Seaview

[greenman407]

giving this thing a couple days to dry.Saturday Ill put the motor bulkhead into the WTC and move it into position to see If I need to make any changes to the length of the drive shafts or change how they exit the propulsion tube.

[greenman407]

Yep, the drive shafts are too long and will need a trim job. Also the motor shafts center to center are now wider so I took out all of the foam so that I could modify the angle at which the shafts exit the propulsion pod and get it all closed back up again. The pushrods are also wider center to center. Wow! Without all the foam it looks cavernous back there.
You can see here where the propulsion pods are attached to the outside. Well you used to be able to stick your hand from the inside open area into the propulsion pods, to easily access the empellors. The only way I could get reverse was to close all that up and vent the flow of water out the scoops at the front end of the propulsion pods. Hence the flat plastic sheets siliconed over the openings. The slots that you see that are horizontal going away from you are for the exiting drive shafts on there way to hook up to the back of the WTC. They are purposely large to allow adjustment in the location of those shafts. Once in place , additional slotted plates are put in place to close that area up.

[greenman407]

Today, I started reducing the length of the drive shafts by cutting off one end of it just behind the Dumas coupler. After I got it all completed I happened to look at the other end of them. I couldnt believe the amount of wear on the tabs of the Nylon coupler. What to do, what to do. You see, its a difficult thing to get the old one out, seeing that its CAed in and cross drilled with a brass rod thru it also CAed. So we will cut the end and replace the bad coupler and then a trip to the Hobby store will provide a aluminum tube that will slide within this one, so that we can adjust its length and then we will cross drill and pin that. Otherwise I wont have enough of the Dumas connectors.

[greenman407]

So what am I trying to say here? Check your drive shafts periodically because they wont last forever. The greater the angle, the greater the wear. I dont know If grease will help or not.

[greenman407]

Todays progress. I lengthened the drive shafts and put them in place. Re-siliconed the previously opened thruster panel. Attached the pushrod holders and installed these plastic sheet foam supports. Before, I needed to get all the foam into that area as I could. This meant attaching the foam to the floor. Not Good, as this takes away from the stability of the submarine and this boat is especially sensitive to that because of its lack of depth of section. So, with these supports I will attach a smaller amount of foam to them , getting it up off the floor and allowing water and the resulting weight of it down low where we need it.

[greenman407]

Do you remember what a mess of little scrap pieces of foam that I had in this thing before. Today I set out to remedy that. I went and bought a 1" sheet of pink foam and cut two pieces and made cut outs in them so that they would sit right down in place without having 163 giblets of foam all siliconed to one another.

[trout]

Excellent! What is your way of shaping the foam? Like the channels?

[greenman407]

Using a straight edge and marker, I mark it out. Using a long sharp xacto knife and a pulling towards you motion, I cut the piece out of the foam sheet. Then I mark what needs to be cut out for clearance using, once again the long Xacto to mark its edges, then I cut out between the lines with a Dremel endmill thats about 3/8" in diameter and that has cutting edges on the end of it.
If it ends up that Ive got too much foam in there, I just bring my Xacto with me to the lake and trim out a slice or two from the end of the uppermost piece until it floats like I want.
If its not enough foam then I always bring some extra pieces with me and try various ones by sticking it under the hull till it floats it and I find the right combination.

[Kazzer]

I find the best thing to shape foam with is some 120 grit sand paper glued to a block of wood. For concave curves I use a piece of dowel (broom handle etc) with the paper glued to it. I also have a HF Sander which is ideal for rounding off corners.

[greenman407]

I got my two speed controls in so.............what am I waiting for? Idunno. Ive got a sneaking suspicion that after sea trials, Im going to end up going to 2:1 gear reduction. I can just somehow.......sense these things.

[greenman407]

Because I am using two speed controllers, I needed to get power to them, so I made up a harness with bullet connectors. These solderless connectors can be soldered, you just have to cut of the hard plastic insulator material that surrounds them. I thought that they were alluminum but touch them with a Dremel and the outer plating comes off, revealing the copper underneath. Using paste flux and rosin core solder and a really good HOT gun , causes the soldering to take just seconds per joint. The only bad thing is that on the bullet connectors, the insulation that I left on it to shield the female part of the connectors, shrunk with the heat of soldering, squeezing the connector, not allowing the male to connect. So I split it up one side and am saving the piece to install back on after the connection is made.

[greenman407]

Install of the power wire harness. Ill finish it all as soon as the BEC gets here.Perhaps you can see here the servo mount that I made that reaches up and cradles the tops of the motors. In the floor of the aluminum equipment tray I drilled holes as well as through the uprights of the plastic servo mounts. By using "Goop" to attach the servos to the mounts, the "Goop" seeped through the holes and formed a rivet head on the back side as well as through the floor. After it cured, its rock hard, providing plenty of support to make the whole assm. solid.

[greenman407]

Got the BEC installed today.It wont be long now. Ill be testing this thing at the Clearwater pond next week for sure.

[crazygary]

Very cool, Sir!!

Git 'er done!! Hah!!

CG

[greenman407]

Moving right along here,...............I just had an epiphany. Take out the old ball and nylon clasp links and put in some double Klikons. Yeah,....thats what Im talkin about. Reaching down into the small confines of a Seaview interior and wrestling with those things....nope nope nope, not any more. I also took a couple of pieces of alluminum square tubing and cut out one side and CAed them under the styrofoam support mount to capture the pushrod so that If it popped loose it would still link back up.