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  • He Who Shall Not Be Named
    Moderator
    • Aug 2008
    • 12253

    Originally posted by Rick Teskey
    Due too the corono virus positive pressure testing should be halted......Dave save your breath!
    LOL. You smart ass Canadian, type. Too late, Ellie and me are 'feel'n it' a bit; worn down, a bit of a cough, but breathing is OK. Could be a simple cold or pollen in the air. Whatever. How are you northern types doing, Rick?

    David
    Who is John Galt?

    Comment

    • Rick Teskey
      Lieutenant Commander
      • Jan 2009
      • 233

      Sitting on a beach having a corona ...because they won't let me back in ... lol!

      Comment

      • He Who Shall Not Be Named
        Moderator
        • Aug 2008
        • 12253

        Originally posted by Rick Teskey
        Sitting on a beach having a corona ...because they won't let me back in ... lol!
        LOL. Drink up, you cad.

        David
        Who is John Galt?

        Comment

        • He Who Shall Not Be Named
          Moderator
          • Aug 2008
          • 12253


          Tom Chalfant sold his 1/72 SKIPJACK to a customer and shipped it, along with the SubDriver (SD), to me for check-out. I would then forward the tested ready-to-run r/c submarine to its final destination. That represents two opportunities for the shipping agent to crush and/or loose the contents. The job Tom and I do to prepare these items for transit is vital if things are to survive without need of a re-build.

          Tom double boxed the SD; but elected to use just one box for the submarine model itself. The double-boxed SD was protected by bubble-wrap – a layer between SD and inner box (a mailing tube), and another layer of bubble wrap between inner box and outer box. That SD survived its trip to me with no damage at all. The single-box containing the model hull, miraculously, survived its trip with just a tiny bit of shipping damage.

          I’ve been building models of one sort or another for over forty years, some of that work being shipped considerable distance to the customer. If one is to be successful in this activity you have to learn – usually through the school of hard knocks – how to effectively package the product so it will survive the not-at-all-tender hands of a government or private shipping service.

          Rule number-one in my book of packaging is to double-box the contents. Two-box protection is the minimum care you should take when packaging delicate items like models or SD’s for shipment.

          Suspending the product within the inner box often presents the special problem of working out how to arrange the packing material to bear against the products strong points. Sometimes those strong points have to be built into the model in anticipation of the demands of packaging later. You have to take into account the G loads presented through rapid and sometimes high accelerations. The packaging bearing against the item must handle multiple G’s when the box is invariably dropped, kicked, rolled, speared with fork-lift forks, and tumbled into the delivery truck by uncaring, knuckle-dragging goons; idiots who read (if they can read!) a handle with care label as, bet you can’t break this!

          Tom’s an excellent model builder and used the services of the United States Postal Service (renowned for their rough handling of fragile goods) to get the hull and SubDriver to me for assembly, service, testing, and repackaging to its new owner.

          Over the span of a few weeks I received three packages. The first was the r/c system – the receiver (two actually) and transmitter – sent to me by the guy who would eventually receive the RTR SKIPJACK model submarine.



          Tom mailed me the SubDriver (SD), pictured below, and the SKIPJACK hull.

          The SD is the system that propels, controls, and manages the ballast water; the means of animating the model submarine. It keeps all those devices that need to operate in a dry environment … err … dry. Tom sent me a completely outfitted SD with the delicate servo pushrods projecting from the after end – a real challenge to package in a manner that would preserve these items unbent! Note the disc shaped specialized packing used to protect those pushrods from any unwanted axial or lateral shifting of the SD within its inner box/mailing tube.

          The single piece Lexan cylinder is divided into three compartments by two internal cast resin bulkhead. The forward dry space, to the left houses the propulsion battery, the center ballast tank, and to the right the after dry space that houses the propulsion and control devices. The r/c system typically controls five functions: rudder, stern planes, bow planes, ballast, and throttle.



