Wisconsin Build Diary . . .

Thanks Gascan, There are some very good pictures in Dave Seibel's projects showing the cannon / servo mount. I guess today will be my MK1 Mod0 cannon moiunt. The Montana 5-inch cannon system is insane. It would be interesting to see the pepper pattern that they would make.

 

Can hardly wait to see this monster finished. it is gorgeous already ... it will be amazing when done. Nice job so far Ken!

 

Richelieu,
I am getting excited about the progress. I have everything that is need to finish building Wisconsin. I am hoping to have her done by 15 Jun so that she can be certified fit for full active duty. Hopefully MABG will schudule a battle in July and then we can have our first taste of combat.

 

In between looking for replacement hardwood flooring for most of my house, new tile for the kitchen, utility room and foyer plus paint for all of those rooms I was able to sneak a bit of time to work on Wisconsin. Today my focus was on the cannon system. For the cannons I purchased new vinyl tubing (5/16 - ID, 7/16 - OD), replacement clamps, hitch pins and Hitec HS-485HB servos for gun depression.
The first thing that I wanted to do was build servo boxes. I used 1/8" and 3/8" finish birch. The 1/8" plywood was used for the bas and back of the box. The 3/8" plywood was used for the mounting sides for the servos. The dimension for the base is 2 1/4" x 1 3/8" and the back is 2 5/16" x 1". The dimensions for the side pieces are 1 3/16" x 1". Additionally, I notched on of the side pieces 1/4" x 1/4" so that the servo cable would have a pass-through.

After the parts were cut, I tacked the pieces together with CA glue. When the glue dried I used epoxy to re-enforce the joints. Afterwords, I sealed the boxes with fiber-resin. For cosmetics, I painted the boxes haze gray. When the paint dried it was time to mount the boxes to the cannons and install the servos. The work was time consuming, but I was happy with the end product. The next step for me is building the cannon mounts. So more to follow . . .

 

You may have problems with your servo mounts over time, as the repeated shock from firing is transmitted from the barrels to the timber.

Even reinforced as they are, failure will be a matter of when, not if.

A better material would be polycarbonate which can be bonded directly to the magazine cover.

 

Those cannons look amazing and deadly. Wow.

 

It's the recoil that does the damage.
Big gun cannons are throwing a much heavier projectile, and the recoil of three barrels firing at once is often enough to strip the gears in the depression servo.
I use metal gear servos for that reason.
Wooden servo mounts are a potential failure point, and one which is easily avoided by using stronger material.
The depression servos should be mounted with the rubber feet as well, to help prevent shock damage.

 

Thanks Darren for the feedback. Before I constructed the servo boxes, my fear was that the ships cannons would shake them apart. I built a test box and ran it throught the ringer including a 12 year old son stomp test. It seemed to hold up well. I will make another set of boxes out of lexan, We'll see how that goes. I used Hitec servos that had the metal gears in them. Additional, I did not mention it in my previous post, I installed black rubber gasket material in the box and on the mounting points for a shoxk buffer. 28 years of being on Navy ships with lot of things that shoot and shake you to death.

 

Thanks Stokamoto, I worked really hard on them and I appreciate your coments.

 

I served on destroyers and I remember the rattling when the main gun was fired. Most of the rattle came from the misfirng of the gun followed by a lot colorful metaphors about the gun and the ship.

 

LOL, yeah the reliablity of the old 5-inch 54's were not great. I serverd on Briscoe (DD-977), Laboon (DDG-58) and Mitscher (DDG-59). Being the Department LCPO for Combat Systems Department I took more than my fair share of butt chewing s because of those guns.

 

Morning All,
I am currently working on Wisconsin's guts.and I am curious, is there normally a battery tray inside the hull? If so, what materials are normally used? Or is it normally purchased from a shop?

 

Anything that holds them securely and doesn't impede water flow to the pump is good. I like putting mine as low as possile and pushed outboard. Try not to use anything that could combust easily. Many people I see make an appropriately sized retaining wall around the battery (1/4" thick by 1/2" high or so) many then strap it down using a hook on each side and easy to replace rubber bands. A battery sliding/ flopping around leads to a funky list or possibly a sink. Also I have seen ships dump their guts in the pond when not secured and they roll over.
Das Butts

 

Also if you have sufficient room between the batteries you can lay them flat on the hull bottom so that the water flows down the center of the ship to the pump. Good water channeling is very important for a ship with limited pumping capacity!

 

Mike,
The layout for the center section of the ship has a bank of 4 batteries, 2 on the port and 2 on the starboard. My CO2 bottle is in between the batteries. There is a 1/2" water channel underneath the CO2 bottle. There is a fiberglass screen over the water channel. So the water flow is not impeded by anything in the middle of the ship. I was hoping to find a tray that I could attach some type of mounting rod to hold the batteries in place. It looks like I may have to build another enclosure.

 

Hi Ken,
I used 3/4 aluminium angle stock from Home Depot and plumbers GOOP to build a battery tray. The thread is the DKM Scharnhorst refit on page three of this topic. There are pics of the battery tray. I am very pleased with how it has worked out, never had a battery slip or move.
J

 

Thanks PamnJay, I looked over your Scharnhorst Blog. I liked the principles of your battery mount. I went to Lowes and picked up the angle stock and I went with JB Weld, aluminum putty. THe orientation of my batteries are different than yours, but they are definately not going to go anywhere. I will post pictures within the next few days. I appreciate your advice.
Ken

 

Awesome Ken, glad to help.
J