77" Type IX U-Boat

[Davjacva]

This is part of the on-going shaft work that is going on. Here more oilite bearings are being machined. Dave caught that the starboard shaft was not centered in the stuffing tube and steady bearing support, so he machined an off-set bearing for the latter. The stainless steel shafts on the WTC are machined to accept the universals here. I need to take some updated shaft photos as it's all about done. We had a big delay this last weekend trying to get a Corona receiver to talk to the radio. Finally figured it out. This is almost all the work left on the lower hull besides cosmetic and getting the upper hull pieces to lock down.

[Davjacva]

Finally got the decking re-done, so on to the tower. I had to re-create most of the wintergarten, as mostly only the top railings for the upper and lower sections were all that were left. Engles created a brass wintergarten...but they didn't solder it. It was all glued together...really. It had been coming apart, and after I used Easy-Off oven cleaner to strip the paint, pretty much the rest of it came apart. Luckily, I had photos along the way, so I could re-create what was. I'm just about done actually, and need to take some more photos of that. These photos are when I'm starting. I'm using a resistance soldering unit, and using the tweezers vice the probe and clamp. Doing it in-place sucks, as it would be infinitely better to do it off-hull. Doing it on the hull, you have to be really creative with how you're going to hold it. I used thread, wooden brace, Blue-Tac, and a clamp in order to keep the pieces straight while you hold solder in one hand, the tweezers in the other and using a foot switch. I really need to go the Zaphod Beeblebrox route and get a 3rd arm attached right? :) First I got all the vertical supports done, then the horizontals were done. The latter took much longer as you constantly have to figure out how to hold it in place. You also have to figure out how not to un-solder adjacent work. I use strips of aluminum foil to act as heat sinks, it works most of the time. Afterward, the joints have to be cleaned up, and I do this with jeweler's files and metal impregnated rubber wheels on the Dremel which gets most of it.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

While the prop work is being done, I've been continuing work on correcting all the upper/ lower hull issues. Reinforcing the inside and where stress-points are in the GRP with carbon fiber. Additionally, had to cut out a portion of the athwartship support and glass-in a portion of G10 to give some room to the topside of long-ass WTC which slides under it. It was almost an interference-fit, and that would probably be a problem when immersing it in a cold body of water.

You idiot!! You do know that that nuclear-powered, whiz-bank, deep-sea wonder SLR wonder-camera of your is equipped with a (gasp!) flash... Don't cha?

Use it, moron!

David
Who should be charging you rent

[Davjacva]

This is what my workspace looks like when I'm working on something.

[Davjacva]

While the prop work is being done, I've been continuing work on correcting all the upper/ lower hull issues. Reinforcing the inside and where stress-points are in the GRP with carbon fiber. Additionally, had to cut out a portion of the athwartship support and glass-in a portion of G10 to give some room to the topside of long-ass WTC which slides under it. It was almost an interference-fit, and that would probably be a problem when immersing it in a cold body of water.

[Davjacva]

Got a backlog of photos to post, and since it's raining cats n' dogs outside, it's a good day to post some stuff. Meriman is making some new props for my Type IX that are much more accurate than the kit provided ones by Engels. The last photo I took yesterday while I'm getting 're-acquainted' with using a camera again (vice using the phone), anyway, I took this photo as I see Meriman do it all the time and it largely goes unnoticed. He almost always lays out his tools and supporting structures, etc in a manner that a surgeon lays out tools for going to business. It's almost always this way with about 90% of what he does. It's going to be a hand-drawing, and a lay-up of support to exact a method of getting the most of his abilities. Sometimes this is 75% of the job before touching what's to be constructed. At times it gets kind of frustrating to watch, as it's a seemingly easy task. Then you get the results and you see why. He's often grabbed something from me that I've spent a week shaping, and which I thought was 200% perfect, only to have him clean/ shape it further. Now, here's the warning, it's the other 10% of the time you have to watch out for as he's in 'wing-it' mode. This comes from someone who can put something back together or re-construct it at a seemlingly wave of the wand...but takes the rest of us a lot of time. So I learned to ask a lot of questions. He usually answers if it's not his model...'It's not MY MODEL!' I've learned a lot on both ends of those spectrums, but still amazed at times. This job on the props, I'd seen in bits and pieces before, but this is the first time in 20+ years that I've seen the whole thing, and it's got my full attention. He's made mistakes, some, mortals would never notice, others were hilarious, but he does and it's back to the bench to get it exactly right.

[Davjacva]

The forward end of the WTC is pretty tight up against the overhead portion of GRP that was left in place to keep structural integrity when I gutted the dry-hull out. In it's place was added a piece of G-10 with some GRP laid over to keep the strength there, but give some additional room for the forward end of the WTC. Dave machined some new bearings made of oilite on the TAIG lathe for the new stainless steel shafts and these were all installed.

