I decided to make the connection of the two snake cables visible, sure as crap this is where something will break.
I made a couple of fittings to skew the cable under a small access panel in the deck.
The entire underside of the deck gets cross members from 2mm X 5mm styrene, and under the conning tower is heavily braced.
Then the conning tower has pins inserted to align it with the deck., it will be removable to service the periscope raising mechanism.
The deck gun gets a 3mm reinforced plate under the deck and 7mm stainless screw which will be bonded to the underside of the deck and make the gun detachable.
Now for the periscope mechanism, the deck is cut to the shape of the inner space in the conning tower and that shape is transferred to the top of the WTC.
A small open ended square box is made with curved ends to rest on the WTC to fit in this hole.
It gets flood/drain holes and the inner sides get small lengths of 2mm x 2mm as styrene runners so the foam block only touches these going up and down not the sides (less friction).....
............the hole in the foam block is for the end of the periscope.
The box sits in the hole, and tightly up into the conning tower, the foam is trial fitted from the bottom.
When the foam is correctly sized it goes on the end of the scope which goes down the scope mechanism, and then down the box, snug but not too tight (scope down on left and up on right).
It's taken apart and assembled into the conning tower and put in the test basin, when water rises up the conning tower it simply lifts the periscope slowly, I have it set so that it's fully up when the conning tower is 1/3 submerged, so that one can see the scope rising as the sub dives.
No electronics, no motors, just the dreaded closed cell foam.............but it works.
The Boattrainman
I made a couple of fittings to skew the cable under a small access panel in the deck.
The entire underside of the deck gets cross members from 2mm X 5mm styrene, and under the conning tower is heavily braced.
Then the conning tower has pins inserted to align it with the deck., it will be removable to service the periscope raising mechanism.
The deck gun gets a 3mm reinforced plate under the deck and 7mm stainless screw which will be bonded to the underside of the deck and make the gun detachable.
Now for the periscope mechanism, the deck is cut to the shape of the inner space in the conning tower and that shape is transferred to the top of the WTC.
A small open ended square box is made with curved ends to rest on the WTC to fit in this hole.
It gets flood/drain holes and the inner sides get small lengths of 2mm x 2mm as styrene runners so the foam block only touches these going up and down not the sides (less friction).....
............the hole in the foam block is for the end of the periscope.
The box sits in the hole, and tightly up into the conning tower, the foam is trial fitted from the bottom.
When the foam is correctly sized it goes on the end of the scope which goes down the scope mechanism, and then down the box, snug but not too tight (scope down on left and up on right).
It's taken apart and assembled into the conning tower and put in the test basin, when water rises up the conning tower it simply lifts the periscope slowly, I have it set so that it's fully up when the conning tower is 1/3 submerged, so that one can see the scope rising as the sub dives.
No electronics, no motors, just the dreaded closed cell foam.............but it works.
The Boattrainman
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