Got the lexan deck plate done tonight. I beefed up the rim with 1/32 layer of wood, which is going to be painted and waterproofed. it's not enough to warp anything, and if it does, I can rather easily remove and replace the wood rim layer. After that, I used a small router to bore in 1/16" holes from the top for each of the magnets. I realized that direct magnet contact was leading to them popping out of their holes. so I put them on the top side of the deck plate, leaving 1/16" of material between the magnets. It has worked well on previous applications. After that, I started taking the guns apart. figured out why one wasn't firing--the action was solid rust. I managed to knock out a few of the BBs, but will have to disassemble to get the rest out. Boohoo. I need to anyways to replace the gun necks, the mag tubes, and install compression fittings on both to facilitate cleaning and maintenance. I also NEED to replace these plastic pins in the cannons. they are burred like mad. I cleaned them up, but having to do so is dumb. anybody have a source for metal action pins? Tomorrow, I'll rebuild the guns in the updated configuration and start bending the new mag tubes to match the interior of the superstructure. GLAS has managed to help me along with a lot of things, namely with the problems I have been having with my pump. I have parts on order, so the pump will be on the list of things to work on. After that, I need to get some gears for the motors. Going off of @WillCover 's suggestion, I'm going to get Traxxas 1526 nylon shaft gears for the prop shaft, and something compatible and metal for the drive gear. Any suggestions? As far as I am aware, the BC gears will not work with traxxas gears. Will's reasoning of having something nylon in the works that will be the point of failure in the event of damage etc seems like something I'd like to do. The lack of pics is due to my monthly throttling. I'll post more next tuesday or so.
Sounds like a good set of improvements. Seems like there is a need for a ‘guns 101’ type guide if one doesn’t already exist. The plastic pistons that came with your guns do suck (traditionally called pistons in the hobby vice pins FYI). Many use SS flat head rivets, they are way better. The specific ones I use are from McMaster, 3/16 x 5/8 SS solid flat head rivets. I purchase in boxes of 50 for $10. If you send me your address I could mail you enough for a few boats, I have a fair stock of half-drilled ones that broke bits and are thus unusable for me, but would still work perfectly fine for a normal setup. There are other options, some use brass #10 (I think) longer screws that they remove the threaded portion, but they require periodic filing to remove dings. The SS pistons in one of my boats have been set for about 10 years now and fire reliably every time Waterproofing should prevent warping, ensuring complete coverage of wood is key, especially in any voids that might not seem accessible from the outside. Should last for decades before you see a problem (west systems or other good epoxy). For gears you should be able to match the pitch to find a compatible pinion, probably 32 pitch (or whatever the traxxas gears pitch is). Some have used nylon successfully
Thanks Kevin, I think there is a Guns 101 somewhere on the forum. I can see some of what you're talking about with regard to reaching the stuff you can't see to waterproof through the lexan. I'll dig out my epoxy and thin it down to use as a waterproofing coat before dropping a coat of paint on it. I'm going to try and get some waterproofing that... I'm pretty sure Steve posted up a few months back for use on the New Mexico. I'm generally pleased with the Texas as my experimental platform--the lessons this boat has taught me are going to make the New Mexico an utter monster when I start cranking it out in the new year.
More Lexan finds its way onto the boat. I've got the forward mount constructed, and have the guns partly mounted in. I can adjust another few degrees into the down angle inside the mount by adding O rings around the neck of the gun. the Lexan aiming plate is held in place by three neodymium magnets I sank into the face of A turret. since the B turret guns are integral to the midships deck plate, it has to be detachable. once I get the guns fully mounted into the deck plate, finishing work on the aiming plate will have it positively attached in a manner conducive to not losing the dang thing. likely a hinge on the bottom, or attaching it to the cannon barrel armor, or something clever like that. As you can see, I get about five degrees of down angle out of the guns relative to the boat when it's on the water. Since I have a 21 pound boat that generates a lot of "Yeah it may be the scale waterline, but you're high out of the water" comments, I'm going to add ballast, and shift some of it forward such that I get the nose down a bit more. See @jadfer 's comments earlier in the thread regarding how to properly lay the boat. Since I got my racing bug out, I don't need to hydroplane anymore, and running at 23 seconds with a 28 second boat driving the nose underwater is no longer a concern, as running like a bat out of hell in a WWI dreadnought is against the rules in the first place. So the bow will sit about a quarter to half inch deeper in the water. estimate 3 more degrees of down angle. And yes, the barrels are straight off the nose, because this is an experimental boat and I want to try it.
