What Material for DIY End Caps

[Guest]

Re: What Material for DIY End Caps

I've completed part one of a what will be a small series of vids of how to make endcaps for your own WTC/module. It's currently uploading to Youtube. The vids are aimed at complete beginners, I assume little prior knowledge, so more experienced builders will probably want to skip over some of the parts. The opinions expressed in the videos are my own, based on observation and experience, others opinion may vary, and I welcome their comment, just so long as it's constructive.

Part one is very basic and just covers o-rings, specifically materials used, and how they're dimensioned, and I also list a few of the pros and cons of the different o-ring materials. Commentary is off the cuff, nothing pre written, so you'll have to forgive a few umms and ahhs, or if I ramble a bit. Part two will get a bit more down to different types of endcap sealing e.g. radial or axial, plus how to calculate o-ring dimensions depending on the size of cylinder and method of sealing chosen. Part three will show the end cap being made and the finished item.

[scott t]

Re: What Material for DIY End Caps

Sub culture,
Good information in your first video. Thanks!

Scott T

[roedj]

Re: What Material for DIY End Caps

Sub culture,
Good information in your first video. Thanks!

Scott T

Where did you find it? I search on "end caps" and "wtc" and all I get is looney theories on the World Trade Center.

Dan

[subdude]

Re: What Material for DIY End Caps

Dan,

Look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wixmu3MPhjo

Jim

[Guest]

Re: What Material for DIY End Caps

Okay, turned up one endcap, and filmed parts two and three. One more endcap to make tomorrow for the other end of the cylinder- I'm showing two ways of turning the endcaps, one with a mandrel, the other without a mandrel but using friction to grip the parts, which means you don't have to drill a hole through the middle of the endcap to hold it in the lathe.

The endcap pictured was cut from from 15mm PVC sheet, turned in the lathe, and fits a 68mm PVC cylinder. Took about half an hour to make the cap. Takes a lot longer to talk about and film making it, than to actually make it.

[Guest]

Re: What Material for DIY End Caps

Unfortunately parts two and three of how to make end caps will take a couple of days longer to arrive, whilst I wait for a new waterpump to arrive for my PC, as the existing one decided to give up the ghost this morning when I went to upload the films to youtube- typical. However here is a picture of the completed cylinder/WTC to show the completed article. The end caps were turned up from thick PVC sheet using two slightly different ways, one on a mandrel, and the other using some friction discs, thus avoiding having to put a hole in the centre of the disc.

Overall material cost, was about five pence (about 7.5 cents) less the cost of the o-ring seals. Clearly you will have to fit it out, but it demonstrates what you can do with a small lathe and a modicum of skill.

[Guest]

Re: What Material for DIY End Caps

Part two is now posted on the 'modelling tips and tricks' page- viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11642

[scott t]

Re: What Material for DIY End Caps

How difficult is it to machine a bayonet ring like what we see in the Skipjack conversion kit from Arkmodel?
And does this bayonet ring look like it has a groove for a sealing o-ring?
I know keep the engineering simple... but they look so cool.

[Guest]

Re: What Material for DIY End Caps

Various ways of making that. To make them in the fashion show from stock, you need to mill the bayonet locking tabs. You can do this on a lathe or dedicate milling machine with a rotary table.

You can also make a locking ring using ordinary bench work, instead of machining the tabs out, use pegs, or sheet metal.

For ideas on this, worth looking at how Norbert does the locking ring on more inexpensive kits like his Delta or the Revell conversions- Type VII and Skipjack.

Locking rings are only necessary for boats which pressurize internally, even then there are other methods for retaining end caps, for instance Ron Perrott uses the saddles mounted in the hull to also overlap the end caps slightly so they keep the caps pinched on.

[tommydeen]

Re: What Material for DIY End Caps

I have found the Parker handbook invaluable for static seals

http://www.repurvis.com/Products/O-Ring ... 0-5700.pdf

Get a copy

[Guest]

Re: What Material for DIY End Caps

The technical literature is useful, if you can read and interpret it.

They do tend to present a huge amount of choice, which is likely to bamboozle a lot of people, especially the beginner.

My aim was to distill things down to two basic choices- nitrile or silicone, pointing out the major pros and cons and they really are the only two materials you need to effectively seal a model submarine.

Feedback from the vids suggest that some people found the mathmatics for the o-ring sizing a little baffling. Unfortunately I can't really think of a way around that, other than to say, it isn't as complicated as things might at first seem.