Day 16 Brute force and ignorance
The autopilot had a minor failure again last night. Everything was going well and then there was a strange sound so we pulled the ram out.
The Allen key we used had popped loose and the key way we had cut had worn with the constant back and forth movement of the ram.
This all happened at about 7pm so we decided to have some dinner and think things through (the last lasagna was calling).
We decided to go up two Allen key sizes so we would not have to mill the key way again and instead tapered the other end to fit into the roll pin hole.
After a couple of hours of dremel work I was ready to reassemble but it was now 10pm and Ron needed to get off the wheel so we traded up jobs and he worked on the reassembly of the ram from 10-12 as I drove. We found we had some clearance issues so he made some shim stock and decided that I would epoxy the unit together after my shift and let it cure overnight.
When I got to take a closer look we had removed too much material and there wasn’t enough of the Allen key in the key way to hold for very long. I decided I would take another path all together.
One thing I had been thinking about was what if we took a completely different approach to the fix and tossed the idea of the Allen key and key way out the window.
One of the benefits of hand steering is it gives you a lot of time to think. I came up with the idea of using the standard hardware to transfer the load from the motor to the linear drive as that is what it was designed to do.
I had a small piece of Delrin that I was able to machine to fit very well. I have a dremel with a plugs router kit which was perfect for milling the different steps into the Delrin. I was then able to take 4 #8 machine screws and through bolted the whole assembly and re-connect the role pin.
It took me about 3 hours in total and I worked through Jed’s entire shift but in the end we got it back in at around 3:30 and then got the sails set for a nice wing and wing sale straight for Sitka.
By the time I got to bed it was after 4 am and I had been up and working on the autopilot all night except for the two hours I hand steered.
I was pretty determined to get the autopilot back up and working and am glad I did.
We had a slightly better noon to noon run at 124 miles. The wind never really picked up as forecasted but hopefully it will hang around enough so that we can keep the sails up.
Well done on the machining Kolby and Ron…
Hey Kolby… I have a business idea for you. Autopilots !! Seems you’ve got it all figured out to build an indestructible model… The K-1000 !
😉