          Rule of thumb is to package the contents to survive a three-foot drop. I can assure you, there are some Gorilla’s in the shipping pecking-order that regard damaging a product through deliberate miss-handling a badge of honor among their fellow troglodytes. Pack your box(s) with those thugs in mind! That’s why I double-box a model for shipping. But, Tom just went with one box for the hull. He got lucky!

          Looks can be deceiving. This Frankenstein looking box hid a very well thought out and applied packing that got an entire, fragile, polystyrene plastic model submarine of a SKIPJACK hull through the mail system with hardly any damage.



          I would have removed the removable items like the two rudders, propeller, and sail and placed them safely within the hull, but Tom elected to package everything assembled. And he got away with it! As you can see he suspended the hull at the center of wide box with the aid of foam supports, two sets that girdled the model and kept it centered within the box, rigid against transverse forces. Two foam-in-place plugs protect the model against axial forces -- one at the stern, and one at the bow.



          A statement as to the effectiveness of Tom’s packaging is the fact that neither the sail, sail planes, stern stabilizers and rudders were damaged in any way. The model remained centered in the box, secured by the two sets of foam supports and kept axially stable by the forward and after foam-in-place plugs. A well designed and executed packaging arrangement!



          Ugly-as-sin, this ‘blob’ is a bag containing expanded foam that started life as one of those benign foam-in-place packaging aids. And that’s how Tom used this neat product – to create a rigid, conformal cushion at the bow and stern of the hull. The job of the two semi-rigid plugs is to prevent excessive axial motion of the model within its shipping box. They worked like a charm. Well, almost. The screw did get bent a bit -- more on that little hick-cup later.



          I got to hand it to Tom. Cutting up that coffee-cup like he did to protect the propeller was a neat trick. But … Damn, Tom! How come you didn’t just take the screw off and ship it within the protective confines of the hull??!!

          Well???.... How come, Tom???!!!!!!



          The only damage, and almost of no consequence, was one blade of the five-blade propeller was bent forward about 1/8”. A testament at how well the model submarine was suspended within the single shipping box. All kidding aside, Tom did a great job packaging this model.

          The propeller fix was easy: I mounted it on a spindle secured within the chuck of my little Taig lathe, but only doing so after unplugging the machine to insure I did not power up the chuck – in this application I’m only using the machine to rotate the propeller as I used the tip of a tool to measure the rake of each blade as I rotated the chuck by hand.

          The white metal (95% Tin, 5% Antimony) is relatively soft and very malleable, so it was an easy task to push the offending blade back into symmetry with a little finger pressure. No, not that finger! The whole fix took all of five-minutes.



          There is plenty of volume within the hull of the 1/72nd scale model SKIPJACK submarine. As the sail and sailplanes are removable it’s a mystery to me why Tom did not elect to remove those items from atop the hull, bubble-wrap them, and put them within the hull during the packaging process. Oh, well. What he did worked so I can’t *****.

          Being a practical r/c submarine the hull had been outfitted with several pounds of lead weight to lower the vehicles center of gravity. This of course raised the mass of the otherwise light-weight structure considerably and added to the magnitude of inertial forces between model and packaging as things were presented with acceleration forces from all directions. But, nothing shifted significantly during shipping. Tom’s excellent packaging job prevailed.




          Who is John Galt?

          Comment

          • He Who Shall Not Be Named
            Moderator
            • Aug 2008
            • 12253

            Once the SD system and the hull were removed from their respective boxes and packaging I began the task of getting the SD operational – installing a new receiver and getting it to listen attentively to the transmitter – and integrating the SD with the hull.

            In a separate package, received weeks ago, came the transmitter and two receivers from the new owner. The original r/c system was retained by Tom as r/c systems using the 75mHz band have become unavailable with the nearly universal acceptance by the r/c vehicle community of gear working on the 2.4gHz band.