I've managed to mock in the magazine for one of my cannons and get the right fit, combined with the right magazine capacity. the fill port will protrude for easy top-filling, which also gives me a good slope down to the action of the cannon. I'm going to go christmas shopping and work on this sucker the rest of the day, since it's the opening of Gun season and the people of Wisconsin are stupidly dangerous to be around on opening day because the idiots shoot at anything that moves, including Blaze Orange-covered Forest Officers. Yes. that happened. But luckily, the job has perks:
progress!!! I mounted in the completed mag tubes and carved in the holes for them to protrude. Luckily the spots where I have them coming out are behind some 40MM gun tubs, so I'll be adding gun tubs to give them some protection, along with a few other small armor mods. after that, I figured out how to get the superstructure to go together while also allowing access to the guns. that plate that originally would hold the gun mount in place was made obsolete by a mount mod I had to do, and so I attached a bit more barbette back onto the boat to act as a lip holding in the superstructure deck plate. after that, I screwed the back of the superstructure together, and Voila, a really sturdy deck plate with integral gun mounts/superstructure! Next move will be to waterproof the wood, and install the faux secondary batteries.
Work on the S/S is going well. got a picture of the new rudder scheme that @Kevin P. guided me onto, which will be rather nice to have. All the parts came from servocity. Seems a lot sturdier than the belt, and it looks like I have enough travel to make the rudder do goofy things. we'll see how well it does in the spring. And FYI, the tolerance is basically spot-on for Mark's lasercut kit. if the assembly was even a single tooth larger on the rudder sprocket, it wouldn't work. I've got maybe 1/16 clearance between the chain and the aft hard area. the parts are: 0.1875" set screw hub 0.250 pitch plastic chain 1/2" bore 0.250 pitch acetal hub sprockets (16 tooth) 0.250 pitch acetal servo sprockets with 24 tooth spline to put it together, I grabbed 6-32 by 3/8" long buttonhead screws from the hardware store. the system took 98 links of chain. good thing I bought 200 links.
super duper pics today. finished cutting out the parts for the bridge etc. Have to make a nice Conning tower, and get the mast together still, but this mod should significantly improve durability as well as the form. I did it a little differently this time, and managed to make it just a tad more scale. Next step will be to hollow out the bigger pieces to reduce weight Once the structure's hollow and fixed to the deck, I'll get the mast in place. The Stack and that goofy secondary fire control tower behind the stack will be part of the recovery float. I'll figure that out later.
So I have the lower part of the superstructure hollowed out and fastened to the deck, and the upper superstructure is drilled and prepped to accept the new mast. once the center support is lined up and ready, and I get the other two legs lined up by drilling the upper and lower superstructure components separately. then glue the pieces in place once the tripod is lined up. The citadel was pretty fun to make, just laminated a bunch of plywood together and ran a pattern on the scroll saw. the cool thing is, my dad sent me my christmas present early, so I was able to verify the citadel's general size and shape against the picture. Things are going to start winding down with regard to work for the holiday, as I am headed down to Georgia to see the family. It looks like I won't be able to visit with the Georgia IRCWCC group like I had planned though; my mom's Alzheimer's is starting to knock out her ability to do normal things, so I'm going to spend as much time as possible with her. She can't understand phones anymore as of this month. It really sucks being a research biologist and understanding the full gravity of the situation with regard to how little we know about fighting the disease, and its eventual consequences. Anywho, hopefully I'll have all of the internal work done and the boat operational by mid January so I can start work on the Idaho.
