well, back from my long talk with Scott Gage, from the Adelaide group i now have many, many things to think about as far as set up goes, as for pumps and outlet angles, im considering doing some ideas that Scott told me first, have two pumps, one at the front, one at the back. for water channeling the idea i like the best is having an angled water channel, both on the sides and in the channel itself, directing all water to the pump( were ever it may be), made out of self leveling concreate sealer also, im not going to use that big sla battery, instead im going to use some rechargable AA batteries, and place these all the way down the sides of the hull, should help the boat to be more stable, as for progress, it will be slowed by the ending of uni holidays, and im stopping my how to section untill i get my boat all sorted out and working, after my long talk there are many things that i will try and then just post the best,
Hi Burnsey, just got on to this list and saw the build photo's as she progresses. Looks good, especially the nice wooden decks but a few tips, all subject to whether people think its worth while advice of course, horses for courses. 1, your motor looks too small and will go too fast draining too much current, I use dick Smith p9004 motors $5.00 (like the one in your pump) or go to Jaycar, I bought a good 380 style 6-12v motor last week from Jaycar that runs meduim strongly on 6V and hammers on 12v, only cost $7.50Au, that way it'll be one with carbon bushes as the one you have has really small bushes and they'll wear and cause the motor to spark and interfere like crazy. Also put capacitors like the pump ones onto the boat motor. 2 I use a grub screw to put props on my boats, drill a hole and tap it in the prop boss in front of the blades and put a flat area on the shaft and grub screw it there, works great and never lost one, the props blades are usually soft soldered not silver soldered, if they were silver soldered you'd never get them off so dont heat the prop boss as they'll possibly all fall off and then you have to resolder them one by one (not fun) I'd actually like to silver solder all my prop blades on but it'll take too much time and i need a jig to hold the blades as i do it. 3 pump, put the outlet to the stern or side and have it go out through the deck and over the side so that you dont weaken the hull. With the low volume output you'll have, you have to know where it is and always remember to look at it. One good hit on Wollongbar (3 to 4 penetrating holes) will sink her, mind you I shot a Richeliu on the weekend and put a 2in long by 1in high hole in her (blew out a weak spot) that would have sunk her in a minute if i hadn't warned the skipper to get her back pronto! the impellor in your pump will pick up once it gets about 5mm in the pump body then run till it sucks air and reprime fine. It'll spit and just keep repriming so you can use it later in your Battleship. Also it can be taken apart for motor replacement and cleaning, I usually sit it in CRC226 once a year to ensure the lower motor bearing is lubed and a drop of CRC on the top of the shaft (dont let it get to the bushes inside or she'll get smokey). The suggestion to put the outlet in the stern is a good one but in Wollongbar it'll be too slow to affect anything. Also put foam waterchanneling in over all the bottom except where the battery is so it sits low as possible but leave about 1mm under the battery for water to flow to the pump, and have 1/2in around the pump body open for water to flow into around the impellor so it'll prime and pump. 4 Your Float line, I use a line in the stern attached to a blob of bondo holding an eyelet/anchor point. The reason I use the stern is that when you pull it up if you drag it by the bow it'll put all the weight on the stern and can damage props/rudder. If you lift it by the stern it'll get the props and rudder out of danger first up. Usually I have a metal eyelet on the rear superstructure and have the line in a small tub in the stern and you just stuff the line in it (without knotting it), slap the super back on and hit the pond. Cheers all from a new member
hi Michael, good to see you on the forum, cheers for tips, especaily the one about the foat line at the stern of the ship protecting the rudder and prop when its pulled up, im now concidering being super safe and having the small front deck and ss as two floats. oh and with the decks, yeah, after cutting the fiberglass hull, i wasnt looking foward to sanding more fiber glass, but hay, now i have some left over for the sides of the ss, ill see how this goes though, i my use epp foam as well. also with the float line, im going to use something similare to braded fishing line, it light, strong and comes in assorted colours, but the best bit, it rolls up really small,so im going to use a plastic camera film canister to hold it in. i agree with you on the grub screw on the prop, if had some taps and dies i would have made a little grub screw hole, but i dont, soooo now its stuck there... but i didnt run into the problem of the blades falling off which was good, and i was using a 80 watt chizle tip iron, thats another thing i have to buy, a desent sodering station, soo many things i need for my Richliue build but Scott has offered heaps of stuff for when i get to that. i also have an idea for the pump that i will test, my idea is this, you know how the pump has the round bit of plastic on the bottom where the lexan is glued to, ill trim that off so that its round as well, then ill have to find some pvc pipe that round plastice impellor houseing will fit in to, and cut out a little notch for the outlet on the pump, then when if figured out were everythings going to be in the boat and im ready to start the water channel ill trim off the pvc pipe so that it can be set into the concreate sealer resting on a spacer to keep it off the bottom of the hull slighlty, then when i go to mount the pump i trim up some wire mesh, lay that over the pvc pipe and cram the pump into the pipe and the mesh keeps it from falling out, that way the pump is easly removable for cleaning and replacing and the mesh is also removeable, allthough i still want the pvc pipe to be removable as well, becasue im going on the logic that everthing thats going to break, will break, and everthing thats not meant to break, will break first. however, i havent descided yet on one pump or two, oh and yeah about the motor, im looking at the boat, then im looking at the tiny little ity bity motor, and i think theres know way that thing is gong to move that boat, this fast, so ill see if Scott has any more motors lying around, sounds like he does.
