Rig for drilling Oar Handles. This is the rig I put together to hold the oar handles so I could drill a 7/8 inch hole down the center a distance of 3 inches. The oars are to be used for the stair railing – it takes two oars; one up to the landing and another from the landing up. The short oar the was bought was too long for the three or four steps from the landing up AND the long oar was too short for the stairs up to the landing. So I cut both oars and will use the handle off the long oar to make the short one shorter and use the handle off the short oar to make the long one longer. Makes sense to me. Next problem: how do I make a joint in a 1½ diameter oar strong enough to work as a stair railing. The plan is to drill into the handle piece and then cut down the other piece to make a 3 inch shaft that will slide into the handle piece. With epoxy glue they should be strong enough.

Anyway, the first thing was drilling into the short pieces and this is the way I did it. This was the longer of the two pieces. After it was done, I took the rig apart and cut it down t support the shorter piece. That is pictured at the right.

25 Feb 04

The next part of the job was to make the other end of the oar fit into the hole bored in the handle. Again I had to put together a jig or tool of some kind to do the job. I do not own a lathe (yet) and besides it would take a special lathe to handle the longer oar.

This is what I came up with. The oar lays in a “V” cut into a 4X4 and my router sits on a plywood base plate that is fastened down to a box on the end of the 4X4. By adjusting the router into the oar handle and then rotating the oar as I pulled it out of the rig, I was able to cut a reasonably smooth necked down shaft that would slide into the hole in the handle end.

I glued them up, stained them dark mahogany and varnished them. After adding oar leathers (had to learn to sew a baseball stitch) they are ready to go up. (See Below)

25 April 04

Page Two. This is how it turned out. The long oar is on the left and the short oar is on the right, but that is pretty obvious isn't it.

This next picture is s close up of the upper bracket. It is a real Oarlock with the leather hand sewn onto the oar. I found an article in one of my WoodenBoat back issues that told me how to do it. The stitch is a baseball stitch.

May 2004