Finished the hull rebuild the other weekend. It still had some more cleanup to do in this picture. Overall I'm happy with how it turned out. The hull has some thickness and strength to it now that it didn't have before and my bluetape and balsa sheeting method did a pretty good job overall of maintaining the hull shape. There are a few high spots but nothing major.
This weekend with Hovey's excellent help I should have gearbox mounts fabricated and installed, along with nice solid stainless steel stuffing tubes for the driveshafts. Hoping the rudder gears will arrive in time and I can assemble that section as well. Finding a gearing solution to give me the rudder throw I want that actually fits in the stern of the Moltke was a bit fun, but I think I have it figured out. Also settled on a gun layout - bearing in mind that this ship is most often going to be used by rookies / as a loaner, and our principle game here in the Washington Cascade Column is hunting and defending convoy ships, I have decided to go with dual sterns and an aggressively angled bow sidemount in the A turret. The A turret might get some rookies into trouble, but it is there to hunt the tight turning convoys, not to tangle with warships. The dual sterns should give the Moltke, which should turn decently, a nice bite without encouraging a rookie captain to attempt to slug it out side by side with superior foe. Also it simplifies the gun controls for new captains.
Placed a gear order with them this morning actually, not a fan of the cost of building assemblies from their stuff, but am a big fan of their stuff...
Oh wow this is my first time looking at this thread....I thought i put my motor mounts and stuffing tubes in like crap, i must say this makes my motor mounts and stuffing tubes looking like a first prize trophy. I love the way its turning out though ill keep posted im very interested in seeing it finished. Also you should post the pictures in a separate build thread to newbies saying what not to do Keep up the progress and god bless you for taking on this project.
This last weekend Hovey worked down some Aluminum angle into nice gearbox mounts for me and assembled some nice stainless steel stuffing tubes with oilite bushings. I got the slots cut into the hull for the stuffing tubes, but still need to set up a jig to line everything up the way I want. Maybe this weekend. I'll put up some pictures of the progress this evening.
I LOVE those u-joints! I have many brass inserts so I can go from 1.5mm to 6mm or whatever. They are strong, smooth and versatile! I will probably never use dogbones again. Das Butts
Mike you have no idea how happy I am to hear that. Someone over at rcgroups recommended them, but I hadn't seem them previously and was hoping they would hold up. Very happy to hear some supporting testimony from someone in the hobby. They seem a lot better than pretty much every other option, and the swappable inserts are awesome. I needed 5mm bore for the gearbox's output shaft and this was a lot better than boring out a Dumas coupler or anything else I could find.
Hi Nick, What are you going to secure the motor mounts in with? Might I suggest either plumbers or marine GOOP. The stuff will last for as long as you want it in there. Steve Crane used it in his 'Sinker Maru' and it held for over 5 years. I use it in Scharnhorst and have never had a problem and then when it's time for a change, a screwdiver or small scraper is all you need to remove it. It also gives vibration isolation between the hull and the mount and therefore it dampens the noise. Nothing you probably don't know already but though I would toss it out there just in case. j
Hrm, I was planning to drill some holes through the bottom of them and epoxy them down. I tend to epoxy anything and everything that isn't supposed to move. Haven't tried GOOP before.
I gooped the motors in my Invincible directly to the hull, and it's been working for years. Should the motors fail, it's not terribly hard to get them back out again. It's worked well for me.
It sets in about 30 minutes and you can fiddle with whatever you are gooping, by the next am, they are good and secure. I have used epoxy too, but if you make an error or something slips it becomes a pain to repair. With goop you just pull it or pry it apart and away you go. I goop EVERYTHING in my boat that I want to stay put. Battery trays, motor mounts, retaining brackets for my bottle, super structure parts, you name it. Clean up is easy too, basially it becomes like rubber, you just rub it off with you finger. To show people, I put it on my hand right from the tube and start rubbing, it is gone in a minute or so. Once it is cured, it doesn't rub off quite as easy, but it still comes off nicely. J
Actually I have to disagree. I have used GOOP in every room in the house, with the windows open or shut and never noticed too much smell. We redid our kitchen counter top with Granite tiles, they were heavy as you can imagine. We used Goop to hold the edge tiles on because the morter didn't work. We were using the kitchen 30 minutes later to make supper and couldn 't smell anything. J
The only issue I ever had with GOOP, and it would be the same for anything other that contact cement. I installed motor mounts, they were on the slope of the hull and I forgot to brace them.I went to grab a coffee and they had slid to the hull bottom when I returned. I cursed, pulled the mouints out, rubbed the GOOP away with my fingers and re-GOOPed them. I use painter's tape and everything is happy in Jay-land. J
I see theres about half a dozen variations of 'GOOP', maybe some are stinkier than others? What kind were you using Jay?
I use Goop brand Marine. It works great. There is a smell, but it's far less offensive then most epoxies, and like Jay said is very easy to use and clean up. I epoxy as little as possible. For everything else, there is goop. Stay Floating my friends.