Hi Mate, with the float line use blind cord, like venetian blinds have to pull them up. Cheap as chips, UV proof and strong as nails. I've got 3mm blind cord for Lion and it'll pull her 16kg up off the pond bottom no worries, in my small ships I buy small food containers from K-Mart and use them, about 2in square and 40mm deep is perfect and you can drill through the bottom of them if you want to cause they're cheap and handy too. You dont need 2 floats, just make the decks all screw down firmly to stop water getting in, then have a hole in the rear deck where the superstructure can sit above the float and have the rear super made of firm foam (garden kneeling pad) with a bit of it going through the deck into the hull area so it'll keep itsself in place until she goes down. Has to be a loose fit and does not matter if it can move about a little as long as it always comes offwhen it sinks. Only use one pump cause there's less things to worry about then and under the pump put scotchbrite pad with a hole for where the impeller entry is so the pad does not get sucked into the pump. Scotch brite pad is that green scratchy stuff usually glued to a yellow spongey thing that you use to do the dishwashing with to scratch food off the plates? It'll allow huge water flow to the pump and stop all the bits of balsa that try to block it. The motor you have will move her but it wont last long till it karks it and gives upt he ghost leaving you up the river without a paddle! Also check the rudder you have, in the AUSBG you can enlarge the rudder 200% (141% on the photo copier does this) but it must remain the same shape as on the plans so yours will need a little trimming. Dont worry she'll turn on a 20 cent piece and Wollongbar's are very manoeuverable.
With the water channeling, one thing I forgot we can use foam to do it. I use 15mm thick soft foam like those camp roll bedding things you can buy in the K-Mart camping section, I glue them to the hull bottom with selleys Kwik Grip (comes off in turps) That way you're not adding too much extra ballast all over and you can pull a chunk of the foam out and stick lead ballast through it on the hull bottom once you're ballasting the ship. We had some discussion whether the foam made you harder to sink but it only assists with channeling as when you get too much water there aint no way that little bit of foam will keep you up. And with your float line make sure that when she sinks and water rushes in the line does not get pulled into the hull by inrushing water as it'll snag and no float!
ahh, so the rudder must be the same shape as the plans, but bigger, right ok then i will have trim mine up a little(a lot)
No big stresses, just copy the plan rudder to enlarge it, stick the enlargement on the brass one you made and tin snip off the excess then resolder the cut edge and get it all flat and true etc. I think the Wollongbar was a balanced rudder with a little bit of rudder face in front of the rudder stock, if so try to emulate it as it'll give you slightly better turning than a fully trailing rudder. cheers
yep, already inlarged the plans of the rudder when i made it, so far its over size by about 1mm alround, and it already has a little bit of rudder in front of the post, i thought i made a mistake when i soldered it in, i couldnt get the brass to bend around the rod perfectly so it sits a little back in the rudder, but now it looks like it turned out the right way, which is good,
Burnsy, the Wollongbar build here is complete. We went for the 4.5aH SLA and still needed just a little ballast. Initially had too much ballast and with the large chop on the pond today, plus not being set to speed, she drove herself under. Float deployed, boat recovered, dried and back on the pond minus the excess ballast in 15 mins. The ship handles well, is quite stable and the float works perfectly.
hmm, well, ill try both ways, the AA battery strips and the sla battery,ill have one as a backup if the thing goes flat, although... i did try the ship in the tub the other day and it didnt have any ss, just the motor, Rx, battery and decks and it was very rolly polly, btw, what sort of sla are you using? mine is a block type one, i have a feeling i should have bought the flat one instead
Nope. Aggressive left-right-left-right on the rudder will make her roll a bit, but generally, she's very well behaved.
sweet, good to know i have backup power, now all i have to do is think of is a different name for my wollongbar, any suggestions? i recon ill name it SS whammybar (insert epic guitar solo)
Agressive port and stbd rudder will make my T2 SE-A1 tanker roll too. Its 7kg to waterline and has about 25mm freeboard at the well decks, so all the battery and ballast is below the waterline and she'll still roll when I do it! Pick a small local costal fishing villiage Burnsy and name it after that. I've had 2, one the SS Wollongbar done up as a small inter island/coastal liner like the real thing and then a second 2 island tramp named the SS Harrington after my wife's parents home town where we got married. Name it the SS Chocloate Bar if you like, SS Mars Bar? I like Mars Bar's, but if you call it the chocolate bar dont sail it round Bondi they may get the wrong idea of what kind of chocolate bar it is HAHA, not a good joke!
lol, ss chocolate bar, funny one. ha, i have an idea, i could purposely make it unstable that way the ss whammybar is rock and rolln' anyway... back to reality, so a costal fishing village, hmm... I cant name it the ss port Adelaide because i go for the crows, even if they do suck at football, google maps to the rescue.
A name is a very important thing for a ship. Don't rush your decision. First, consider what flag you'll be sailing under. French? British? American? Australian? The nationality of your ship gives you a good place to start looking for names. Next, consider whether you want a serious name, or a silly one. For example, does the name "BLT" refer to the British Light Transport, or is it simply a delicious snack for whoever happens upon it? If you're going for a serious name, you next need to ask whether you want a purely historical name, or one that simply follows the same conventions as other ships? On the other hand, if you're going for a silly name, it's time to dig up your favorite comic books and other humorous reference materials. My favorite source is Schlock Mercenary, although othe sources work as well. And never discount the benefits of adding "OF DOOM" to your ship's name. Instant sillyness every time.
on second thought, the SS Port Adelaide wouldn't be such a bad name, because when it sinks i can rejoice in the fact that Port didn't win(a rivalry thing between Adelaide and port Adelaide), then again the SS marsbar of doom is just plain funny
