Albacore dual-prop retrofit

[bcliffe]

Nice! BTW, what scale is

Nice! BTW, what scale is B. Clark's Albacore?

It is an odd ball scale not 100% sure. It is larger then the SubTech Albacore.... probalby something close to 1/50.

Brian selected the size based on his wife's oven size. This was Brian's first attempt at doing vacuum forming with styrene.

Cheers
BC

[greenman407]

Bcliffe, nice pictures to boot!

Bcliffe, nice pictures to boot!

[greenman407]

Dave, How do you come

Dave, How do you come up with all this cool stuff?

[Guest]

I have a mega computer

I have a mega computer and a bit of allien blood and I dont mean the ellegal kind.

dave

[greenman407]

I have recieved all the

I have recieved all the parts that I need, and I thought I would share some of them with you.
Here you can see the precision ball bearings that I will use to suspend the main shaft and the 1/4" brass tube that will motivate the propellors. The 3/16" bearings will support the short shaft that will apply the drive motion to the gear rotating the1/4' tube. Also you can see the thrust bearings that will be used to reduce friction.

Two new speed 400 motors

Installed in their motor mounts

In this closeup you can see the motor connection tab and on it the lead from the supression capacitor mounted inside.

[redboat219]

Since Albacore was a test

Since Albacore was a test boat and not a prototype, the simplest, easiest way to convert from a cruciform tail to the "X" tail was just to simply rotate the stern 45 degrees, figuratively speaking. Thus each opposing control surface shared a shaft so it allowed for minimal linkage changes.

Skip Asay

Compared with say a modern Type 212 with equal X tail control surfaces, did the position of the Albacore's offset stern planes had any effect on the boat handling?

[skip asay]

redboat219 asked -
"Compared with say

redboat219 asked -
"Compared with say a modern Type 212 with equal X tail control surfaces, did the position of the Albacore's offset stern planes had any effect on the boat handling?"

I have never seen anything written up about that but I really can't see where it would make any difference. Let's face it, in the full size boat, there's what maybe 2 feet of difference?

Skip Asay

[greenman407]

Re: Albacore dual-prop retrofit

Ok here is how its going to go.

I need to install thrust bearings at several points. Here you can see a pointer pointing at the spot where the forward prop will rub the hub. It is at this spot that I want to recess a thrust bearing composed of two thick hardened washers and a cage that holds the ball bearings. If I dont recess them into the prop and hub it will look like this.

Since most drill bits wont drill a flat bottom hole I came up with this.





Its a set of Forstner bits. More later. seeyall

[greenman407]

Re: Albacore dual-prop retrofit

I went back to review more of Man-O-Wars builders thread on the USS Jack and low and behold he used Forstner bits on his gearbox construction. (and here I thought that I had found something new to show off) Oh Well! Im worried about drilling too deep into the white metal propellor to do the recessing as this will decrease the area of the hub to be secured to the shaft so Im only going to go into the prop just enough to recess one washer. The hub will be recessed enough to cover the other washer and some of the ball bearing cage. I just have to get up enough nerve to try it. I plan on using the company drill press and drill vise to hold and drill the prop and hub. As can be imagined the vise has to hold the parts completely still without damaging the parts and they have to be perfectly aligned ie: perpendicular to the shaft, so that we will have no prop wobble

[bigdave]

Re: Albacore dual-prop retrofit

Forstner bits rule!!!!! BD.

[raalst]

Re: Albacore dual-prop retrofit

just a caution from the overly worrysome :
be sure the ball bearings do not rust.

[greenman407]

Re: Albacore dual-prop retrofit

Good point, we will need plenty of lubricant before and after each run

[diezel_sub]

Re: Albacore dual-prop retrofit

Hi there.
I would like to know if I can get a set of these props and if so, The cost of them.
thanks!

[greenman407]

Re: Albacore dual-prop retrofit

Hello there Diezel sub, I am sorry as I just noticed your post on the Albacore retrofit. I got them from Dave Merriman. I dont know there exact cost as I purchased them along with a few other things. However I can supply you with his phone number and you can ask him. You may have to leave him a message and give him time to return your call. He does great work but is usually swamped. 757-468-4687

[greenman407]

Re: Albacore dual-prop retrofit

Ok , let me bring you up to speed on my progress , or should I say lack of progress. Since I do not have access to a lathe without paying for it I undertook the task with the tools on hand. Doing it yourself is sometimes half the fun. My biggest fear was that when recessing the bearings into the plastic extension between the two props I was going to mess it up. After all its important to have the surface that the bearing rides on be perpendicular to the propshaft and carefully centered. To achieve this I did this