Hello all,
I decided last year that I would give the design and development of Sub kits a break for a year or so. I would spend 2020 fine tuning the kits I have, selling them and adjusting some smaller parts and
just generally lifting the quality of parts, here and there. I am happy with how my latest design , the Delta has turned out and don't think I need to develop a new kit. I guess I'm running out of Russian boats that I like..
I have received emails from people who want to know about the best cylinder to fit one of my boats. I have referred them to subdrivers and other vendors according to the needs that they outlined. However I have been thinking for some time about building a basic cylinder design that could complement the kits I have and make another option available for the market. I have decided to concentrate on one basic design that as much as possible will be interchangeable. The design will feature a single shaft stern end cap "ZB-1" (Zero Bubble-1) for the MIKE, BOREI and RESOLUTION and a twin shaft equivalent "ZB-2 for the PAPA and DELTA.
I intend to go down the same manufacturing path as HWSNBN with regards to Casting the endcaps. I have been curious about doing this for some time. I think that over the past couple of years I have developed the skills and familiarization with this medium and what you can do with it. I realize that this will be low production and the cost of producing these castings is a fair outlay but we do this for the passion.I certainly do. I will be prototyping the endcaps out of Renshape. This is great since Hardrock (Scott) moved down to Nowra (south of Sydney) and left me with a stupidly be piece of Renshape. Thanks Scott, it's awesome!.
I am still in the research phase of this project and have been watching HWSNBN's write ups on cylinder prototyping in "todays work" and " the subdriver becomes modular". I have especially been looking very closely at how everything to do with the shafts are done. I have spent and will continue to spend hours looking over parts lists for seals, o-rings, oilite bearings, bushes, shafts, motors and Polycarbonate tube. I have started ordering parts in bit by bit and started playing around with fit. I have also started doing the sketches to get my ideas right and looking closely at the ones HWSNBN has appear in some of his pics.
My design will be similar to the arrangement I currently employ in my boats. It will use a pressurized system with a single cylinder, no partitions, a pump at the front and the water going to an isolated PVC type ballast tank further forward. A simple, old set up that works well. I am allocating about a year to develop these designs. To what level of detail I will go to with regards to internal components and layout I'm not sure yet. I will at least design and make enough to stop the water coming in from either end!
There is an enormous amount of work to do, innumerable avenues I could go down. Any number of parts options i could take and truckloads of prototyping, testing and development. I am setting myself about a year to do this.
I don't think that contributions for this endeavour will appear as my regular friday night write up. Yep, my social life rocks.... It may be a bit more intermittent. It will be interesting to see what these two designs look like when I have finished with them.
I will start getting into more detail of specifics in the next write up. I will certainly be throwing out the odd question when stumped.
David H
I decided last year that I would give the design and development of Sub kits a break for a year or so. I would spend 2020 fine tuning the kits I have, selling them and adjusting some smaller parts and
just generally lifting the quality of parts, here and there. I am happy with how my latest design , the Delta has turned out and don't think I need to develop a new kit. I guess I'm running out of Russian boats that I like..
I have received emails from people who want to know about the best cylinder to fit one of my boats. I have referred them to subdrivers and other vendors according to the needs that they outlined. However I have been thinking for some time about building a basic cylinder design that could complement the kits I have and make another option available for the market. I have decided to concentrate on one basic design that as much as possible will be interchangeable. The design will feature a single shaft stern end cap "ZB-1" (Zero Bubble-1) for the MIKE, BOREI and RESOLUTION and a twin shaft equivalent "ZB-2 for the PAPA and DELTA.
I intend to go down the same manufacturing path as HWSNBN with regards to Casting the endcaps. I have been curious about doing this for some time. I think that over the past couple of years I have developed the skills and familiarization with this medium and what you can do with it. I realize that this will be low production and the cost of producing these castings is a fair outlay but we do this for the passion.I certainly do. I will be prototyping the endcaps out of Renshape. This is great since Hardrock (Scott) moved down to Nowra (south of Sydney) and left me with a stupidly be piece of Renshape. Thanks Scott, it's awesome!.
I am still in the research phase of this project and have been watching HWSNBN's write ups on cylinder prototyping in "todays work" and " the subdriver becomes modular". I have especially been looking very closely at how everything to do with the shafts are done. I have spent and will continue to spend hours looking over parts lists for seals, o-rings, oilite bearings, bushes, shafts, motors and Polycarbonate tube. I have started ordering parts in bit by bit and started playing around with fit. I have also started doing the sketches to get my ideas right and looking closely at the ones HWSNBN has appear in some of his pics.
My design will be similar to the arrangement I currently employ in my boats. It will use a pressurized system with a single cylinder, no partitions, a pump at the front and the water going to an isolated PVC type ballast tank further forward. A simple, old set up that works well. I am allocating about a year to develop these designs. To what level of detail I will go to with regards to internal components and layout I'm not sure yet. I will at least design and make enough to stop the water coming in from either end!
There is an enormous amount of work to do, innumerable avenues I could go down. Any number of parts options i could take and truckloads of prototyping, testing and development. I am setting myself about a year to do this.
I don't think that contributions for this endeavour will appear as my regular friday night write up. Yep, my social life rocks.... It may be a bit more intermittent. It will be interesting to see what these two designs look like when I have finished with them.
I will start getting into more detail of specifics in the next write up. I will certainly be throwing out the odd question when stumped.
David H
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