Major components for the Bridge, Citadel, and foremast are assembled. the only major thing left is finishing the flagpole on the foremast. In addition to allowing me to use plywood, using the scroll saw has significantly improved the scale accuracy of the superstructure, and I'm rather pleased with the results. Hopefully this week/weekend I will have time to figure out the new rescue float system. The stack will be filled with expanding foam and the secondary fire control tower...,. I dunno yet. maybe just core it with Balsa. We'll see how it goes. I'm pretty sure I'll be using some form of spool attached to the bottom of the float to hold the line
The Superstructure is complete! Here's the Pics. I built the rescue float as an experiment to figure out what I'd use on the Questionable Fart Project. the funnel will be left hollow for now, with a line running from the cross post inside to a bobber. Once I have tested that concept, I'll test several other internal configurations in which the whole recovery float will be used. After testing is done, I'll fill the funnel with foam and call it good. if it cracks or whatnot under fire, it cracks. Not interested in replacing it. Anywho, things are looking good, and I'm probably going to leave the boat as-is until I get back from vacation just before the new year.
Sure enough, I've managed to test some more layout stuff with this hull. I fixed the persistent bottle placement problem I've had for the past year by sliding it right between the batteries on the tray. fits like a glove. I built a little holder, and hopefully I'll figure out how to firmly lash down the assembly. After looking at a few more pictures, I think I figured out how I'll spool and anchor the rescue float. I'll mount the spool inside the superstructure between the guns, and have the line feed out to the funnel/secondary fire control center float. Once I get the thing built, I'll post pics of it. In other news, since the whole forward compartment will be empty, I intend to mount my forward solenoids to the underside of the forward deck plate. the underside of the barbette's in the way, so I am going to trim it up with a dremel to create the proper contour. then, using those screw holes on the tops of the Strike solenoids, I will mount them to the deck. Once I get the solenoids positioned and finish running the gas lines, I'll get the wiring re-run for the new configuration. With luck, I'll finish the rebuild by the end of the week. Then get all of the junk balsa stripped off and ready for a reskinning. At that point, with the boat back in operational status, it'll be a matter of giving her a new coat of paint, slapping in some new ballast blocks, and calling it good. Then the work on the QFP begins in earnest.
So. Internet just got throttled. But aside from making pictures hard to do, things progress well. Tomorrow, I'll go and grab supplies in the nearest patch of civilization to build the rescue spool, as well as pick up the plans for the Idaho. Aside from ice fishing, I managed to redo the battery harness to include a split to run the pump through an automotive power relay. This way, the BC pump switch will just activate the relay, which will then power the pump directly from the battery, which will hopefully increase the pump effectiveness significantly. After that, I managed to straighten out the layout of the electronics. they, along with the bow solenoids, are now occupying the space vacated by the CO2 tank in the bow. Due to the character of the deck plate, and the barbette penetrating the plate itself, I had little option but to put the solenoids forward of A turret. *FOR ANYONE SEEKING TO DUPLICATE THIS IDEA* If you cut a piece of 1/8 plywood in a circle and just glue it to the top of the deck, this will be not only an adequate barbette for your purposes, but also an excellent way to facilitate bolting the solenoids directly under A turret. If I had done as detailed above in the original construction of the boat, I would be able to put the ESC, receiver, BC Board AND the power relay in the bow forward of the solenoids. This would have been a perfect setup, at least to me. Since I couldn't, my battery harness came up about four inches too long. So I will be shortening it either later tonight, or tomorrow once I get back from the supply run. This fitting will be a very important lesson for my Idaho build, as the only difference in the configuration between Texas and Idaho's systems will be the addition of a fifth solenoid and an expansion tank. So given that, I can ensure from the very beginning that the boat will be purpose-built to accept this configuration, and thereby reduce the *Absolute rat's nest" appearance of the Texas' setup. I hate it when electronics look like a rat's nest. Once I use the lessons afforded me by Texas to build Idaho (and thereby learn even more lessons), I will likely return to Texas and build a new bow deck plate/refine the electronics bay. Along with several other extensive mods. As it stands, Texas, as my current main line, and eventual backup boat for Idaho, needs to be operational. Operational supersedes Perfection. No complete rip-ups until I have a second fully operational boat. Anywho, the furlough is still on, I got my last paycheck yesterday, my emergency canned goods stockpile and the obscene amount of wild game in my freezer are at max, and my girlfriend thinks my "Weird boat hobby" is pretty neat. Almost all is right in the world. Now if my family members would quit getting metastatic bone cancer and Alzheimer's, that'd be *great*. It's important to remember to dig onesself out from the workshop and focus on what really matters. Hold your family close whenever you can, dudes.
