Tom Chalfant - Bronco Type XXIII

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

In Strategic Weapons we had to play by the two-man-rule; you always had a like trained guy right at your shoulder to check/stop you if you got stupid. Sam is your back-up. Listen to the boy.

And yeah, I've done all the stupid **** you just chronicled, Tom ... and worse!

M

[trout]

David,
Should we continue to post on these threads or start a new one on the builder section?

Until I hear....
Time to go back and clean up. The first area needing attention is the hull cut. Began sanding it. Time was limited today, so only a rough sanding was done.

The other area that bothers me is the servo cable rat's nest.

I got for Christmas and birthday a couple of tools. The crimper was from Pololu.com a robotics/electronic online company that is located in Las Vegas and the wire stripper was from Home Depot. My old wire stripper did not look like it would handle the finer wires of the servo. I also got some female pins that slide into the plastic end.

Using the frozen servo taken out of the sub-driver, I cut the wires stripped the ends off and crimped on a new pin. It went very smoothly.

Now before I go hacking at my servos installed in this Sub-Driver, is there any problem with shortening the leads from the servos that anyone knows about?

[Subculture]

No problem with shortening servo wires. Too long wires can be problem, but not shortening. The main thing is ensure your crimps are good. I personally hate crimping, given the choice I go for a soldered connection every time, but with modern R/C connectors you have little choice. One good thing about older r/c gear is that many makes used lovely high quality turned pin connectors. That disappeared with the advent of cheaper equipment from Japan.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I agree with Andy -- better short than long. And solder is better than a mashed connection any day. But, to be honest, I've never encountered a servo or device problem that could be attributed to a bad crimp at a connector. With today's machine-made stuff, quality has improved greatly over the years. Trouble comes with manufacture performed by gal's fresh out of the rice-fields.

M

[trout]

Replacing the pushrod seal with a blank may or may not need to be removed. Since I made a blank for the skipjack as well as the Type XXIII I am going to remove the spare seal, but I could have just as easily filled the seal with marine epoxy or CA.

Pushing out the seal is not a difficult task, usually. This seal was not coming out without a fight. Working it by pushing from the back left edge them the right edge, top and bottom, it finally came out flying across the room. I put it back in for the photo.

Clean out the opening, remove the old silicon.

Making a blank was relatively simple because in the fittings kit the tabs were on a sprue that was almost perfectly sized.

Only a 1/3 of a millimeter was removed.

A quick sanity check to make sure it fit.

A bead of RTV silicon is placed around the plug and a nice smear around the inside of the hole.

Slide it in and, if you can, give a twist as you push it in it will help ensure a good seal. The extra I left out will be cut off.

Cut off the extra plug sticking out. Clean up the extra RTV. Let it dry.

Once it is set up, I will file/sand the plug just to make it cleaner looking.

[trout]

Thank you Andy and David! It is good to get confirmation before jumping ahead.
The original mess o' cables:

Shortened the servo cable lengths and some cables also needed to be re-routed. The only cable I did not shorten was the leveler, it may not be the one that stays in this sub. It took about 1 1/2 hours to do this, not super fast, but worth the effort. Tested the servos and everything works, that's a bonus. Maybe it is my imagination, but I think there is less chatter.
After photo:

I should weigh the cables cut off to see how much is removed.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Much, much better looking arrangement. Well worth the effort.

M

[trout]

Filling and shaping is in order tonight. On portions of the sub, the seam is nice and close. On other areas, there is small gaps, some re-shaping needed, and to a lesser extent areas that are still remainders of the wild cutting I did.
The aft most seam as it goes over the top did not line up. I think the tab I installed had a slight upward tilt causing the deck to be a bit high.

Then there are areas where I needed to fix gaps caused by sections I butchered. The hard part was trying to separate the halves, running the blade through made a bigger gap than the sections on either side.

So I am going to experiment on another section. The thinking is I will make several spots then remove the deck. Once those spots dry, I will use those as high point markers and fill in-between those spots. Does that make sense? Sometimes I am not sure if I am being clear. There is a balance between giving too much information and being concise.

[trout]

Busy weekend....but not on sub.
Sam was in his first rodeo.

Yes, I am a proud father. He did good and handled the fear, successes, and challenges with a maturity above his age.
Thank you for my indulgence, will now go back to the Type XXIII

What I did get done was more filling and sanding.
I do not know how you guys make it look so easy......I am having trouble keeping a nice even clean line.

So for the next several nights, I am going to try to clean this up.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

You're being too careful, Tom; you're scared of boogering up the adjacent raised weld lines. Screw that stuff, you'll build it up with tape and bondo later. Don't spot-putty! Smear that filler and putty on like you mean it. Block sand it back when the goo has cured/dried and you will have a nice even fit between upper and lower hull halves. Overcoat the puttied areas with thin formula CA to make things chip-free, then lightly sand the CA coating to make that receptive to the prime coats.

I have spoken, so let it be written! (crack of thunder sound-effect).

M

[Kazzer]

.......................................... (crack of thunder sound-effect).

M

Probably gas!

[Kazzer]

Try a very thin bladed, flexible paint scraper or a credit card to wipe the excess off. Remember, it's better to apply several thin layers than one thick gob of stuff. There's a knack to it, but I can get resin to fill spots like that with hardly any sanding at all.

[trout]

Try a very thin bladed, flexible paint scraper or a credit card to wipe the excess off. Remember, it's better to apply several thin layers than one thick gob of stuff. There's a knack to it, but I can get resin to fill spots like that with hardly any sanding at all.

You are a genius sir! I have some old feeler gauges it is thin and flexible. Will try it and report back. Thank you!

You're being too careful, Tom; you're scared of boogering up the adjacent raised weld lines. Screw that stuff, you'll build it up with tape and bondo later. Don't spot-putty! Smear that filler and putty on like you mean it. Block sand it back when the goo has cured/dried and you will have a nice even fit between upper and lower hull halves. Overcoat the puttied areas with thin formula CA to make things chip-free, then lightly sand the CA coating to make that receptive to the prime coats.

I have spoken, so let it be written! (crack of thunder sound-effect).

M

Yes, I am being too careful. You have spoken and I shall obey. Thank you!

[Kazzer]

You are a genius sir! I have some old feeler gauges it is thin and flexible. Will try it and report back. Thank you!

Yes, I know.

Anyhow! Make sure the blade bridges the high areas, then spread the paste by dragging across slowly. Keep the blade at about 45 degrees.

Better to wipe too much off and have to apply a second layer than start sanding.

[trout]

Gone, it's all gone..the welds, the details...it's all your fault David.
I really want to get this technique down. It would be easy to say that is good enough, but what would I have learned? What skill would I have improved? I have ADHD and bright shiny objects are a killer to me, so this will help me to focus and get it right. When I built the Gato, there was a song that came to mind when I cut the hull - "First cut is the deepest" This sub is Margaritaville. Maybe because it will drive me to drink.

(sung to the Margaritaville tune - join me) Sanding away all my details, looking for a low point or two.....O.K. stop singing
Soon I will lay down a layer using a feeler gauge or plastic as a screed. Let us get back to singing.... Nobody knows the troubles i have, i'm at 600 grit.