Jeff Porteous's Repair Yard

[jefftytoo]

Re: Jeff Porteous's Repair Yard

Still working on Blueback, but meantime, I've been at Nautilus too. Here are a few recent shots.

This series of photos concern the installation of real screens in place of the solid ones molded into the hull. You may know of the three screened flood ports (or vents?) in question: two rectangular ones far aft along each side of the keel, plus an oval-shaped one below the starboard side-keel forward of the salon windows. I figured, why should I settle molded-in ones when I could install real screens instead? All have turned into a time-consuming fiasco, since grinding accurate holes out from the inside inevitably caused damage requiring frame repair/replacement via scratch-built and shaped styrene parts. But the final result has been worth the hassle: all will eventually look great when painted. I'm particularly proud of the white piece I fashioned to fix the damaged oval. Check it out.








Finally, here are shots of carbon fiber rods installed in the skinny parts of the side keels to reinforce them. This was Paul Crozier's excellent idea. Actually, I'd done this some time ago, but only just now filled the channels with epoxy for permanency and flexibility.


Next I need to putty these areas over and sand them smooth. Soon.

More to come.

JeffP

[pirate]

Re: Jeff Porteous's Repair Yard

That's cool Jeffty. Keep up the good work.

Will we see you in Carmel this year? It's been 2 since you've been, so it's time again to make it.

Pete

[jefftytoo]

Re: Jeff Porteous's Repair Yard

You're right, Pete. It IS time. But I'm afraid it's not going to happen this year. Lack of available vacation days and admitted financial realities are seeing to that this time around. It sure is nice to be missed, though! My full intent is to make it NEXT year, however. And that means wherever the event is held, Carmel or elsewhere. See you then?

JeffP

[jefftytoo]

Re: Jeff Porteous's Repair Yard

Though she may not have quite reclaimed her former cosmetic glory, I'm finally done fooling around with Blueback. She's now as refit as she's gonna be, barring a needed quick re-trimming job in a week or two. Then it's off to a run with Steve Neill in his neck of the woods. Meanwhile, back to exclusive work on my Custom Replicas Nautilus. (Here are more Blueback before and after shots.)

Jeff

[boomerfunker]

Re: Jeff Porteous's Repair Yard

What a scummy job.

Looks great Jeffrey!

[jefftytoo]

Re: Jeff Porteous's Repair Yard

Okay, I'm way overdue to update this thread. I'll do so now and even attempt to be brief. (For me!)

Some of you know I've temporarily put aside my ongoing Nautilus work to once again pay attention to my 52" Teskey Seaview. This is because I've hired consummate R/C sub pro Steve Neill to handle the major hull assembly and mechanical portions of the build for me. And that paint job, of course! But he and I have agreed that all of the prepping and scale stuff and detailing would be left up to me, so my to-do list is a mile long (and getting longer) before the day of The Big Handoff. This works out fine in that cosmetic stuff is the work I can generally handle, while the engineering has always left me baffled. So, it's a good division of labor. But it means I'll be busy for weeks with stuff like deck scribing, missile hatches, limber holes, deadlights, pumpjet intakes, hull joint work, pressure hull cutting, engine nacelle reaming, mini-sub and bow access hatches (to allow the Observation Room to be removable), general grinding/puttying/sanding, parts manufacturing (specifically, light lenses for the tail fins—of which, more below), de-burring and cleaning of all resin and white metal parts, and most importantly, the separate watertight build of a scale eight-window Observation Room—a fully detailed model all by itself. Whew.

Anyway, it's truly great news that Steve's onboard to eventually help out. But the other "big" news is that Big Dave Welch is building one of his signature RCAB cylinders for me in a large, twin-motor design specifically for my Teskey hull...and this effort is already well underway. All of this means I should actually—finally—have an impressive new boat to run at next year's events. And I'm very excited about that!

I've already begun work on many of the tasks listed above. But my biggest success so far has been the creation of two bullet fairing-shaped "Cadillac" fin light lenses. The ones received as part of an elaborate upgrade kit from Mr. Merriman some years back were the wrong size and shape, so I've taken it upon myself to "turn" my own set from acrylic rod using my Makita drill and a cordless Dremel. There were the usual missteps and setbacks and redo's for an endeavor of this nature, but all the effort was eventually worth it, as evidenced by the photos below. Now, on to the rest of the list!

Below are Merriman's caddy fin light lenses for Seaview. Beautiful indeed, but not right for my purposes.


