So its 5 days before my Magic makes its first trip to the Bdub and I needed a yoke. The thing I fell in love with on this boat was the contrast of the dark walnut against the white ash, just love it, so I knew I wanted to do a walnut yoke if possible.

I had picked up a walnut blank from Northwest back when I got the boat, it was for a tandem but I figured it would be a suitable donor for this project. When I finally got around to looking at it closer I realized the bolt for the spring creek clamps were going to fall right in the narrowest part of the yoke, putting a 3/8” slot in its weakest area didn’t seem like a great idea to me. So I ended up spending this afternoon/evening transforming this simple chunk of wood into something pretty darn nice.










First step was to cut this beast down to size, ended up taking 10” total off.













I then turned to the computer and laid out the solution in CAD.













I made a drill template to locate some 1/8” dowel pins on the mill, considering there isn’t a square surface on this thing I had to eyeball it.












Once on the mill and located I clamped it down and crossed that point of no turning back. The CNC did a beautiful job of cutting the slots out. I then turned the yoke over to do the other sides.


















I then started the aluminum I beam inserts. These are being milled out of 6061-T6 aircraft aluminum alloy.











The slots and the inserts were done to very precise tolerances, less than .001”. I allowed for about .003” play in the assembly so it would go together nice and smooth.











Once the inserts were off the mill I tapped each side with 10-32 screws, the tapped half is slightly thicker to allow for more thread engagement, the other side receives the flat head socket cap screws, in addition the parts were completely deburred and glass bead blasted.











Its really nice because the slots the screw go are aluminum all the way through, very nice looking and will keep the threads from digging into the wood. The end result is a .8” I beam that really reinforces the weak area of the yoke. I have a small anodizing setup in the shop and will finish the parts in a satin black after the trip.










If you look close you will notice there is a tiny edge where the surface of the aluminum insert is below the surface of the wood, that wasn't a mistake, I had set the mill to go .010" below as the woods surface wasn't perfectly flat, I'll drop the wood surface down to the aluminum so its perfectly smooth, near seamless.

Pretty happy with the result, its sort of an idea I’ve had for awhile, the fusion of beautiful natural woods and high tech materials like CNC machined aluminum and carbon fiber. I will likely continue this theme with a custom foot brace and adjustable drop setup. Anyways just wanted to show some pics in case someone found it interesting, its kind of funny, a few years ago I was doing stuff like this for 700hp drag cars and 200mph sport bikes, now I’m making custom parts for my canoe :)

Every adventureous soul should have a guy like Ragged living next door.

Sweet job young man!

Great! Now can you do sixty more?

Very good solution to what happens to those wood to bolt slots. They get pretty rough looking after a few years of tightening and sliding of the clamp.

That is off the hook!

quote JoeWilderness: "Every adventureous soul should have a guy like Ragged living next door.


Sweet job young man!"

Thanks Kim!

quote PortageKeeper: "Great! Now can you do sixty more?"

I'll do just about anything for the right price : )

quote OldScout48: "Very good solution to what happens to those wood to bolt slots. They get pretty rough looking after a few years of tightening and sliding of the clamp."

Yeah, the Bell one that was on the rental I had was looking really cored out

quote Merganser: "That is off the hook!"

Well your field repair of the Bell yoke was my driving inspiration


I’m already planning some modifications, I wish I would have carried it just a bit further into the bulk of the yoke, I’d like to get the plates all the way to the pads, not some much the I beam, the yoke is plenty thick and strong, but the top and bottom plates fastened together would almost certainly prevent any catastrophic failures. Something like what’s shown below.





I should be able to modify this yoke to fit the new aluminum parts.


>

Very nice! Remember, my birthday is in a little over a week;)

I seriously would buy one of those. Shoot me a price.

quote PJ: "I seriously would buy one of those. Shoot me a price."

Here too

Nice work Ragged!

do you have the ACAD drawing of this part? I've been considering making one of these yokes. I have solidworks & we have several CNC's to run this on.
Thanks!
John

all i can say, is you're amazing!

I'd buy one as well! Just got a BG Magic w/ wood gunwales, and the yoke it came with is alright though not that slick...

PJ, Plums, MNDan, I don’t think it’s ready for that step yet, but when that time comes (it’s on the horizon) I’ll be sure to let you guys know : )



Plexmidwest – The yoke was purchased, so I don’t have CAD for it, the only CAD I have is for my inserts


I tested the beast out a bit last night, seems good to go, it will look better once the aluminum is finished in black, but that will come in time.

I just got a yoke from Kanoes, but let me know if you decide to sell a few. Very nice work.

Geeze, you do really nice work!