MechTech Posted December 14, 2006 Author Posted December 14, 2006 Hey neptunesurvey, yes, that is a drydock (although it was all wet after moving the ship from the water ). I'm going to make a fancy stand for it later on out of plxiglass sheet and tube. Some engraving with LED's to pickup the highlights would look cool too, hmmm. I haven't touched the superstructure yet, but I think on it often. I'm working out the elevator/door design and the ramp, main hatch designs. I'm going to have to build lighter than what I originally thought on. I've got lots of 1mm styrene, but I'm going to have to go with .020" to keep weight down. The ramp will have to be lighter too I think. I'm going to have to do some "supermodel"engineering to keep the weight down to a minimum up top. If she's not top heavy when all's said and done, it still is windy here a lot. Turning into the wind helps, but a good broadside gust could capsize her . I'm going for serious stability! - MT Quote
big F Posted December 14, 2006 Posted December 14, 2006 Hey neptunesurvey, yes, that is a drydock (although it was all wet after moving the ship from the water ). I'm going to make a fancy stand for it later on out of plxiglass sheet and tube. Some engraving with LED's to pickup the highlights would look cool too, hmmm. I haven't touched the superstructure yet, but I think on it often. I'm working out the elevator/door design and the ramp, main hatch designs. I'm going to have to build lighter than what I originally thought on. I've got lots of 1mm styrene, but I'm going to have to go with .020" to keep weight down. The ramp will have to be lighter too I think. I'm going to have to do some "supermodel"engineering to keep the weight down to a minimum up top. If she's not top heavy when all's said and done, it still is windy here a lot. Turning into the wind helps, but a good broadside gust could capsize her . I'm going for serious stability! - MT Windy your not kidding the last few days and nights have been blowy to say the least. Quote
neptunesurvey Posted December 15, 2006 Posted December 15, 2006 Hey neptunesurvey, yes, that is a drydock (although it was all wet after moving the ship from the water ). I'm going to make a fancy stand for it later on out of plxiglass sheet and tube. Some engraving with LED's to pickup the highlights would look cool too, hmmm. Or, you can make a working floating drydock to scale and have a tugboat to pull it around. Quote
MechTech Posted December 17, 2006 Author Posted December 17, 2006 Oh great, you're already making more work for me ! I was supposd to have the stabilizers done and MPEG'd, but one of the arms sripped out so I had to fix it. I'll hopefully get it done this week. - MT Quote
MechTech Posted December 18, 2006 Author Posted December 18, 2006 UPDATE 18 Dec 06 Here's the MPEG's of the stabilizers. The solenoids were too weak (worked on the workbench great ). The winch motors were overkill (but will still power other things), so I got a couple of micro servos and they were just right (starting to sound like a story about a blonde chick and 3 bears). [attachmentid=39068] Stabilizer out. [attachmentid=39069] Stabilizer in. I still used pulleys and string because springs tension the stabilizers out automatically. If they strike something or some dummy forgets to retract them before moving the hull around, they just roll back into their socket. I don't have them wired in (or anything else yet) so that's why the two movies, I had to switch the wires. On a side note, the great birthday cake my wife got for me: [attachmentid=39070] Desert Sand chocolate (tasted good too) [attachmentid=39073] This was the tank on the cake - cool in a Transformers kinda way. I'm off to bed. I'm hoping to finish some details on the motor pod and wire everything in for a test drive! - MT Stabilizer_Out.MPG Stabilizer_In.MPG Quote
big F Posted December 18, 2006 Posted December 18, 2006 (edited) Cool vid Even though my ISP is blocking my connection at the mo due to exceive use. There are always ways round content blocking, heh heh !!! Cool cake now if only you could combine cakes and transformers. Cakes you can transform into stuff and then eat. No wait you can do that you get your cake cut it into bits eat it and your body transforms it into....... you get the idea. At least your tank is better than the one in the new Transformers flim. Edited December 18, 2006 by big F Quote
MechTech Posted December 19, 2006 Author Posted December 19, 2006 Thanks bigF. You must be spending too much time here. No wait, there's no such thing. I haven't seen the new transformers movie yet, hopefully it's good. How about the weather here lately!? You'd think we're in the Atlanatic or something . - MT Quote
big F Posted December 20, 2006 Posted December 20, 2006 Thanks bigF. You must be spending too much time here. No wait, there's no such thing. I haven't seen the new transformers movie yet, hopefully it's good. How about the weather here lately!? You'd think we're in the Atlanatic or something . - MT yup rain wind and now ice and icy fog ..... You dont want to know how many gallons of water we have had to pump out of my big fish pond because of the water being too high. we had over three inches of rain in one night for two night on the trot. our water butts are all full and over flowing. The stream at the bottom of our road is working again its not meant to flow any more as the waterspring has been redirected. If the weather guys say drought again this next summer I think they will get lynched. I do have some cool photos of the fog bank from yesterday though and my fish and Bonsai trees love the rain, sadly my car is not a big fan of the rain and prefers to sit it out. All this is great if you have a boat, which you nearly do. Quote
MechTech Posted December 25, 2006 Author Posted December 25, 2006 (edited) Update 25 December 06 Merry Christmas! Here's the latest work so far. My family chipped in and got me this awesome drill press:Drill Press Link Thursday I got my fourth propeller in off back order (thanks Pandan! - Pandan Models) . Since the props thread on to the motor shafts directly and I have no way of securing them, I put dual grub screws on them to secure them. [attachmentid=39242] Drilling and allignment jig. [attachmentid=39243] Tapping the threads. [attachmentid=39244] Grub screw closeup - look at all that room! Six blades doesn't give you much work space! [attachmentid=39245] The controller water tight copartment. Individual holes were drilled for each wire and the small amount of space in between was filled with silicone. It came out better than expected. [attachmentid=39246] Battery holder posts and begining of conduit to run power wires. [attachmentid=39247] My young daughter wanted me to photograph her Play Doh pizza while shooting these, so enjoy ! I was hoping to have her test run for Christmas morning, but it looks like I'm shooting for New Years day now. Enjoy your holiday time off everyone! For those that may not get holiday time off, thank you for "holding down the fort" for the rest of us. - MT Edited December 25, 2006 by MechTech Quote