And here's one of Teskey's unfinished Seaview fins with its original fairing sliced off to make way for the forthcoming light lens.


Below's one of my own light lenses, still in progress. Note the quite-different size and shape from Mr. Merriman's.


One of my finished lenses, illuminated by a low-intensity incandescent "wheat" bulb, just to see how it'll look. The finished model will get high-intensity white LEDs, of course.


Finally, the money shot][/url]

Till next time...

From The Nelson Institute of Marine Research,
Jeff

[greenman407]

Re: Jeff Porteous's Repair Yard

Jeffy, Ive just now caught on to this thread about your Seaview. I would love to see more. Especially the cyl. and how you integrate it into the hull. Ricks Seaview hulls are great. I just dont understand why there are not more of them out there. You probably dont need any advice but if your interested you can take a look at my build intitled Rick Teskey Seaview on the builders thread portion of the Subcommittee. Hope to see lots of pictures posted on this thread.

[jefftytoo]

Re: Jeff Porteous's Repair Yard

Greenman407,

Thanks for the compliments and the interest! Lately there have been some setbacks in my Seaview build, and I've had to be away from it a lot too. But I'll eventually get more pix posted, including some of Big Dave's special cylinder -- especially once the project has transferred to Steve Neill's capable hands for completion. I'm sure it'll be after the holidays before things really start moving again though. Anyway, thanks again for checking it out!

Best,
Jeff

[thor]

Re: Jeff Porteous's Repair Yard

Jeff,

I will be working up the CAD for your vents. Like you I have had a lot of distractions from modelling lately. I hope to have them in your hands by years end if the weather holds so I can CNC Machine them up for you.

Matt

[jefftytoo]

Re: Jeff Porteous's Repair Yard

Many thanks, Matt! I knew you hadn't forgotten about me; I just figured you to be as busy as I've been lately.

I have finally been back at work on Seaview lately, but progress has been slow. Just recently I (reasonably successfully) repaired some damage I'd stupidly caused to her bow windows. Have also been working on trying to hide aft hull seams -- a messy business that has not been going well. Likewise with drilling out deadlights on her sail; fouled that up pretty well too, and am now in repair mode. This boat is being obstinate, but I'm determined to overcome!

Jeff

[jefftytoo]

Re: Jeff Porteous's Repair Yard

Okay, time for a quick Seaview update and a few posted pix. Below, a closeup of finished bow window repair. Not perfect, but not half bad either.


Now a couple of shots of ongoing aft end seam-filling work. Last weekend's toil didn't "take" so today I stripped it all off and tried again. Lots more to go yet in this department. Am using Z-Poxy with microballoons.



Now, about those deadlights... I've decided to actually drill, file and sand out the spaces so "real" windows can be installed. (Ha—even the Great Merriman didn't try this with his Seaview build. He just painted 'em over!) Turns out the resin was difficult to work with, and my window cavities wound up too rough and irregularly outlined to simply "glass over" with clear window cement or epoxy. Solution][/url]

[greenman407]

Re: Jeff Porteous's Repair Yard

Jeff, you are da man. I just need to send you my sail and let you give it the treatment.

[jefftytoo]

Re: Jeff Porteous's Repair Yard

Don't you dare! But many thanks for the vote of confidence, Greenman! Can't wait to finish them and post pix of the final result.

SO much more left on this build before turning it over to Steve...

Best,
Jeff

[greenman407]

Re: Jeff Porteous's Repair Yard

Itll be interesting to see the cyl. that Big Dave is going to come up with. I dont know if the available room is going to give enough room for a large enough bladder to lift this thing to a reasonable waterline. Also I will be curious to see the drives and how you guys engineer it. You have my full attention.

[jefftytoo]

Re: Jeff Porteous's Repair Yard

Greenman407,

Thanks again for the interest, buddy. The cylinder is complete and already in Steve Neill's hands -- and I haven't even seen it yet!

Steve got his recent DeBoer Seaview build (see the two most recent SCR's) to a reasonable freeboard with a similarly sized OTW tube, so I'm not worried. Big Dave has actually created an extra-long tube for us by request; not for additional ballast tank volume, but to allow room for the added electronics (lighting system and sound effects). Drivewise, we're using Merriman's pumpjet stuff -- I've already reamed out the engine nacelles to get them to fit.

Like I said, there's a longgggg way to go...

Jeff