamping the lower bracket in place and aligning the rudder with the center of the bracket. After the rudder shaft tube is glued, glue the lower bracket in place. |  |
| The rudder shaft is held in place by a collar that is inserted into a control arm. I placed an extra o-ring and brass washer on the rudder shaft under this collar to help seal out water. |  |
| Since I am using an oversized motor, it was necessary to trim the motor deck so that the motor will sit lower. I added some reinforcing beams to the bottom of the motor deck and some extra thickening material to help hold the wood screws that will secure the motor strap. |  |
| I made a motor strap out of a piece of brass. I put some thin rubber under the strap to help reduce vibration. |  |
| I am using a Graupner coupler to connect the 1/4 inch motor shaft to the much smaller drive shaft. I had to make a shim out of some brass tubing so that the coupler would fit the drive shaft. |  |
| The motor plate is then glued into position. The motor strap tends to pull up the edge of the motor plate so I added some clamps to keep it in place while the glue dried. |  |
| The finished drive line worked out well. The alignment is straight and is fairly easy to service if needed. |  |
| The rudder servo is installed next. The servo is a Futaba 3003, nothing special here. I decided to mount the servo a bit more forward in the hull then what was shown on the blueprints so that I could get to it easier in case I ever have to remove it. I added some scrap wood under the mounting points of the servo to give the wood screws something to bite into. |  |
| With the servo plate glued in place, the rear most mounting screws are still accessible from the opening. I made some linkage out of a couple of clevises and a rod that is threaded on one end that were purchased from Hobby-Lobby. I soldered on of the clevises on, the other is adjustable. The rod is quite stiff so the extra length of the rod does not cause undue flex. The servo plate will also hold the receiver. |  |
| More later... | |
