WTC endcaps...

[saltydog]

I want to say, first of all, it has been a pleasure to see all of the ideas and boats that float around on this site. Currently, I am working on a 1/48 Balao (boss subfixer has been a great source of info) and have started on my wtc's. A friend of mine has posed an interesting question to me. (Assuming price and tooling are not issues) Why not make your wtc endcaps out of aluminum? As far as strength and weight goes they seem fairly comparable. I might just be off my rocker. Thanks in advance.

James

[Guest]

Nothing new there.

Aluminium will work

Nothing new there.

Aluminium will work fine, if that's what you have.

It is over engineering though, and Aluminium is about 2.5 times heavier than most plastics.

Andy

[aeroengineer1]

I use plastic just because

I use plastic just because it is faster to machine, but if you had a really big lathe, that would not be an issue.

Adam

[chuck chesney]

I have made endcaps out

I have made endcaps out of aluminum, they look great and function well. however, Sub Culture is right on the mark...they are WAY too heavy for most model applications. Save your time and effort and just use plastic (polycarbonate...Lexan), or make/buy them out of resin. Resin or plastic is cheap, light and easy to work with.

[saltydog]

you guys have addressed all

you guys have addressed all of the concerns that were brought up to me, except one. Someone had suggested that metal (not just aluminum) might interfere with your RF signal.

I have to say, am sufficiently convinced that resin will be the material of choice.

[himszy]

As we are going down

As we are going down the "Assuming price and tooling are not issues" route, and Andy said Aluminium was 2.5 times heavier than plastic. What about Titanium?

Michael

[boss subfixer]

Michael,
Titanium would work just fine

[color=#000000]Michael,
Titanium would work just fine and is extremely light. Maybe only a little heavier than the plastic end caps and definately lighter than aluminum. I held a piece in my hand that was 3" square and 4" long (approximately) and hardly knew it was there. It isn't too hard to machine if you use carbide tooling along with the right RPM and plenty of coolant. The cost for that little piece was around $20,000. sorry to inject reality here]

[aeroengineer1]

Not too sure what the

Not too sure what the concern is about weight. Every boat that I have done has reserve buoyancy, and needs extra weight added to it to make it come to the proper water line. As for what plastic to use, I am using pvc. It cuts rather nice and is cheap. I like that. The finish is descent, I have seen better finishing materials, but if you need to make a big endcap, ie 3.5" or so, you can get a chunk of pvc type II that is 3.5" x 12" for about $20. As for the radio interference, don't know, but I would think that it would not be too great due to the fact that the angle at which the signal is coming to the boat is more from the surface down, and not from the end.

Adam

[himszy]

Don,

You had to burst my

Don,

You had to burst my bubble didn't you I must say I knew it was expensive but not that expensive. I guess as we are on the subject of weight and finding lighter alternatives, we could go off onto carbon fibre/kevlar hulls

Adam,
IMHO, I'd prefer a lighter hull so that extra batteries could be added increasing run times. Obviously changing the endcap material and hull material on something like your 212 won't make much difference, but I can see on a much larger sub you make it much lighter.

Michael



Edited By Himszy on 1145534571

[boss subfixer]

Michael,
I don't know much about

Michael,
I don't know much about working with carbon fiber but I've seen a thread or two about using kevlar. The concensous was it's light, very strong and relatively easy to layup a hull with. But it's a real bear to cut. And oh by the way the titanium I refered to was pretty high grade stuff. There are grades that are much cheaper say down to a few thousand dollars.