Plastic Fantastic

Working on some of the last parts of the boat: bushings.
Some time ago I bought a very old Unimat SL micro lathe, it works OK for plastics and small metal work.

Below: piece of Arnite (PETP) rod in lathe.
Step 2: outside diameter ready.

Step 3: inner hole bored. I tried to do this on the lathe first, but this didn't work (too slow: in stead of cutting I melted the bushing-to-be). In the drill press it was a piece of cacke. The two pieces of hardwood with triangle-formed cutouts keep the rod level (vertical). This works well, as long as you make sure the cutouts in the woodblocks are cut precise (no problem for me, because I'm a happy owner of a very precise festool table saw).

Below: finished bushing for the rudder. No, it's not as good looking as a professional bushing. Yes, it will work anyway. No, it's not worth to save money this way (unless you've got time to spare) but I just enjoy trying to fabricate parts myself.

Below: bushing for mast pivot ball, made out of Delrin rod. The router bit was very expensive for the (this) one time I will use it.
I've got plenty of delrin to spare, and my expensive router bit. If someone is interested: I can send some delrin rod with the hole routed in it for the costs + a few dollar for my invested time, and save you the trouble of buying the router bit. I also have a spare type 316 1" ball I can send with it.

Plans call for acetal washers for the folding system. I couldn't find ready made washers, so just drilled a hole in a piece of delrin rod and chopped washers off on the bandsaw.

This weekend I drove the boat to my home to pick up the mast (the mast was hanging in my garden) and tried to shoot some photo's back at the marina but instead by accident made a film. Still some people might be interested, so below is the clip.