Aluminaut Research Submarine 1/96th Scale

[trout]

Crazygary, thank you, pm sent. That is such a generous offer!

John, thanks, it was a hip surgery. Not a replacement, they ended up cutting out a piece of the Labrum. The good news is the recovery is quicker, if it was repairable it could have been up to 12 weeks of recovery. The bad news is arthritis tends to form in the cut out area. I have arthritis. It buys me time from a total hip replacement.

[Subculture]

If you want a small reversible esc of reasonable pedigree (some of these offerings from the far east are very good, and some not so) then you might want to take a look at the 'Thor' esc's. There is no connection between Matt Thor's electronics and these BTW. They seem to only be available in Germany, but you can order them via the internet. I have used the larger Thor 15 ESC, but the Thor 2 is a tiny little thing ideal for models like the Aluminaut.

http://www.cti-modellbau.de/product_info.php/info/p271_.html

[trout]

subculture, nice! It is good to see there are options out there.

[crazygary]

Hi, Tom!!

Ran across a website as I was surfing to find sub-micro slide switches for my 1" WTC!
Had to share it with everyone.

microflierradio.com

Lots of sub-micro components for r/c use in mini subs, as well as mini aircraft!
Well worth a "look-see"!



Crazygary

[trout]

First publicly, Thank you Gary for sending the ESC, the Aluminaut will live and go to completion or....or......no or it will just have to be completed. I have had some fun distractions like visiting a friend and some not so fun with my hip. I also worked more on the light bar, but I fear I may have mucked it up.... we will see. Using smd LED and resistors I created a bridge work to distribute the power. These LEDs are bright! And like the cast resin blinking LED project I posted elsewhere will cast this in clear resin.


The material I am using said it had a 15 minute set time. However during the vacuuming, it got thick really quick. So, it is currently in the pressure pot and going to allow to set overnight. Tomorrow will be an interesting day.
If it works, and there is a part of me that will think that will be a miracle, I will mask the lenses and spray the unit silver for internal reflecting, then paint black over that to seal light from escaping out, and finally give it the external colors.
We will see together - this is an adventure.

[trout]

Update on light bar, it did not work so well.
The resin got too thick to flow down to all the areas, but there is a plan two.


Plan two is manually filling the lower portion, tried to horse it in the small areas, and put it in the pressure pot.
If this Aluminaut is not cursed.....it is pretty darn close. My compressor would not build up pressure, it might be toast. The molds were already slathered with fresh batch of resin, so again, tomorrow will be an interesting day.

Here is the ESC that died. It was really cool to fire up (bad use of words) because the one component glowed a beautiful orange and streamed smoke. By the time I grabbed the camera to record (that is why it is a bit blurry), it was over. So there is a kids song that goes like this, "one of these things is not like the other" Can you see the bad component?

If you guessed the white one you would be correct (upper left component). I can still smell that unique odor.
Tested all the remaining ESCs and here is the one crazygary sent (again thank you Gary!). It tested just great.

I am not going to cover these with liquid tape. I will get some clear shrink tape just in case there is another issue pop up.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Tom, you have the patience of a Saint! You just keep plowing into this field of rocks and ruts you euphemistically call, ALUMINAUT. The task keeps punching you in the nose. You keep getting back up, and go at it again. You a boxer?

As to your use of differential pressure to crush bubbles or chase them out of the mix: I assume your compressor dumps into a volume tank, so pressure is immediately available when you pressurize the mix to crush bubbles into the solution.

I betcha the problem you are facing is you're not using a volume tank between your vacuum pump and bell-jar. It's taking minutes to get to the 29" of Mercury needed to effectively expand the gas trapped in the mix to the point where it expands to the point where the bubbles buoyancy leads them to the top of the mix and out of it. Time is the critical factor, and its time that's kicking your butt, Tom. Put a volume tank between the vacuum pump and the bell-jar. Control things with a three-way ball-valve. And to increase working time of your catalyzed mix, pre-chill part-A and part-B before use.

Here's how to pull the gas out of the mix: pump out the volume tank to at lease 29"; isolate the pump from the volume tank; place the work under the bell-jar; throw the valve, which immediately slams the work with a hard vacuum -- no waiting for that slow pump to evacuate the air; then vent the work; leave at one-atmosphere and wait for the mix to change state. No need to pressurize.

