ajg141

I'll be following this with great interest Mankster. It'll make a nice companion to the Typhoon. Cutting out all those limber/ballast tank holes must have brought back happy memories!

Mankster

Hi Andrew, the holes were a refreshing change from the Typhoon. There were only 30 to start with, the hull is thinner and theres no need to file it down to the line. The tricky bit will be building the water tight container. Its going to be my first effort and I want to be able to move it between different hulls. So that means a bit of forward thinking as some future sub may require extra functionality such as opering for front dive planes, sound , light etc.

Wis

About WTC, you will choose a system like merriman's WTC or de WTC deck like Engel's Typhoon ?

Mankster

It will be a WTC like Merrimans but with a piston tank and slide out 'Tech-Rack' type construction. No bayonet lock though, just 2 orings with axial compression (like OTW modules).

Mankster

I have braced the hull and the top and bottom fits pretty well now. The bottom hull is pushed out at two points and the top hull pulled in at one point towards the stern. I had to drill two holes into the top hull and use tie wraps to hold the brace in place whilst I made adjustment. By tightening the tie wraps I could slowly adjust how much the top hull was pushed apart by. When I was happy I used CA glue to hold it in place. This is only temporary, I will try heating up the hull with a hairdryer to see if it will conform to its new shape. If not I will install more permanent braces once I know where the Water Tight Container is going to sit.

Mankster

I am starting to make up part for the WTC. This is the first I am using a lathe, so a lots to learn, with a lot of mistakes along the way.

subzero

You appear to be doing ok Mankster.

If I may offer some advice, take care when measuring up the end cap internal bore as they tend to heat up slightly during turning and you can accidentally take too much off resulting in a slightly slack fit, it looks like you are using the same material that I have made some of my end caps out of.

best to leave them a bit to cool slightly after turning to get an accurate measurement resulting in a good fit on the pressure hull, I take it you will be using O rings to seal ??.

What swing is your lathe ie max dia that you can put in the chuck ??.

I noted you resorted to putting a central screw in the cap in order to grip for turning. With most 3 jaw chucks you can reverse the jaws to give a larger diameter for gripping. ( just a thought ).

looking good my friend.

sub.

Mankster

Hi Sub, thanks. Yes I've gone through a few end caps already . Still its all practice I guess. Yes I will be using an oring in axial compression. Its a pretty small chinese lathe. About 75mm from the centre of the chuck to the bed so 150mm swing. My tube is 100mm od. Yes even reversing the jaws on the chuck, I wasn't able to get them wide enough so I used a mandrel. I made the endcaps as 1 piece out of thicker pvc, but I think is may be easier to make it up as 2 pieces and glue them together

Mankster

Some finished parts:



Making the holder for the Simmering seal for the probshaft.

Mankster

Here are the three submodules that will go up to make the final WTC. I wanted to make a modular type WTC where tou could swap centre and end components depending on what type of sub you have. Here I have a 500ml Engel tank fitted. If it proved to be insuffiencent I will use one of the larger one from my Typhoon.