The Swiss PHer and his mini-submarine...
Discussion
sSmilerbaker
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/profile.asp?mem...
No mention of his sub though. Can't remember if it ever 'took off' so to speak, or just stayed as plans.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/profile.asp?mem...
No mention of his sub though. Can't remember if it ever 'took off' so to speak, or just stayed as plans.
baker77 said:
Hi, Mrs Smilerbaker here. Unfortunately the sub only got as far as the frame being drawn out on the wood. We moved house and we now don't have enough room for it to be built, but we still have what was started and maybe at some point Smiler will get round to doing a bit more to it.
My condolences. Don't think of it as losing a submarine, think of it as not losing a husband in a terrible submarining accident.Blib said:
Baker77 said:
Unfortunately the sub only got as far as the frame being drawn out on the wood.
But wood floats.
I have actually built a Submersible of my own.
Back when I was 13, a mate and I found a damaged canoe in a scrapyard and took it home (scrapie said have it, just don't link me to your deaths
)
Anyway Our initial build was to create a single seater motorboat so we stuck a Petrol mower engine in the back which drove a propellor out the back. The damage to the canoe was a shattered stern, so we Cut off the damaged bit and bonded a piece of marine-ply into the hole. this was our stern through which the prop-shaft came through (via a 'grease-box' to keep it water tight) and we mounted the rudder/cowling off of it as well ( we had a cowled propellor rather than a rudder)
We opened up the seating area so that we could fit/use a throttle and a half-moon steering wheel ( an old toddler trike steering bar inverted
)
Finally we bonded and sealed some 4"PVC gutter pipe to the hull, just below its normal water level to help stability, and also bonded on a pair of simple angled pieces of marine ply as Aquaplanes to keep the nose from digging in.
We first ran her in a quiet Tarn away from the locals, but we then ran her on Windermere a couple of times during the 'off-season'. Never got a 'knots' speed but she went well and was certainly faster than rowing/windsurfing/canoes. She was a bit of a dog in the turns and did roll a couple of times, but being a canoe you could easily self right it (We solved this by adjusting the angle of the aquaplanes)
But like always we soon wanted to mod it and try something else. So we tried Submersible.
Basically we replaced the 'hydroplanes' with moving bow-planes (involved cutting into the hull and bonding in flat surfaces with grease boxes for the shafts)
We then fitted a small hand pump and linked it to the PVC guttering, changing them from buoyancy aids to Ballast tanks.
The biggest change was removing the petrol engine and fitting a 12Volt motor (no idea what it was from, scrappers find ) and a number of batteries. This also meant we had to seal the engine compartment to stop shorts.
Finally we made a rubber bladder that fitted around the drivers waist and sealed the cockpit.
This is as far as we got....our parents realised WHAT we were building/trying and put he crux on it.
The idea was that the operator wore a scuba setup and was exposed from the waist up.
A number of you will be thinking of the 'submersible Canoe' from the British SOE in WW2, and you'd be right..that is where the ideas came from ...god bless 'Commando' Comics
As I say the parents banned the project and it was taken to the scrappers ...once all the good bits had been salvaged
...and was crushed 
Oh and as if you wouldn't of guessed...I'm an Engineer now
Back when I was 13, a mate and I found a damaged canoe in a scrapyard and took it home (scrapie said have it, just don't link me to your deaths
)Anyway Our initial build was to create a single seater motorboat so we stuck a Petrol mower engine in the back which drove a propellor out the back. The damage to the canoe was a shattered stern, so we Cut off the damaged bit and bonded a piece of marine-ply into the hole. this was our stern through which the prop-shaft came through (via a 'grease-box' to keep it water tight) and we mounted the rudder/cowling off of it as well ( we had a cowled propellor rather than a rudder)
We opened up the seating area so that we could fit/use a throttle and a half-moon steering wheel ( an old toddler trike steering bar inverted
)Finally we bonded and sealed some 4"PVC gutter pipe to the hull, just below its normal water level to help stability, and also bonded on a pair of simple angled pieces of marine ply as Aquaplanes to keep the nose from digging in.
We first ran her in a quiet Tarn away from the locals, but we then ran her on Windermere a couple of times during the 'off-season'. Never got a 'knots' speed but she went well and was certainly faster than rowing/windsurfing/canoes. She was a bit of a dog in the turns and did roll a couple of times, but being a canoe you could easily self right it (We solved this by adjusting the angle of the aquaplanes)
But like always we soon wanted to mod it and try something else. So we tried Submersible.
Basically we replaced the 'hydroplanes' with moving bow-planes (involved cutting into the hull and bonding in flat surfaces with grease boxes for the shafts)
We then fitted a small hand pump and linked it to the PVC guttering, changing them from buoyancy aids to Ballast tanks.
The biggest change was removing the petrol engine and fitting a 12Volt motor (no idea what it was from, scrappers find
) and a number of batteries. This also meant we had to seal the engine compartment to stop shorts.Finally we made a rubber bladder that fitted around the drivers waist and sealed the cockpit.
This is as far as we got....our parents realised WHAT we were building/trying and put he crux on it.
The idea was that the operator wore a scuba setup and was exposed from the waist up.
A number of you will be thinking of the 'submersible Canoe' from the British SOE in WW2, and you'd be right..that is where the ideas came from ...god bless 'Commando' Comics
As I say the parents banned the project and it was taken to the scrappers ...once all the good bits had been salvaged
...and was crushed Oh and as if you wouldn't of guessed...I'm an Engineer now
Blib said:
Baker77 said:
Unfortunately the sub only got as far as the frame being drawn out on the wood.
But wood floats.Ships float and are made of metal. What do they make submarines out of again?
Tony*T3 said:
Blib said:
Baker77 said:
Unfortunately the sub only got as far as the frame being drawn out on the wood.
But wood floats.Ships float and are made of metal. What do they make submarines out of again?
Is that my coat?
Tony*T3 said:
Blib said:
Baker77 said:
Unfortunately the sub only got as far as the frame being drawn out on the wood.
But wood floats.Ships float and are made of metal. What do they make submarines out of again?
I think that you'll find that these so called ships are underwater because of rising sea levels due to Glurble Wombling.
Just you ask Nige & Ludo.
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