I got my old Invincible hull off the wall rack. It's been sitting there gathering dust since I started my love affair with Scharnie. At some point, I'd stripped everything out of the hull, and about a year ago I started reinforcing the ribs aft of the step, and put in the stern subdeck. Below, you see her before she was retired. Is that any way for a ship to end a battling career? (Real-world aside) So I started adding reinforcement to the ribs forward of the step; being that it first saw combat in 1994, it's an old Swampy hull, which means that it's kind of thin. So every rib got a nice backing of 1/4" ply, which will be pinned to the deck with small dowel sections. Did I mention that I abhor butt joints, as all right-thinking men do? How many small clamps do I have? All these, and more! The stern subdeck was an experiment in using 3/8" ply, with a routered lip for the deck to sit on. Makes for a very strong subdeck/caprail arrangement. Do not try this on a ship that has any appreciable upward curve to it! 3/8" very stiff stuff. The lip delivered by the router was very wide, and will be trimmed back quite a bit for ease of access. The old driveshaft and stuffing tube got cut out. She got a new forward subdeck put in... Followed by the forward caprail and deck, of a more conventional construction. Yes, there are two printed gearboxes waiting for their brushless motors... I have a pair of 1000kV motors to test with. If they don't get up to speed at 6V, I have a pair of 1800 kV motors to drop in. The pretty brass stuffing tubes are courtesy of Gascan, who bought a bunch of brass and left it around where naughty Tugboats could play. More to come!
Snuck out to the shop and worked on SS. Balsa block with 1/8" ply on the outside. Stern is starting to look like something, forward SS will be next topside. Tonight, I will pull some pumps off the printer and print a rudder servo mount and two props to install over the long weekend. Between making the post above and having the heart-related forced time off, I managed to get the stuffing tubes epoxied into the hull, and the gearbox mount fabricated. Still need to do a lot of work, but I'm taking my time Might make cannons this weekend, definitely printing a pump for it so I can start getting the layout done.
I wish I could join you this weekend, but there's no escape from the navy. I think next weekend should be free though.
That'll work. Since I haven't been able to play in the shop much lately, the wife feels bad keeping me out of it
At the build session this weekend, Invincible came off the wall and got some love... new 5-blade 1.5" props and propshafts got fitted, and I began moving the rudder posts a little bit aft of where they were. I am printing new rudders (right now, even!), not for engineering a funky shape (because they're pretty vanilla nearly-flat rudders), but rather because I can Brian K was shanghai'd into building 3 guns with coil mags for me, and they will be in a relatively conventional layout, bow sidemount, stern gun in stbd wing turret, and stern sidemount. If I can get some good pics and plans, I intend to print fancy-pants turrets... EDIT: Update: the rudders printed out both quickly and well. Very pretty! I must print a rudder servo mount; I designed them but never actually printed them...
Spent a couple of hours with Brian K in the shop, got more work done on new battler David Winnette's USS Alabama. Normally we make people be present if we work ont heir boat, but since Dave was flying a patient in a medivac chopper (he's a flight nurse), we cut him some slack today. Guns are mounted! The first official build session of 2015 for us will be on the 4th of January (in my shop, what a shock ), and Brian will be helping Dave work on his ship's plumbing. I got my rudders fitted to shafts, and got the rudder posts CA'd in place, and it's going to be great Also started on the rudder servo mount, it's 75% complete, I need a thumbscrew from Lowe's and it was raining and crappy out, so I didn't go Brian had previously taken my West System epoxy to his house for non-boat work, so he OWED ME big time and in payment has made 3 real cannons with my printed magazines, and we played with positioning on those for a while. I decided to print barbettes if only because it'll produce repeatable results way better than I can by hand. Also got the CO2 bottle mount arranged, going to epoxy it (and those rudder posts) tomorrow; I found PVC pipe that only just allows a 5oz CO2 bottle to fit inside. No more sloppy internals in my boats! If I am less forgetful tomorrow than I am today, I'll take some pics!
