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The wife and boy are both in bed sick as dogs and knocked out on cough syrup, (not my plan, but hey) so I've got a couple of minutes to share a little update.
I'd been getting a little overwhelmed by the apparently slow pace of progress despite having actually gotten a hell of a lot done on the guts of the thing. So I instituted a 'stem to stern' policy where, with few exceptions, I work on everything from the bow going aft, to full completion. There is still a strong emphasis on modularity, so components will still be able to be removed & adjusted with a minimum of difficulty.
Bow foam installation: DONE! Hardware-store-shelf solutions are my ideal approach. In order to anchor the two buoyancy foam sections, I installed two aluminum posts forward, with plastic barbed hose fittings arranged such that they hold the foam sections in place like two forks in two big slabs of steak. On the back end I've installed hinges that can flip up and hold the back ends with little plastic knurled knobs. They can be flipped down to remove the foam sections as necessary.
Are such large foam sections necessary? Likely not but the lead-acid batteries are heavy so I'm erring on the safe side. I'll be able to shave down the foam sections later, and in doing so will increase the ballast tank volume: Win-win!
Going aft from there are the copper 'steampunk' Propel tanks. They are basically done, only needing tubes hooked up to the compression fittings.
I started an exotic project for the Propel tanks where I hope to have a little glass level tube for viewing like on the old steam furnaces, so hopefully I'll be able to see what's in the tanks rather than guessing. This will be a miniature version of the steam furnace design but showing the liquid Propel instead of water. Will it work? I have no idea. I worry about the glass strength. But I passed a major milestone by completing the brass adapters for each end of the tube. It was a disgraceful, trailer-park milling job using a drill press. Thank god that's over and apologies to all the professional machinists reading this. Assembly of all that is next. Will apprise.
For all the amateur-level peeps out there; I've been creating custom shapes in plastic on a regular basis for this project, and it's become such a routine process as to hardly be worth mentioning now. But if you're at a loss as to how to cast simple objects then I'd be happy to help. This sub is such an unmeasureably complicated creature that I've resorted to making a shape I need in plasticene first and then casting it with 2-part craft store silicones and plastics. The big dogs (Dave!) use industrial chemistry like BJB Enterprises, with gallon volumes and measured plungers and other apparatuses, which is all great in a garage and large-scale fabrication but my chemicals usually dried up before I was able to use half of it. So there are smaller-scale, 'apartment-caliber' options out there which also work great, just fyi.
So that's it thus far. (I do hope these pics attach properly, first attempt at this.) There's still much to do.
I'd been getting a little overwhelmed by the apparently slow pace of progress despite having actually gotten a hell of a lot done on the guts of the thing. So I instituted a 'stem to stern' policy where, with few exceptions, I work on everything from the bow going aft, to full completion. There is still a strong emphasis on modularity, so components will still be able to be removed & adjusted with a minimum of difficulty.
Bow foam installation: DONE! Hardware-store-shelf solutions are my ideal approach. In order to anchor the two buoyancy foam sections, I installed two aluminum posts forward, with plastic barbed hose fittings arranged such that they hold the foam sections in place like two forks in two big slabs of steak. On the back end I've installed hinges that can flip up and hold the back ends with little plastic knurled knobs. They can be flipped down to remove the foam sections as necessary.
Are such large foam sections necessary? Likely not but the lead-acid batteries are heavy so I'm erring on the safe side. I'll be able to shave down the foam sections later, and in doing so will increase the ballast tank volume: Win-win!
Going aft from there are the copper 'steampunk' Propel tanks. They are basically done, only needing tubes hooked up to the compression fittings.
I started an exotic project for the Propel tanks where I hope to have a little glass level tube for viewing like on the old steam furnaces, so hopefully I'll be able to see what's in the tanks rather than guessing. This will be a miniature version of the steam furnace design but showing the liquid Propel instead of water. Will it work? I have no idea. I worry about the glass strength. But I passed a major milestone by completing the brass adapters for each end of the tube. It was a disgraceful, trailer-park milling job using a drill press. Thank god that's over and apologies to all the professional machinists reading this. Assembly of all that is next. Will apprise.
For all the amateur-level peeps out there; I've been creating custom shapes in plastic on a regular basis for this project, and it's become such a routine process as to hardly be worth mentioning now. But if you're at a loss as to how to cast simple objects then I'd be happy to help. This sub is such an unmeasureably complicated creature that I've resorted to making a shape I need in plasticene first and then casting it with 2-part craft store silicones and plastics. The big dogs (Dave!) use industrial chemistry like BJB Enterprises, with gallon volumes and measured plungers and other apparatuses, which is all great in a garage and large-scale fabrication but my chemicals usually dried up before I was able to use half of it. So there are smaller-scale, 'apartment-caliber' options out there which also work great, just fyi.
So that's it thus far. (I do hope these pics attach properly, first attempt at this.) There's still much to do.
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