[Davjacva]

Mounted the WTC within the hull, cleaned up the fitment between hull pieces, and started fitting in the drive shaft universals. Going to start appendage control linkages.

[Davjacva]

My Apple fruit-loop phone had an upgrade this last Fall which results in a total ***** at getting photos loaded now. You have to go in and save each photo, then you have to go to your computer and change the format it saved it in. Took over an hour to get what I got.

I'm going back to using a DSLR for now on. Anyway, this is some WTC and prop shaft work that's going on. Got these really nice universal shafts, that are solid stainless steel and they fit great. This WTC is 34" long. It's about as long as the dry compartment I gutted out of the thing.

[Davjacva]

More joyous wine, women, and song grinding the snot out of the upper hull pieces and filling with carbon fiber, CA, and baking soda...oh my!!!

[Davjacva]

The photos start in Merriman's shop and then for the rest of the week switch over to mine. I lost some photos here, but you'll get the idea.
The upper hull, which is made out of fiberglass and reinforced with a coat of (gel-coat?) had a ton of week areas around the superstructure drains and where each section was interfaced with another section. Merriman set me up for success with showing me how to insert graphite/CA into the hull to reinforce and strengthen it. It worked very well, and I've been working on it all week. The trick at this circus is to cut across the area to be reinforced, then insert graphite fiber into it and CA it down. You can use your CA spray if you want, but almost all the time it was unneeded as the graphite reacted pretty quickly and it set. Use some tape on the back to hold it all in, then twist the graphite fiber in your hands and then insert it into the cut portion and slowly draw it back until even with the top of the hull cut. Glue that down and proceed to the other end and cut that with some scissors and it'll be flush. Glue that all down and proceed to the next one. When they're all done, sand/ file them all down until flush. You're going to have holes, so go back over these and fill with baking soda, wipe the excess off, then CA that. This will leave you with little to clean up. Now go over the whole area with a body glaze like NitroStan and let that dry. Now it's time to wet-sand. Do that and repeat with additional layers of NitroStan until done.

[Davjacva]

For the lower hull, the new saddles were installed. Got some direction from Merriman and went at it. The saddles were cut on the band saw entirely and only lightly cleaned up with a Dremel tool. Initially laid in place with JB Weld, this was followed up with West System resin/ microballoon mix to cement them in. Yeah, the saddles look weird in that the have 3 sections with two different diameters. It all came out aligned very well.

[Davjacva]

I had phone issues, so I'm playing catch-up today. The upper hull and sail had a date with a can of Easy-Off, which removed all the layers of old paint, old crappy glue, Coronavirus, debt collectors, zombies, etc. From this we can establish a firm foundation to build upon. The resulting gooo, is some nasty-ass ****. Use a scraper to get the most of it off, and it comes off very well, but you'll have to hose it all down, then use a cleaner like Simple Green to get it down right. Prior to painting, you'll want to use something like Prep-Sol to ensure a nice and clean base. Don't take it for granted that you'll get it just by spraying, you'll need to scrub. I had this happen when I was base-coating the Nautilus, in that I thought the surface was clean, and sent it primered over to Merriman who showed me areas that we relieving paint. So it goes. You'll notice that the decking is made of wood, which is not a great idea at all, as there's always some nicks and cracks that'll get through the paint and rot it. This stuff had been buckling. I'm replacing it with Evergreen styrene strips (yeah, about 15 packages of the stuff).

[Davjacva]

This is an Engel's Type IX, from at least the late-80's. It's not as old as the one that Bob brought to Subfest-23 and sold to Steve though, so this must've been the next generation. Engel's current Type IX is a 77" hull and it's described as a Type IXD2 which is pretty funny, as they were about 40' longer than what I have (Type IXC). So did some digging and a Type IXC was 77-meters long, so that was easy to scale out (1 inch per meter), and I got a hold of Merrimans' Revell Type IXC kit and it came out to 44", so that's scales to 253' which is correct. Mine scales out to 1/39.5 at 77" which looks very much the part. Engels doesn't show very many pictures of their D2, but the ones they do show that it looks way too short for a D2. 40' in front of the sail is hard not to notice.

[Davjacva]

Had to make a more user-friendly stand for this big-ass hull. Cut the pieces and assembled one day, sanded it the next, painted it and put the feet on the next. The sub is so long that I can't transport it in any of my vehicles, except for locally as it's 77" long. It goes out half-way onto the tailgate on my truck. I probably won't make a box for it and just keep the existing stand for local transport...now that we once again have a local lake to run in.