It's been a long time coming, but thanks to @bsgkid117 at South Jersey Shipyards this dream has become a dreadnought! This will be my first 3d printed battleship so I'm excited to see what it's like. Already I'm way ahead of a conventional build. The middle two sections of the hull finished printing yesterday at Will's build session and within an hour all four pieces were glued and bolted together and the hull was basically done. I jokingly commented that to reach this stage in a conventional build I would have already spent 90hrs staring at the boat. Overall, very fast hull acquisition. I'll be using my now standard drive setup, 24v brushed belt drive. Damage control will be the venerable Carl pump. Guns will be my own powered by SJS's Rhino reg. Threw some components in the boat last night to see how they'll fit. She has a lot of room. Once I finish the superstructure design that will be printed. Going for a 1920's look. I wanted this hull specifically for the casements but I also think the PA class looked absolutely smokin hot in this configuration. So anyway, super excited for this build. I think my next step is to glue in the stainless stringers. I've heard varying reports on how easy/hard it is so I will let you all know my assessment. Stay tuned!
I just want to be clear that the regulator pictured is not the SJS normal regulator, it is a prototype/sample regulator that was provided for this build to receive some feedback. I, unfortunately, can't battle 18 boats at once to test all of the new stuff we may or may not be rolling out. Looking good so far @Beaver
Work continues. Over the last few days I've installed the stringers. I've heard varying reports that people have had trouble installing them so I thought maybe I'd detail my process. Step one was to clean up the stringer channels in the ribs. There were bits of plastic and glue in them. I found using a drill bit as a rasp to clean the channels works rather well. Much better. Next step was to void the warranty and make the stringer follow the profile of the casement cutout. Will accidentally made the stringer straight. This will be corrected on future hulls so no worries there. To make a channel for the stringer to lay in I heated a piece of the 1/8 rod and slowly melted a channel in the appropriate place. The next step is to pre-bend the stainless rod. I hear this is the step missed most. If you don't do this there is a good chance the stringer will pop back off the hull when you unclamp it, no matter which glue you use. Here you can see the stringer laying on the hull with no clamps. This is what you want. Next apply glue. I'm using JB Weld Plastic Bonder to glue these in. Testing is out for Will to see if it's a viable alternative to E6000. One of the perks to this glue is it drys really fast. You can glue all the stringers in, have lunch, pop the clamps off and keep building. Great for a build session. I just don't know if it'll withstand the abuse of a ram and other battle stresses. Time will tell. Now time for clamps. Taking a tip from @Kotori87 I used zip ties when I ran out of clamps. I would honestly just use zipties for the entire glue up. One could easily keep working on the hull with the zipties still in place. Also great for a build session. lol With the stringers in it's now time to start looking at outfitting the inside. As I said in the first post I'm using my belt drive system for this build. Need to build stuffing tubes and order the hubs for the motor mount but I did a mockup to see how it'll fit. Not bad at all. That's all I have for now. Need to build stuffing tubes, add magnets to the hull and then decks when I get them from Will. Till next time! [EDIT] Forgot to include the video of one of the stress tests on the stringers. I'm optimistic this will become the glue of choice for this process. View: https://youtu.be/08zUrmn112U
Its like it was designed to go together and have the internal components fit in certain places! WIZARDRY!
