1:72 Los Angeles

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Find a suitably sized round file (chain-saw supplies), chuck it up in a variable-speed drill, put the drill in reverse, and jam that dude in there and ... ROTATE!

David

[spankey]

question... I have a stainless steel motor shaft, that is threaded for my propeller on one end. The extreme stern of the boat has an oilite bearing in it, as does a bulkhead about 6 inches forward of the stern. I mounted the bulkhead with the stainless shaft in place to attempt to ensure alignment of the two oilite bearings so they wouldnt 'fight' eachother when the motor shaft was spinning...

Problem....The two oilite bearings have strayed a bit from perfect linear alignment, so when I spin the shaft by hand, its tough.... Any ideas?

I used valve lapping compound to attempt to polish the shaft and the bearings so that the shaft wouldnt bind, but that was a disaster...had ALOT of trouble getting all the lapping compound out of the oilite bearings.

Any other ideas about getting the shaft to spin freely in the oilite bearings? Only thing I was thinking, was to spin the motor shaft in the lathe, and use some rough grit paper to polish the shaft down.

[spankey]

Fair deal. I like that idea. I'll get some stick time with it on the low power setting before I give it enough 'juice' to fly right out of the water!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I like the way you think. Let's do this: you buy the single-motor SD and run your monster with that, if you still feel the need for speed, send me the motor bulkhead and we'll discount off that and send you a two-motor bulkhead. How's that, hot-shot?

David

[spankey]

With regard to the question about overpowering...I guess more than anything, to quote a recent President, "I did it...because I could."

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

We'll sell you either the two-motor or single motor, but Kerry's right. Why over-push this thing?

David

[ADDINGTON]

Pardon the interruption, but may I ask why you wish the two motors?
You should be able to easily churn up a proper bow wave with the venerable single unit with attached 3:1 gearbox?
-Kerry

[spankey]

So after a 3 month hiatus, I'm back on the project!!

I have a good excuse now, I'll be going on Active Duty in March, so I MUST get this boat in the water before I leave!!

Any word on the availability of the 2 motor'd 3.5" Subdriver with a single output shaft?

Daniel-

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Finish it!

[spankey]

I needed to get some shots of this boat as it is supposed to look, as I was giving them to my granddad...who got me interested in submarines to begin with. Here are a couple with the boat in flat black on the top of the hull, and a (shinier than wanted) red for the anti-fouling on the bottom of the hull. This paint job is going to be finished at a later time, I just needed to get some photos for show and tell.

Next thing will be the screw mount for the rear of the Z-cut. This is always tricky, since I dont want the mount to break off the bottom half of the hull, and also need to get the nut for the mouting solidly attached so it doesnt spin. Easier said than done...I've had trouble with this in the past.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Who asked that? What kind of a question was that?....thats why they call it a THREE-POINT-FIVE!!


-thanks, I was thinking that was the ID.

LOL.

Yeah, the number denotes outside diameter.

David,

[spankey]

Who asked that? What kind of a question was that?....thats why they call it a THREE-POINT-FIVE!!


-thanks, I was thinking that was the ID.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

3.5"

DUH!

David

[spankey]

Ahh the most exciting news of the build so far!!! Thank you!

I'll look forward to seeing those up in the catalog, and I'll (hopefully) be first in line to be throwing my money at you for one!

Perchance, does anyone know the outer diameter of the 3.5" subdrivers? I'll be working on building mounting bulkheads for this gem, so its ready when I get it.

Excellent news!!!

Daniel-

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I should have a few more pics up tonight of a semi-finished towed array fairing. What a pain in the neck to build up... Thats been keeping me for the better part of two weeks now.

I do have a few questions though...

For LA class boats, what color represents the most accurate color of anti-fouling red paint for the lower half of the hull? The upper hull I assume could be a fairly generic flat black..?
Confession: As you've seen, I'm not a real master with first-time scribing (but I'm learning). I'm also not a Pro when it comes to detailing stuff....Just not my specialty. My goal is to have a boat that looks like a boat would have looked like BEFORE it went to sea, and got too soiled by saltwater and gull poop.

I saw the advice on the Oscar thread about a flat clearcoat. Maybe that answers my final paint-coat questions.

...So bear with me as you will probably see this thing get abused, then stripped, and repainted a couple times while I try to get this right.

The next question is fairly specific....Mr Merriman, do you think that a substitution could be made on an order of one of your 3.5" Subdrivers to employ the "twin motor-to-single shaft" end cap?

Thanks all, More pictures should follow tonight!!!

Mr. Caswell is re-working the catalog and he's waiting for me to submit photos and ad-copy about the current versions of the 3.5" SubDriver's. So, stand-by for the official announcement.

There are three types, each offered as a semi-kit. One with a single-motor, single-shaft motor bulkhead; the second with a two-motor, two-shaft motor bulkhead; and a third with two-motor, single-shaft motor bulkhead.

Semi-kit, yes, but the following items are provided assembled and tested: motor bulkhead, and installed after ballast bulkhead. The configuration of all three versions of the 3.5 SD is for a three compartment system (after dry space, ballast tank, and a forward dry space). However, the forward ballast bulkhead is not installed -- it's left to the customer to determin the size of his ballast tank, drill the holes for the forward ballast bulkhead and to install it to suit his requirements. Of course, if the customer wants to employ an off-cylinder battery, he can construct the cylinder without the forward dry space. I've configured the 3.5 SD semi-kits to give the customer options.

The below shots are of an assembled single-motor, single-shaft motor bulkhead 3.5 SD and an un-equipped motor bulkhead below it.

David