LOL sooo the pump works like a total beast now. The only thing that's kinda weird is that the relay takes thirteen seconds to disengage when you shut it off. So it's almost instantaneous when it turns on, but flip the switch off and it stays on for a bit before finally clicking off. of all the problems to have, I think it's a good one. Pump wiring and power relay is good. Rudder's good. Bumping up to a 1.25" prop set when I make the order for the Idaho build this weekend or early next week. I have the clearance to run them, and the thrust cones should still allow for maneuver far superior to this last season, what with the rudder rebuilt and prop shafts trimmed back. She's looking like a completely different boat now. Luckily I can reuse a lot of her wiring and connectors to do the job. Wiring re-run should take most of the day, and I'll probably have to quit early to get the house cleaned up. Ladyfriend is coming over to watch British murder mysteries tonight.
On what part, the switch wires, the wire feeding from the battery, or the wire going to the pump? I'm not really concerned about the performance since the 13 second delay is on the tail end. would the diode increase pump performance while making it an instant off by ensuring unidirectional power flow?
So I cleaned up the hull tonight, fixed some damage to the stern, courtesy of the triple sterns on Mark's Graf Spee. BTW, you can see where he hit me in multiple areas on my Lexan armor. His BBs nearly penetrated the lexan sheets, and most of them are in groups of three, except where he hit a stringer and blew the crap out of it. My stringers took a pounding this season, so I plan on not using basswood for stringers in the future. I'll probably use 1/8 plywood like the casemate contour stringers that came with the kit when I get to Idaho. I've managed to reinstall the armor with all of the new wiring run as well. Tomorrow, it looks like I'll put in the electronics, wire up the solenoids, and do a functions check. Once that's done, the focus will shift back to the guns and superstructure. I'll bend out the new sidemount magazines and mount them, then do some of the finishing touches on the bow guns. Sunday will be a wrap-up of those projects, and re-sheeting the hull. Hopefully by Sunday night she'll be ready for a new coat of paint. Next week, if the Furlough lasts, I'll probably do a tub test of a new ballast layout. Then post up the Stem-to-stern of the FRAG 1 mod as soon as my internet comes back to full bandwidth
Across the winding of the relay, with the band towards + battery. 1n4001 works fine. It acts as a return for the winding of the relay coil, when power is switched off protecting the RC switch board. of course the FET Charlie uses is like 80+ amps, probably has a higher rating that the contacts on the auto relay you are using.
Yeah, I talked with Charley about it yesterday. He asked why I had done a go-around. Explained how my pump has been acting like a puking dog for the whole season whenever the solenoids are powered up. Runs fine when the solenoids are unplugged. I am gueessing that the Pump is just last in priority for power consumption, so if it is just drawing like an amp on the board to run the switch and pulling power directly from the battery, it may solve the problem. I haven't dived into circuit boards in almost twenty years, so my experiments are by necessity physically intensive.
There we go. another couple of hours worth of work cranked out. Electronics installed, wiring run, armor reinstalled, weapons mounted. Next hit tasks: Mount the motors (still need gears) Sheet the hull Seal new wooden parts and paint the ship (going with Pacific campaign colors now, that camo was a PITA) Bathtub Ballast test Stem to Stern pics Shelf her for the coming season in battle-ready condition.
