Trailer Work and Tiller Progress

Getting the trailer to fit Gardens has been more of a struggle than it needs to be. After a few days of adjustments - that got the fit closer - I sought help on John Welsford's FB page. It didn't take long for several helpful responses to post. I'll continue with some of those ideas over the next few days.

In the meantime, I cut out a blank for the tiller. The short back-story is that three years ago my brother in law and I used his chainsaw (w/attachments) to mill an fallen ash tree into 4/4, 6/4 and 8/4 planks. Those planks have been drying in the barn since we milled them. I thought it would be great to use lumber off our property for something - might as well be the tiller - for Gardens. Sorting through the stack, I found a couple of likely candidates: 6/4 x 9" x 60". However, to avoid a check in one board and a troublesome knot, I could only get a 44" length for the tiller.

To make a template, I drew an outline on a piece of door-skin using a pattern of the rudder-head slot and a fairing batten. The pattern was 1/4" wider than the (intended) finished size.

After tracing the outline on the ash board, I cut it on the bandsaw to the oversized lines. The template was then cut to the intended size and used to mark the ash blank to the intended size. Another go around with the bandsaw and I have a decent looking blank for the tiller.

6/4 stock is too thick for the rudder-head slot, so the blank was milled to thickness with the planer. A few cycles of planing/fitting and the blank fits just fine. The 44" length is on the shorter end of what's on the drawing, so I may want a longer tiller than this. If that is the case, I know how to make another one.

Getting to this stage with the tiller turned out to be easier than I expected. Sanding, shaping and finishing will complete the tiller.

The trailer work continues...