The Sundowner Kayak Rudder

Starting with the Rudder.
I used a belt sander and sanded down the edges all the way around just below where the water line would be and the backside just above the curve. On the cutting edge you want to hold the rudder up 1/8" and hone both sides like a knife but not sharp, about 1/16" from being knife sharp.
Don't try to sand anything on the back side going up above the curve yet. If you don't have a belt sander, a metal file works great, or a jitterbug sander if you have one.

This is the outer edge of the spindle spool. Sand these to same size. Remember to put bolt in them and clamp it down good so it doesn't move around. Don't sand too much you want it 3/8" or more larger than the inner spool of your rudder.

After sanding the inner spool into a circular shape make sure you still have at least 3/8" left on the outer spool. You need the 3/8" because you need this room for later when you put in the rope guides.

Now take and mark the line on the rudder where the outer spool should sit. Now you want to sand this area where you have marked it. You want to sand both sides about 1/32". This makes your spool smaller so when you put your outer housing on it will float freely and not bind. You want to make sure you sand all the way to the point you marked. I moved the belt sander back and forth on both sides with 80 grit sand paper for approximately 30 seconds. Resand this area again with 120 sand paper.

Now remark your lines.

Get everything set to glue the outer two spindles onto the rudder. I'm using a 5 min. epoxy, so you have to have everything set up so you can move fast. Smear the glue all over just inside your marked line on the rudder. Place your outer spindels on both sides, and run your bolt through. The bolt will help hold it in place until you get it clamped. Try not to get any glue on the bolt, you can remove it after you have it clamped. Clamp down tight. If you haven't used spoxy glues before, you might want to glue and clamp one side first and let dry then do the other side. The glue seems to set up faster on plexiglass.

Spindle housing. Put bolt through these pieces and clamp together and sand both to the same size.
The Spacers for the spindle housing and rudder rest. The two spacers are going to become a rest for your rudder to lie on when in the up position. Sand these to the same size.

The glue is dry now. Sand rough edges on the outer spindle and smooth up at this point. For the next step you will need these pieces.

Check that the spacer for the spindle housing and the rudder fits snug to rest upon....See how snug it looks.

First, sand all pieces lightly with 120 grit sandpaper. Get everything laid out like in the picture, mark spacer on spindle housing so you know where to put the glue. Stay within your lines. We don't want to glue the wrong side so make sure they are laid out correctly. Now glue and clamp these pieces together. When you clamp these off, clamp the ends first then the middle to keep them from sliding around.

Bolt one side of the spindle housing and rudder together. Square them up. Now mark a line where the rudder and spindle housing is square. This is where the rudder is going to sit flush in a down position.

This is your pulley rope guide and rudder spacer (the long piece). You want to make sure the rudder spacer is square on the bottom and back side with the line you just marked on the spindle housing. This will hold your rudder in a square position when down. Glue these pieces down and clamp until dry.

Lightly sand these pieces with 120 grit sandpaper. Now glue the other spindle housing to the other side and make sure the bottom is flush and rudder is in place. You want to make sure the space inbetween will be the same and you will not have a bow. The rudder also helps hold it square. Don't get any glue on the rudder.

After the glue is dry, sand the bottom of your spindle housing until is is sitting squarly. After that I rounded the front edges.

These are the next pieces you are going to have to make. This is a piece of angle aluminum 1" X 1" X 1/8". The top piece is the steering bar where the cables will mount. The bottom three pieces are for your mounting brackets. You notice the last piece on the right is 1/8" smaller than the middle piece. This will fit on the middle piece so they will form a 1" square when set together. The bolt is to tie your steering bracket and mounting bracket together with a wing nut on the end.

This is the rear of a Sun Velocity Kayak. This is the measurements I will need for my mounting bracket. Find the center of your bolts and measure the distance between them. On the Velocity it was 1 3/4".

This is what the two pieces should look like when put togeter. See how they fit and how far up they should be, and where you will need to drill your holes. From the top of the deck down to the mounting bracket you should leave from 1/8" to 1/4".

Determining the length of your steering bracket. The distance between where the cables come out on the kayak was about 12". So I made my bracket 9", which made it a little smaller,you want to keep the cables from rubbing into the kayak. The cables when attached to the bracket were inset 1/2" making the distance between 8".

Find the center of the mounting bracket. This one is 2 3/4" long. Draw lines showing middle for length and width. We determined that the center of the holes were 1 3/4" apart. Divide that in half. Measure from center out 7/8" on each side and mark it. Then drill your holes. (If your measurement was different adjust it.) Using the larger of the other pieces(measuring 1" X 1" on both sides) Sand the topside of the mounting bracket and the bottom side of the smaller piece with 120 sandpaper. This will help make the glue bond. Find the center of each piece again. Mark it going up on both sides of your pieces so when you glue them together they will be centered on the mounting bracket. Just before glueing I marked on both sides an angle to be cut off. These will have to be rounded. Glue pieces together. Remember we cut the top piece 1'8" shorter so it would fit inside and would fit flush with the top. Glue all pieces together and let dry.

Find the center of the top piece and drill hole all the way through and round all edges up. Glue a washer on top to strengthen the aluminum so it won't wear.

Determining where your steering bracket should sit on your spindle housing. The rudder should clear your mounting bracket when turning. Remember to leave enough room. On the Velocity I measured from the end 1 1/8" and placed a mark. Then measured 1" and made another mark. Set the depth on the table saw to 1/8" and cut this one inch section out. So I had a 1" section inset to a depth of 1/8". I then set the table saw to 5/16". Marked the inset at 7/8" and cut the remainder 1/8" to a depth of 5/16".

Cut a notch out on the front side. The width of my spindle housing is 1", so we want to cut a 1" space out here and only cutting down 5/8" leaving just a big enough lip to inset into the spindle housing. Find the center and drill hole for your bolt.Remove bolt and set steering bracket in place and see how it fits. Mark hole where bolt head should fit in spindle housing. Drill hole in spindle housing the same size as the bolt so it can inset too.

Measure in 1/2" and up 5/8" and cut a key hole about 1/4" up on the other angle for the cables to slip through. So that way I can adjust the foot peddles from the outside instead of trying to climb inside, for people of different sizes.

You can see how I cut it to inset the steering bracket and glued all the pieces together.

Now sand the top side of the bolt and all around to make sure the epoxy will bond. Glue the bolt in place on your steering bracket with the epoxy glue.

Back to the rudder. You can't see too much from this picture, but I drilled holes into a piece of plexiglass that was the same stock as my rudder. They are going to be used as eyelets to hold the rope that pulls the rudder up and down on the spindle. The drill bit I used was 3/8". When drilling this, remember not to drill fast or you'll melt the plastic. The stock is only 1/4" thick. The depth should be 1/4" to 3/8" or larger. The excess can be sanded off later.

The cut pieces should be 1/4" to 3/8" square.

In the spindle groove you will glue one at the top, where the rudder just starts to come flush with your spindle, and one at the bottom. Remember on the bottom one to leave enough room to pull the rope through and tie your knot.

The finishing touches. I've added a little epoxy glue where the rudder fits into the spindle housing and sanded it so that the rudder will fit snug and hold tight into the rear spindle housing.

The finished rudder, painted and ready for mounting on the Sun Velocity Kayak.

I didn't go into too much detail on the mounting and steering bracket, because these are some of the things you are going to have to figure out on your own kayak. Different brands will have different mountings.


More later on how to mount this on your kayak and add rudder cables.