Got some pics of the progress... As you can see, she's built for a single 6V 12AH battery. Plenty of power and then some. You can kind of see the drive motors sitting in my printed gearboxes. A different view showing the gearboxes and motors. The brushless motors are 1000kV which should be good for 26sec, but I have a pair of 1800kV motors (identical can size) waiting if I need more speed. Plenty of torque though! The gearboxes are, by the way, posted for free download if you click on the 'Resources' tab at the top of the page. Below, a closeup of the 3D printed rudders, and the very cool Strike Models 5-blade 1.5" diameter props. I intend to play with several rudder profiles before the spring battles arrive to maximize my handling. The pointy tips of the props need to be cut down, because the rudders won't turn Gotta get them close! The drag props are original to when I got the boat 10 years ago. They will likely be replaced with bigger draggier units At the very bottom right of the pic is a cool effect where a piece of Gorilla Tape looks like a ragged void in my workbench. I kind of like the effect. And here is the 1/2-done rudder servo mount. no, it's not printed. I took the Mendel offline to install the Ormerod 2, and I'm still calibrating the Ormerod 2. The free ends of the two arms around the servo get holes in them past the servo, where a #6 or #8 thumbscrew goes thru and is secured by a wingnut, allowing very rapid servo changes when needed. Final pic of the tour, Brian got the copper cannon parts welded into the magazines. Here are two of them! More to come this weekend. Shanghai'ing Brian K into making 2 more for Gneisenau
Thats where all those missing parts go...or the alien puppet masters take them...or just the cats messing with you, wait the later two could be the same.
Mark, I print the rudders vertically, but with small volumes being printed, the stay time is short and can cause warping (from the hot end being near a given spot too long), so I print rudders four at a time, which cools the parts enough to maintain print quality. The rudders that I'm playing with to find a good one, I'm printing with just a straight bore down the inside for the shaft. I score the shaft up pretty good, and put slurry in the bore then ram the shaft down in, which holds it pretty solidly. If I have trouble with them coming loose, I'll print the rudders upside-down with a through-bore, and a little valley on the bottom (printed on top) for a hooked shaft to go in. Beaver, I use XT-60's. They're total overkill (which is my style). They're also cheap. My closest battlin' buddy Brian K uses PowerPole connectors, so I have 2 or 3 adapters made for us to swap lead-acid batteries if need be. PrepMasterNick, thank you Mark designed them, I just printed them out and suggested minor changes. He gets credit for the coolness It's just a little coiled tube for BBs to live in. They go in at the top and roll out the bottom into the action of the cannon. Willco - I frequently refer to my cats as 'my Feline Overlords'. Anyone who thinks they aren't should see them regulate when I'm late with their dinner (or breakfast... Junior Propwasher 2nd Class Lucky-boo starts trying to wake me up at 0430) (I get up at 5 most days so that's not too bad, and at least he just lays there and purrs loud; Chief Hull Inspector Tuxcat is not so gentle and walks on my tummy and then starts getting meaner from there).
Got some work done. Sadly, the brass drive gears are NOT 48 pitch, and this caused them to machine themselves on the stainless driven gears. So, I converted the I-boat to direct drive. Pics are here! Yes, I see that the port motor side of the mount needs to go down a smidge for better drive angle. Thanks And another view... The fiberglass will be tripled up for strength, and the shafts will be supported. Just didn't get to it today. A pair of 1/4" I.D. collars will go over the hose on the propshaft side. On the motor side, they're on really strongly, and will get a clippard brass sleeve.
It's the Clippard 1/8" I.D. hose. I have used it before and it makes a pretty good universal joint, you just have to have it on the shafts really good so it doesn't slip. Hence, the collars on the propshaft side.
Tug, I have found that using Urethane sealant to support prop shafts give me great results. It sets into a pretty firm rubber and acts as a vibration dampener. I use Sikaflex rapid cure and mold it to shape while till soft with a wet finger. Plus its easier to chop out if I drop a ship and bend a proptube.
