There you have it, the other end of the chaotic spectrum. Chaotic Lawful: Epoxy the component into the boat Chaotic Evil: Pfft the wires will hold it in
Got my mags and mag plumbing done in the stern deck. Still may revise once solenoids come in slightly. Plan on hanging them from the deck with a real short hose to the tee. I have some the the internal armor starting to dry in the hull waiting on it to cure some so I can add more. I think I’ll be sheeting and ready to float test in the next week.
Your solenoids are in a box. Waiting for the postman for tomorrow. Be careful with the magazine routing, especially with that plastic tubing, if there is any misalignment going into the interrupter, the magazine will jam. That was something I experienced when I tried to make guns that way. Just a heads up.
While I’m finishing up mags and securing guns on the decks still I went ahead and just put the last set of clamps on the last stern section. It’s held in place at the top around the deck rim with e6000. Should do the trick and loose enough at the bottom to shake out bb’s to collect. Special care must be taken around the stern gears they are so close to the ribs and armor belt you will need to tack them close in a few places so that the gears do not rub so watch out for that part when adding armor. Next up I’ll ether post updates on sheeting or progress on finishing fitting out the decks.
Revised the stern gun mags back to copper I couldn’t get tight enough bends to get them how I wanted and feeding 100% with the nylon mags trying various bending methods. Other people’s mileage may vary and I believe it can be done but I myself was unable to pull it off and get the reliability without pinching some rounds off somewhere. The nylon mags require a very smooth bend to keep them from pinching bb’s off. Straight mags or big loops are no problem but I’m trying to keep my hose lengths to a minimum so I had to do back to copper that I could bend more easily. My 75rnd haymaker is a much more gradual bend so it feeds with no issue so it will stay on with the clear tubing unless I find issues with it before February regionals. Waiting on some ptc fittings for the solenoids to come in tomorrow to finish the plumbing and wire the solenoids themselves.. May start prepping balsa tomorrow.
Got in a little more time this evening and added armor to the mags installed the ptc fittings in the solenoids.. this boat is starting to really get some weight to it now.
That's looking pretty chock full o' pluming there. Man, I should probably get to work on my boat, eh?
First time trying out duck tape on the hull before I put a skin on. One more side to go and then I’m putting some fresh balsa on using tissue paper instead of silkspan. Never done that ether. Oh and also visible in this picture is my 15/32 brass outlet holder in the mounting position sjs printed it in.
After trying to sheet the hull last night in a hurry before the wife got out of the shower in two sheets that was a disaster.. This hull requires several pieces to get it to conform decently to the hull shape. Wetting the outside of the balsa with wet paper towels will also help getting the sheeting to go down with minimal cracking. Here is the first completed side I got after work today.
Hull is sheeted with one a base coat of red on the bottom. Will do the other float test at weight and then add waterline and above waterline color. Also don’t have your heater close to the tissue layer sealing the balsa it will cause it to wrinkle and look like crap I won’t do that on the next side I’ll just be patient..
Got her all skinned and painted up with my target waterline marked.. I will add ballast till I get her nice and level and see if I desire to adjust after driving around.
Looking good! I'd say you're making me jealous, but I've promised not to buy any more SJS kits until I finish the two I already have... It might be a while.
Did a final revision of my pluming it’s tight back there with all those guns. So far has held together and it all just snakes by my pump on the left side to the main airline.
Welp after getting a new bulk co2 bottle to test everything out in the boat I found that my current setup was very tricky to get a good tweak that didn’t double feed and I found my stern guns a major PITA to reload… Better to find out at home than at the pond. I’m doing a full revision of my bottom caps on the tee fittings. Going away from large hose to smaller hose on the mag feeds and back to drilled pistons. The way the gas feeds are drilled makes sure that the piston goes up first. I also have a 4-40 set screw for piston adjustment. Just pop the mag off and I can see what’s going on. I was very caught up in getting the end of the mag as close to the tee to keep my hoses short but it proved to big a headache. I will be going back to flexible mags keeping long easy bends so that they feed and see how this works. So far the first gun I tested 3 mags through fired all single shots with every pull so I’m hoping to have the rest built and reinstalled this weekend.
Glad to know there are others out there with reasonable expectations from their cannons. I'd say it isn't hard, but 50+ iterations on my own design says otherwise.
Yeah, I’m getting very much annoyed though.. I’ve only been able to get one gun so far to reliably shoot one bb the other two I’m working on are still spurting.. Have to pull them apart again and see what the difference is so I can get the other guns on par… argghhh Edit: So I’m not double posting the kids just woke up from naps so work is stopping for now but I did manage to fix another gun.. I believe my problem is my pistons are too short in some of the guns. I made another one slightly longer to put in the worst spurting gun and now it’s shooting singles every pull… Now I just need to make a couple more pistons then retest them all back in the boat. Whew.. thank god I was about to lose it.
Got to work after lunch on making some new long pistons today. Here is my revised stern setup with flex mags, it is still very busy back there but it kinda is what it is. The inside the boat is not near as clean as I would like but atleast I know where everything is in my own self made rats nest. Moved some weight around and now she is floating pretty well. Here is a short video of me going forward and backwards and shooting holes in my float test pool. View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FbVDVuVvw0c