            Unfortunately, for some reason, I could not achieve a radio link between the transmitter and either of the two receivers sent me by the customer. I’m at a loss as to why. I even threatened these devices with the almost always persuasive, ‘three-pound tuning wand’ but, to no avail.

            Tom was careful to provide with the SD the documentation relating to the three devices used to propel, autonomously maintain a proper pitch angle, and produce a ‘blow’ command should either the transmitted signal be lost or the battery voltage drop below a pre-set value.

            I’m loath to, ‘read the instructions’. Gee… thanks, Tom!
            Who is John Galt?

            Comment

            • Subculture
              Admiral
              • Feb 2009
              • 2119

              ESC and leveller are Mike Stothers units- tough as old boots.

              Comment

              • trout
                Admiral
                • Jul 2011
                • 3545

                O.K., I have never shipped a completed submarine before.....looking back would I have done something different? Yes, maybe, I don't know. I really do not like selling my own subs. David knows I was missing my Skipjack. I test ran it before shipping, that was a mistake. I love that sub. It is a bullet underwater and a beauty on the surface.
                Click image for larger version

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                David was kind to my whiney self.
                He sent me a hull that he had laying around that he said he did not need.
                I will start a thread on that soon enough.

                I know this is going to a good owner and I would do it again. Thank you David for your generosity.

                If you can cut, drill, saw, hit things and swear a lot, you're well on the way to building a working model sub.

                Comment

                • He Who Shall Not Be Named
                  Moderator
                  • Aug 2008
                  • 12253

                  Originally posted by trout
                  O.K., I have never shipped a completed submarine before.....looking back would I have done something different? Yes, maybe, I don't know. I really do not like selling my own subs. David knows I was missing my Skipjack. I test ran it before shipping, that was a mistake. I love that sub. It is a bullet underwater and a beauty on the surface.
                  Click image for larger version

Name:	Not_My Skipjack_anymore_sigh.jpg
Views:	414
Size:	27.0 KB
ID:	137536

                  David was kind to my whiney self.
                  He sent me a hull that he had laying around that he said he did not need.
                  I will start a thread on that soon enough.

                  I know this is going to a good owner and I would do it again. Thank you David for your generosity.
                  The first one is free. I get you hooked. Then, I own you!

                  David
                  Your Friendly Neighborhood Dealer
                  Who is John Galt?

                  Comment

                  • SteveNeill
                    Commander
                    • Apr 2020
                    • 315

                    I just looked at this thread and it inspired the hell out of me. The world just makes sense to me again when I see this level of work still going on.

                    Comment

                    • redboat219
                      Admiral
                      • Dec 2008
                      • 2735

                      Hey David, has Ellie introduced you already to Philippine "tabo" ? If not, you should ask her.
                      Make it simple, make strong, make it work!

                      Comment

                      • He Who Shall Not Be Named
                        Moderator
                        • Aug 2008
                        • 12253

                        Originally posted by redboat219
                        Hey David, has Ellie introduced you already to Philippine "tabo" ? If not, you should ask her.
                        She does not get it. She speaks Bisaya -- maybe that's not part of her lingo? She asks if you're talking about the sweet coconut drink, tapped from the coconut tree itself?

                        David
                        Who is John Galt?

                        Comment

                        • He Who Shall Not Be Named
                          Moderator
                          • Aug 2008
                          • 12253









                          Who is John Galt?

                          Comment

                          • He Who Shall Not Be Named
                            Moderator
                            • Aug 2008
                            • 12253








                            Who is John Galt?

                            Comment

                            • redboat219
                              Admiral
                              • Dec 2008
                              • 2735

                              Originally posted by He Who Shall Not Be Named

                              She does not get it. She speaks Bisaya
                              It's "Kabo" in Bisaya.



                              Make it simple, make strong, make it work!

                              Comment

                              • redboat219
                                Admiral
                                • Dec 2008
                                • 2735

                                Nice idea with the coffee filters.
                                Make it simple, make strong, make it work!

                                Comment

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