Engel Lafayette Progress for John M & All

[w1cdo]

That pretty much brings me

That pretty much brings me up to date. I think I'll continue detailing the sail and fair in the ring atachment areas on the hull next.
John Maguire
Seattle

[Wheelerdealer]

A couple of things I

A couple of things I remember is that the yolk for connecting the rear surfaces slipped a lot, so it well worth making your own with collars and a bit of brass. To get the sub to dive level you need to drill a hole above the free flooding rear compartment aft of the rear bulkhead. The circular PVC plates that make up the Techrack need to be sanded a lot to get them to go through the ring easily. A sanding drum on a Dremel make light work. If your not usung a magnetic switch, tray an locate the on/off switch near the bayonet ring. This means you not have to remove the entire hull (which can be tricky to do your own with a wet hull and no proper surface pond side to rest it) to get at the switch.

[w1cdo]

Wheelerdealer, thanks for your excellent

Wheelerdealer, thanks for your excellent input. I shall follow your advice to the letter.

[Wheelerdealer]

Some pics of mine on

Some pics of mine on this thread http://www.subpirates.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=379

[w1cdo]

Inasmuch as I have discoverd

Inasmuch as I have discoverd that construction of this sub has already been better documented than I am capable of, I shall make no further posts on construction.
John Maguire
Seattle

[w1cdo]

Wheelerdealer,
Could you please tell me

Wheelerdealer,
Could you please tell me if the round tech rack bulkheads can be a "close" fit through the aluminum rings or should I sand them enough for lots of clearance.
Thanks,
John Maguire
Seattle

[Wheelerdealer]

Continue to post your build,

Continue to post your build, everyone sub is different and plenty of people only look at this site.

I would sand the Techrack as much as you can, you will be limited by the cabling pipes and aluminium rods. Otherwise it is pretty hard to remove it from the front hull single handed. Unless you have a helper, the best way is to stand the sub vertically on its nose on a soft surface, one hand holding the front hull and the other the rear hull. You then need to unlock the bayonet and lift the rear hull and techrack vertically, single handed, till it clears the the front hull. If you have tight fit you will be continously catching the inner lip of the bayonet with the Techrack, making progress painfully(for you arm too!) slow.

[Guest]

How about if you placed

How about if you placed a small 'wheel' on the bottom of each teck rack bulkhead, and then epoxy into the bottom of the hull a strp of aluminium for the wheels to run against?

Andy

[lobo]

How about if you placed

How about if you placed a small 'wheel' on the bottom of each teck rack bulkhead, and then epoxy into the bottom of the hull a strp of aluminium for the wheels to run against?

Andy

Andy,
That is a cool idea to incorporate a slide rail, but the entire Tech Rack is epoxied into the tail cone. You then need to slide the Tech Rack/tail cone assembly into the forward hull....then when the hull halves meet up, you need to "twist" the assemblies to lock the bayonet into place. You need to keep the hull free of anything that would prevent you from locking the bayonet, so a guide rail won't work in this application.

I think I read in the Engel instructions (or maybe Frank Ryan told me) the best way to join the halves is to stand the nose of the hull on the floor, hull straight up & vertical, then slide the tech Rack down into it...letting gravity work with you.
As Wheeler pointed out, you want those bulkheads to slide into the hull without fussing...as the assembly is heavy & you do not want to fight with it. Of course, you can also join the halves sitting horizontally on a tabletop also.
Most important is to trim the bulkheads so they slide over the bayonet without hanging up before you assemble them! I did not do that till after I assembled my rack....was a PITA to trim it afterwards! I ended up disassembling portions of the rack to do so.
This is a wonderful kit...really priced right in my opinion, although the Euro vs dollar is worse know than when I purchased mine 2 years ago.
I put mine aside to finish my SN GW kit & BD RCABS WTC... I am ready to continue it this winter!

[Oldus Fartus]

Priming the under side of the missle deck prior to attachment.

Seriously?

[JWLaRue]

...you do realize that you read and responded to a thread that is 9 years old, yes? What we call a 'zombie post'.....

-Jeff

[Guest]

Interesting missiles. D-cup model I'd say!