Where's the building!!!!!!

[tabledancer]

Thankyou for the kind words

Thankyou for the kind words It won`t see the water this year no more,to much damage,plus its to cold now,going to snow tonite.There will be a major refit.I think I might need to call the man,"Big Dave" I hope that all you guys have a nice Thanksgiving now you hear!
TD

[anonymous]

TD,

Man why did you leak?

TD,

Man why did you leak? Mind has never leaked. Let us know if we can help. It's still one of my favorite running boats.

I bet you might wish you were out here. It's been in the 80's most days. I don't think we will ever see much below 64 at the most.

Get her all fixed up now.

Steve

[tabledancer]

Steve,
It had at least a

Steve,
It had at least a glass of water inside the WTC,I stood it on end and the motor compt.was full of water.Don`t know where it came in,I just replaced ALL the seals and o-rings.May be the water pressure at 5 ft. was to much or the shock of hitting the bottom or something failed .The end caps are cracked down in the o-ring slots,maybe the o-rings that I had in there before did that as they were an RCH to big.Also the rudder bell crank broke and the linkage bent.I`m fearing to check the electronics,the only things that were working were the SES-3 subsafe system,1 motor,and the airpump when I fetched it up.There might be a problem with the battery too,as I`m running a LITHIUM-ION in the wet up forward and you know how touchy they are!
TD

[fx models]

Steve,
It had at least a

Steve,
It had at least a glass of water inside the WTC,I stood it on end and the motor compt.was full of water.Don`t know where it came in,I just replaced ALL the seals and o-rings.May be the water pressure at 5 ft. was to much or the shock of hitting the bottom or something failed .The end caps are cracked down in the o-ring slots,maybe the o-rings that I had in there before did that as they were an RCH to big.Also the rudder bell crank broke and the linkage bent.I`m fearing to check the electronics,the only things that were working were the SES-3 subsafe system,1 motor,and the airpump when I fetched it up.There might be a problem with the battery too,as I`m running a LITHIUM-ION in the wet up forward and you know how touchy they are!
TD

Regarding leakage... I have an answer for that which works very very well. I have had NO leakage. Here is what you can do] and allow the cylinder to breathe. Put a second one on the other end of the cylinder and you can open both, and gently blow clean CO2 into it from your lungs. Seal one or if you only have one, you can blow into the tube you do have and overpressure the hull slightly.

Leaking should be the least of your issues. If your cylinder is leaking then you have a crack somewhere or old O-rings, or dirt in the groove. Plus, O-rings SHOULD work better as you go deeper and approach the optimum design depth where the WTC was designed to be used.

That all said, the best bet is simply seal up the WTC.. If you need to get into it, a simple single edge razor blade is all you need. Slice the silicone off and you are in. I have been doing this for years and it works just fine.

Alternatives to that whole above tirade are to fill your entire WTC with light machine oil... then you can go to full ocean depth just like the big boys.. but it will be a one way trip since you will lose signal quick enough... heh heh..

-Marc

[tabledancer]

Thankyou for the advise.I already

Thankyou for the advise.I already run my battery in the water,though I did waterproof it with a ballon.I was told by the battery manufacturer "under no circumstanses was I to get the battery wet"the tech told me the thing could explode if it got wet.As for the leak there must be a crack somewhere that I`m not seeing,because the o-rings and seals were brand new,just installed the day before.I did just as you said with the rtv the day before,I REALLY applied a lot to all the joints and let it dry a full 24hrs. before putting the boat in the water.I`m at a loss because after I assembled the wtc I put it in the laundry tub and submerged it for about 4 hrs and it stayed dry Maybe I should just SHOOT IT and start over,what do ya think!!!!
TD

[bigdave]

TD,
Call me.
Like

TD,
Call me.
Like I told you, first you have to find out where it is coming in before you can fix it. It could be coming in from many places. You should not have to seal it with RTV. I can give you new end caps if you want. But that may not be the problem. You have to place it in water (Tub-ECT) put a little pressure inside like we talked about last time on the phone and look for bubbles. Until you do this you will be going in circles. Dave.

[anonymous]

And if you leave those

And if you leave those end caps on for prolonged periods you will never get them off to be able to do any kind of servicing. Always after use remove the end caps for storage.

What Dave says works. Soapy water or the seals and sections will reveal the leaks without ever putting it under the water. There's not a leak that can't be fixed in my book.

Steve

[fx models]

I guess I just dont

I guess I just dont have that same experience. My philosophy is one of simplicity and reliability. In other words, there is no reason to be getting into the WTC once the setup is done for me. I always see people getting into the WTCs and doing 'things' but I just done see the need and never have. No big deal but its my experience. I was not trying to suggest actually that you just dip the WTC in Silicone and be done with it because I realize the leak has to be dealt with. You have a bad seal or a crack as you said. I seal mine up permanently and have never had a problem. Once bench tests are all done and so forth, the final silicone sealer goes on and the caps are put on for good or until I use a razor to cut in someday and get something OUT that I want to put in another one! .
The electronics are sealed for the life of the submarine and should be the least of your concerns. Especially with all the equipment available these days. Things are very reliable. It is something to think about.

Marc

[jdbostrom]

Steve,

Getting in a little late

Steve,

Getting in a little late here on your thread... but I just wanted to let you know that I'm not just sitting around doing nothing .

Well here goes... We had planned this fall on building a workshop in our backyard as space in the house was getting tight (we have a family of eight). Unfortunately that got shot down by some zoning laws that said we needed to build at least six feet from the lot line, yadda, yadda. Unfortunately that would put the shed right smack-dab in the middle of the backyard. End of that.

At the same time we moved into a new church building that needed some work, so we were doing marathon paint sessions for a couple weeks. There was some extra space in the building so I moved my workshop up there. At least the church is only a few hundred yards from the house. I have a lot more space up there, but the problem now is that being an avid pianist I can never resist sitting down to the keyboard or the piano for "just a minute". It's amazing how quickly a minute turns into an hour....

After being in my new shop while, I realized how bad my old road bike was looking (another one of my hobbies). Before I knew it, I had started an all-out restoration... Unfortunately now that it is almost done, there several inches of snow on the ground and the temperatures are sub-freezing... guess I'll have to wait til next year to go for a ride. Pics are below:



Before... sorry lookin piece of junk isn't she?




This was about when I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures of how the pieces went together.... and now they were sitting on the floor in a paper bag... ]http://www.81x.com/Authors/JDBostrom/bike_3.jpg[/img]

Here she is, almost finished. I still have to do some work on the shifter and brake cables though.








Besides the bike, I've been chipping away at a Revell Corvette that I picked up at the Regatta for a measly $25. I also got a radio with it for the same price. I.. umm... did get a little out of hand with the weathering again... I guess that's starting to become a trademark .

And yes, I am still finding some time for my Gato. I've decided to hold off on the wireless video camera until I get the boat in the water. Less things to go wrong. Until then I am doing some cosmetic work on the boat (i.e. limber holes) and some improved linkages.

Oh, one more thing, I am finally getting some material together to do a 1/72 Hotel II (aka K-19). Unfortunately Hotel plans are very scarce. I think my best route will be to build a computer model and then make a sectional drawing from that. We'll see...


Well how was that? Am I busy enough?

Jonathan



Edited By JDBostrom on 1133574608