Not much in today's installment. I flipped the hull over and finished up with the strut bonding. Also fabricated and installed the rudder servo torque plate. The excess strut material is trimmed off. This is the rudder servo torque plate. In this design, the rudder servo is not hard mounted to anything. It just "floats" on the rudder shaft. The torque plate keeps the servo from spinning on the shaft. I temporally spring load the rudder so the shaft stays in alignment while I bond the torque plate in place. I think I might buy some stock in JB Weld! Next steps will be water channeling and subdeck...
After a weekend of home improvement projects, I'm back to the Atlanta. After some testing of the drive train, I found I was getting a wicked shaft vibration at full rpm. I figured maybe I made the stuffing tubes to long which was placing the top bearing away from the center point of the shaft (and leaving an overly long section of unsupported shaft in the stuffing tube). I decided to shorten them to move the bearing closer to the center run of the shaft. This required a bit of surgery. To get better access to the stuffing tubes, I needed to cut the hull windows out from each side of the area (wasn't planning on doing this this early in the build). This required marking the frame locations. Here I'm using a template a made up on the PC to precisely mark the locations of the ten 3/8" frames. On the first window I wanted to try this tile saw to see how it would go. I had good control of the cut but it was a pain in the elbow! For the second window, I pulled out the big guns, an oscillating trim saw. Well I have to say, all hull cutting from this point on will be using the oscillating saw. Sixty seconds to rough cut the window compared to ten minutes using the hand saw. Using the 3/4" blade, I was able to make a series of fairly precise plunge cuts to get the window out. Have to be careful though, very easy to cut beyond your line. Good access now... ... but it turns out I didn't need to cut the windows because I ended up using the oscillating saw from the top to trim the stuffing tubes. Oh well. I couldn't reuse the previous mounting method for the re-positioned bearings so I turned them down to 3/16" so they will slip fit into the stuffing tube. The stuffing tubes had to be reamed a bit to 3/16". New setup. Spins much better now! Next step, water channeling!
Water channeling starts to go in. I'll be using yoga block foam for the filler. The hull was traced onto some paper to give me a rough template for cutting the foam. Going upscale on this build. Black marble! Test fitting Yep, this foam sands quite nicely using a course drywall sanding sheet. Getting glued in with E6000 Till next time...
"Long, exposed shafts"? Not an issue until if/when a bb ever bends one. Besides, I used to run the forward engine room of a Spruance class destroyer so I'm used to long prop shafts!
Steve. She looks great. Cant wait to she how she dose witth a little British Dido class light cruiser Nikki
Subdeck starts to go in. These are being bonded in with E6000 and a screw on each end. They will be sanded flush with the deck edge and will be the lower component of what I hope will be a quite innovative deck seal system. The 1/4" x 7/16" strips were cut out of this composite lumber trim board I had left over from a home improvement project. When I was working with this stuff earlier, I noticed how easy it bends when cut in strips. It seems fairly robust, impact resistant, and holds screws pretty well. Of course, it's 100% waterproof. ...
Today's installment... A Surform file makes quick work of leveling the subdeck strips to the hull. Finished up with the rudder mechanism. The top plate is fabricated and fitted. This spring keeps pressure on the rudder gear and hull bushing joint to keep water out. Starting to fabricate the one piece removable deck. I decided to temporally remove the bow scale feature to make deck fitment easier. This will be replaced after the deck is on. I didn't have a piece of 1/16" fiberglass sheet long enough for the deck so I'm making one. ...
The deck is rough cut to shape. I didn't want to ruin a band saw blade so I used a sheet metal nibbler. Worked really well on this thin fiberglass sheet (my forearm got a workout). FYI, I tried this tool for cutting hull windows but no joy with the thicker glass in the BC hull. Fabricating a magnetic hold down system. I found out that PVC cement works on this composite lumber. ...
Some more work done on the Atlanta. Installed deck stiffeners and finished up with the magnetic deck hold-downs. To keep space open underneath, I installed a majority of the deck stiffener on the top side. This all gets covered up with superstructure. Magnets are glued on the underside of these cross braces and they match up with the corresponding magnets glued to the underside deck. Pins on each end do a great job of keeping the deck where it needs to be. I'm adding these knees to the cross braces to add some rigidity to the subdeck once the hull windows are cut out. ...
Very nice Steve, I wish I had your build quality skills. What's this with a stringer on a light cruiser? Is that where the 'armor' went from 3/4" to 1/2" to save weight?
Thanks Kevin. Your building skills are nothing to laugh at. You definitely have me beat in the mass production aspect! Stringer? You mean this area?
Just did a test weigh. Coming in at 7.1 pounds. Leaves two pounds for the guns, superstructure, and some wiring. Considering I'll probably lose a half pound once the windows are cut, should be good weight wise.