David

[trout]

David,
That is a great suggestion. I never thought of doing that, but placing a volume tank and pre-vacuuming it out would really speed things up. Thank you.
The volume tank can it be an auxiliary air tank?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Most volume tanks are certified to three-atmospheres. A vacuum at this altitude is one-atmosphere, going the other way. So ... duh! Only thing you have to insure is that you use a non-collapsible hose between the volume tank, vacuum pump, and bell-jar table.

Lov'n that ALUMINAUGHT of yours. Wonderful work. Keep swinging, kido.

David

[trout]

duh is right, I was not thinking!I will post more on the light bar later.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

duh is right, I was not thinking!I will post more on the light bar later.

Too many bad SF movies showing primates exploding in a hard vacuum has convinced us that the differential between 'down here' and 'up there' is a powerful and terrible thing. Now, spring a leak at 1300 feet of sea water!..... THAT's one hell of a differential!

[trout]

The short of it, and that might be an unintentional pun, is the light bar will e set aside to try again later down the road.

out of the mold the light bar was a mess. I figured as much with the way I tried to salvage the casting.

I tested the lights and they were bright. Then an end light would turn off if one of the two rails going back to the sub were flexed. One of the solder joints for that LED was either not done well or broke while being de-molded or trimmed. The tabs on the smd LEDs were very delicate and easily broken off. Not a huge set back I just need to be careful not to flex it while mounting it on the sub.

Masked the light cones with white glue.

Painted the light bar with silver and tested the lights. I did not coat the masked area with a heavy coat of paint and light shown through. The silver paint really helped show up some bubbles and air pockets that needed filling. Used Evercoat Metal Glaze to fill the holes. Needed to work the glaze into the pockets to make sure it was filled and not coated over. Painted the bar with gloss black. Time to test the lights again. The black did a real good job of blocking the light, so removed the white glue mask. One of the center lights was now very dim. Here is what I got.

I tried to see if flexing helped (it did not). I think one of two things happened, when opening the hole to receive the glaze I damaged the connection or glaze seeped around the LED and is blocking a good portion of the light. Either way, too much time is being spent on trying to get patch, fix, and make work something that really needed to be redone anyways.
I will set this aside and worry about it later. I do not like quitting, but I need to refocus back to the core, get the sub working.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Remember the last scene in THX-1135 where the robot controlled society announces its abandonment of the chase - just at the moment of capture -- because the allocated funds for the chase had been expended?

You too have reached the point of diminishing returns on the Light-Bar, Tom. Yes, move on later with a second try.

You too are a hard-head. Welcome to the club, pal!

[trout]

You too are a hard-head. Welcome to the club, pal!

Thanks, I think.

[crazygary]

Hiya, Tom!!

Sorry to learn of your resin casting glitches! If you would allow me, I have a few suggestions which may very well
remedy some of the problems you are encountering. While in the employ of Bell Sports, the Bell Helmet people, I had many occasions to undertake "large" as well as smaller resin pours, and learned a great deal in the process.

Rule number one is to have both the "A" and "B" parts of your resin at room temperature. Also, make sure the product is relatively fresh, as old resin will produce bad results!

Rule number two is to NEVER use paper products to mix your resins in, unless they are plastic coated. Paper cups will introduce alot of unwanted air into your mixture. Better to user plastic cups for this purpose. The good old "Solo" cup, without the brewski, naturally, is a good choice!!

Numero three-o: pour equal amounts of part "A" and part "B" in to separate cups and stir them SLOWLY, from the bottom-up, so as not to introduce air into them! That is, keep the coffee stirrer on the bottom of the cup!

There is also a product available from all resin producers called " bubble breaker", "burp", etc! It's purpose is to eliminate bubbles due to surface tension of the liquid material, on whatever it encounters! Use it sparingly, as overuse will affect the consistency of your resin. Manufacturers directions are well worth the read.

Four: Once both parts "A" and "B " appear to be smooth and bubble free, then pour part "B" into the part "A" cup, and again, stir slowly. A touch of the "bubble breaker" can also be of great benefit, but again, do so sparingly, and only if absolutely necessary.

Once poured into your mold, a toothpick can be a very useful tool for getting the resin in all the nooks and crannies into which you need it to go!! Also, if you vibrate the mold in some fashion, that will also persuade the bubbles to come to the surface where you can pop them with another toothpick!!

This procedure has always served me well, and I hope it works as well for you!!

At all cost, keep on keepin' on!!!

Crazygary