Looks like the thread is well hijacked already to me I used to be religious about the "this topic: was that topic" thing, but years of people not caring on topica, yahoo, and others has led me to quit trying. If it gets to the point where either the moderator, or a poster will separate it out, buy cutting and pasting originals to new or editing... Then I'll go back to being strictly on topic... Until then, unless Justin et all make a sticky with the policy... I'm posting willy nilly! No offense intended Mike Horne
Well mike, i started this topic, and i was answered in the beginning, so anything else was just a bonus. I quiet like this one so far, and it hasnt gotten too far off, were still on convoys. I dont care about the willy nilly part. just be careful to actually provide helpful information, and not talk about 'gator wrasslin' or whether or not NASCAR is a sport, like Powder monkey, although that provided for a interesting conversation, it was way offf topic.
Knight, looks like you may well need to move the servo mounts around to get the bottle closer to center. Unless of course you cast some custom balast, or fill the low spaces between the ribs and opposite the bottle with lead. Any chance you could move the rudder back, and place the other servo's to either side of the bottle... this would free room to the sides for batteries and ballast... Luck Mike
The really small convoys are great, but they can be hard to build and balance. The size makes a lot of ballasting issues crucial. I've seen one that rolled and capsized in hard turns... well before a bunch of fenagling and bad language fixed the problem. And I know a guy who tried to change battery packs, and the new combo rolled the ship. And pumps that small are kinda hard to come by I once made a proof of concept the size of a quarter and shipped it off to some fellows in WWCC, but it died in the mail for some reason. Worked fine for me, if only briefly. I guess I'll blame corrosion and the post office Mike
The size of a quarter? Wow, that amazing. Hey mike, any idea the wieght an LST-542 class ship can be in the IRCWCC? Thanx is if you can find out.
So far there is not one ounce of ballast in the Liberty ship. That is my next course of action. I only hope that I get rid of that list without making her ride too deep in the water. This hull came with a ton of lead and bolts for ballast, I have all of it sitting here. I will most likely cast the lead to shape to fill some of the voids in the lower hull. UGH! we are sailing next Saturday!!! I hope I can get her sea worthy in time!!!
You can do it knight, it looks like it is coming along nicely. you might have to take a few days off, ignore any calls....haha, just kidding. Good luck.
I AM taking a few days off before the sailing, but I will be no where near the ship yard!! The wife wants to go to a resort for a few days!
Well if you consider that the liberty ships where designed to haul 10,856 metric tons of deadweight and they drafted some where around 27 ft Now not being an engineer but having a half of a brain well okay maybe 1/4 I assumed the hull was designed to be extremely buoyant [] so you will need a lot of ballast I know I did and be carful melting the lead as you may damage the Hull it is soft enough to form to what you will need than you can remove when needed good luck let us know how it goes
Idee biddee pump. Well as I remember it was near a quarter in diameter, but somewhat taller, I found some round flat motors in printers, vcrs, etc. and used the web article showing a disk with soldered on vanes. It came with a clip the diameter of the motor which I slid down to create the housing for the impeller, I added a brass tube for the hose to attach to, a siphon hole... and voila! Didn't prove really reliable though But a little pump like that is about all that can be fit on some of these tiny boats. Mike
I actually run a 1" diameter x 1" high pump in HMRT Defiance, she's an envoy class tug, and the pump is more of a "I'm sinking" indicator than a survival device...but it works well.
I would make the mold out of sand. Pour the molten lead into the sand mold. After it cools then glue it to the bottom of the hull. (Cast a large number of figurines for tabletop war-gaming in my past. so I have a little experience with Hot Lead.)
Why dont you just epoxy lead shot into the bottom of your hull, thats probably a lot simpler. Ive seen that done on warships and convoy ships and it works pretty well.
She had a large number of fishing sinkers, nuts and bolts glued there, and when I was stripping her down, I found a number of 3/16 and 1/4 shells lodged there. I do not want to give shells a place to hide.
I agree, while in the hands of an experienced worker, molding provides detailed, accuart parts, but if your are inept at metal woking and the such, i would stay away from molten metals. And darren, that is a very small pump indeed, but good job getting it to work, i dont think i could something that advanced.
Yeah, molten lead is always a risky proposition. The closest I dare get to pouring molten lead is using really fine lead shot, mixed up with epoxy. Works almost as good, and I bet if you put mold release in the bottom of the boat it would be removable. If you're looking for a really, really small pump, I've got one made from the guts of a HS-81: http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h237/kotori87/IMG_9027.jpg it's positively microscopic!
Cewl pump! My guess is that for this liberty, cast ballast may well be preferable to permanent epoxy/lead, as the cannon consideration may change. If you are going to work with lead... don't forget your industrial hygiene! If you don't want to cast, you might be able to buy lead sheet from a health and safety catalogue, cut it in layers, and epoxy it together for custom shapes. Mike
Yep, Got the resperator on hand. Going to try to reposition everything and hool everything up tonight! Only hope that I wll be able to finish. Have a wonderful week end! I'll be back next week.
