One project at a time (or maybe just two). I went ahead and punched out the parts did a rough assembly. I'm missing a couple of sub-deck pieces so I'll get those on order and hopefully have them by the time I get back in a week. I'm going to need an entire room to assemble this beast.
Captkonig, I love big but I already have 3 ships under construction and the one I have to maintain so I can battle. My ship yard is stretched to its limits haha
I got the remaining two parts this week for the Hood. When I showed up at the laser cutter, the parts were not made yet, so I got to watch them get cut. The operator slapped a piece of 3/8 ply on the bed, closed the lid and called up the file. 30 seconds later the parts were done. No smoke, no chips, it just looked like a pencil drawing the outline of the part. Amazing. I've got the stern half assembled. In this picture you can see the braces that will support the rib in middle. The rib is connected to sub-deck, plus a brace just behind the stringer, one at the -1" line, and two on each side of the hull bottom. The Golo doesn't quite fit inside, but it's close.
I got the bow of the Hood assembled today. Looking at the sub-deck at the bow, I have a lot of sanding to contour the hull. And just for grins, the Hood by a tiny 144 cruiser called the USS Hawaii.
I started working on the middle ribs tonight. The ribs will have three alignment pins and 6 bolts to hold them together. First I added doublers to the back of one rib to increase the depth to 1/2" Next the treaded inserts were put in the holes. I tried to use the inserts as provided, but as I tried to thread them into the hole, the exterior threads were ripping the plywood. So I turned 90% of the exterior threads off on the lathe and shortened the insert at the same time. The modified insert was pressed into place using an arbor press. With the inserts in place, I checked the back to make sure that neither the insert or bolt went past the edge of the doubler. I checked the fit of the bolts and ensured the two ribs lined up when bolted together. Since the bolts penetrate the ribs, I have nylon washers to seal the bolt against the rib. I hope it seals... Another piece of plywood was added to back of the inserts to seal them. So there is no way for water to enter the ship from the insert side.
I made some progress on the Hood tonight. First was fabricating the o-ring holders for the water channel pass-through. These are aluminum plates that create a groove for the o-ring on the inside of the ribs. A 1/2" aluminum tube is inserted once the ribs are bolted together and the O-rings seal against the tube. Next were the alignment pins. These are 1/4" brass rods which mate with a brass sleeve in the other rib. I forgot to take pictures when I was fitting the parts together. The mating brass sleeve was made slightly smaller than the hole it sits in. I bolted the ribs together and then tacked the sleeves in place to make sure they were aligned. Then I pulled the ribs apart and reinforced the glue joint. Fortunately I didn't glue the ribs together, although I had a couple places where they stuck.
I'm wondering if a 1/2" hole will be enough to flow water from one half to the other when you've got a lot of damage. You might wind up looking like SMS Seydlitz after Jutland, or HMS Warspite in the Med after the bomb hits!
I agree, the hole is pretty small and may end up being useless. Part of this build is experimenting with different techniques and finding out how well they work. I've already discovered that I should have made the clearances on the hole larger. I used the clearances from the Parker O-ring handbook because they are the experts. However, the clearances are so tight that I'm having trouble inserting the aluminum tube. And I'm getting some aluminum on aluminum galling because of it. I should have realized ahead of time that I didn't need such tight clearances - they are designed for 1500 psi systems - but I didn't. Should either the flow rate or the clearances become a problem, at least the solution is easy - glue a plug in the hole. Without the flow through, the ship is going to need two pumps. The capacity can either be split between two overboard pumps, or there can be one full capacity overboard pump and one transfer pump. I'm leaning towards the transfer pump as the best solution right now. Maybe because it's the method we use to keep the fuel in Air Force jets balanced. If you split the pumping capacity between two overboard pumps, then if you have more damage on one end that end will start to sink first. You may have enough pumping capacity not sink, but part of it would be on the wrong end, so you would sink anyway. On the other hand, if you used a transfer pump, you could pump the water between the compartments to maintain an even keel. And you won't sink until the capacity of the overboard pump is overwhelmed.