Greyryder Posted December 25, 2006 Posted December 25, 2006 Mmmm, pizza! Nice work on that prop. I would never have known that that set screw wasn't factory. Quote
big F Posted December 27, 2006 Posted December 27, 2006 My friends dad has the same drill in his work shop ( he builds scale trains) along with the mini lathe and table saw theres not much you cant do. I so need the space and time for my own ones. Quote
MechTech Posted December 28, 2006 Author Posted December 28, 2006 Thanks Greyryder. Hey Bigf, I've been wanting one of these for about two years. I had a standard press about two years ago, but it had way too much play to do detail work like this. I love the whole Microlux line of tools I've purchased so far. - MT Quote
neptunesurvey Posted December 28, 2006 Posted December 28, 2006 Very nice MechTech. I will have to look into the Microlux line. Quote
MechTech Posted December 28, 2006 Author Posted December 28, 2006 Thanks Neptunesurvey. I would not have been able to make the Daedalus this fast (relatively speaking) and as accurately without them. Conventional sized tools are too big and melt the styrene. All of these tools are variable speed too. I turned on the drill and heard it humm, but no movement. Then I turned the speed knob up. They really mean 0 to whatever top speed! - MT Quote
MechTech Posted January 7, 2007 Author Posted January 7, 2007 Update: 7 JANUARY 2007 (first time writing 2007) I thought I'd throw everything together and give it a test run. The weather has been windy/rainy (circle one) and we've all had the stupid cold thing going around, so I built components for the electrical system instead. She's going to have first class wiring and components. Here's where I've gotten so far: [attachmentid=39422] Wires everywhere! [attachmentid=39423] Wiring box where all main power wires will go (the Fererro Roche' choclates that came in it were good!). [attachmentid=39424] Fuse box (plastic lid screws on to cover). The tower connecting it has two holes on either side (you can see one) where the battery leads will come through. [attachmentid=39427] Fuse boxes, conduits and you can see the back side of the connectors. The small one in the middle is for accessories and the two ends are heavy duty for power, bow thruster etc. [attachmentid=39428] Hull connectors (green ones on left are heavy duty, white one on right is accessories). [attachmentid=39429] Hull connectors closeup (3mm heavy duty plastic). [attachmentid=39430] [attachmentid=39431] This homemade module is freeing up one more channel now. It switches the output of one speed control between the bow thruster and stern drives. Now I'll have full bow thruster control instead of all or nothing as in my original design and save a channel for fun things. That's it for now. Everybody wants sushi bowls for dinner so I'm off to the kitchen. I hope everyone has a great new year! - MT Quote
Skullsixx Posted January 8, 2007 Posted January 8, 2007 yup rain wind and now ice and icy fog ..... You dont want to know how many gallons of water we have had to pump out of my big fish pond because of the water being too high. we had over three inches of rain in one night for two night on the trot. our water butts are all full and over flowing. The stream at the bottom of our road is working again its not meant to flow any more as the waterspring has been redirected. If the weather guys say drought again this next summer I think they will get lynched. I do have some cool photos of the fog bank from yesterday though and my fish and Bonsai trees love the rain, sadly my car is not a big fan of the rain and prefers to sit it out. All this is great if you have a boat, which you nearly do. Damn Big F... sounds like you guys get more rain on your side of the pond than we get here on Planet Oregon!!! Quote
MechTech Posted January 8, 2007 Author Posted January 8, 2007 Heh heh. Yep it rains here as much or more than OR. We almost moved there when I was a kid! It's condusive to building models though! - MT Quote
big F Posted January 8, 2007 Posted January 8, 2007 Heh heh. Yep it rains here as much or more than OR. We almost moved there when I was a kid! It's condusive to building models though! - MT Yeah that or fitting an new kitchen as Im doing now. No time for modeling for me for a bit Quote
neptunesurvey Posted January 11, 2007 Posted January 11, 2007 With the bow thruster, which is cool by the way, will it be intergrated into the hull or just suspended underneath the hull? Quote
MechTech Posted January 12, 2007 Author Posted January 12, 2007 Thanks! In the hull (check out photos in page one of the thread). - MT Quote
neptunesurvey Posted January 12, 2007 Posted January 12, 2007 Wow! I don't know how I missed that picture. I would love to see the Daedalus in action. Quote
MechTech Posted January 24, 2007 Author Posted January 24, 2007 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!? UPDATE 24 JAN 07 It's now been one year since I laid down the keel and got to what you see today. I'll let the picture and MPEG's say the rest... [attachmentid=39864] Note the wet props (also note their scewed directions). Quote
MechTech Posted January 24, 2007 Author Posted January 24, 2007 (edited) HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!? How'd this double post ! UPDATE 24 JAN 07 It's now been one year since I laid down the keel and got to what you see today. I'll let the picture and MPEG's say the rest... [attachmentid=39864] Note the wet props (also note their scewed directions). [attachmentid=39866] A quick pan of the stern section tempoararily wired up for testing (throttle is on low and very quiet). Oh man! I can't post the MPEG of the bow swinging around side to side in the tub or the slow speed of the props (they counter rotate)!!! The file sizes are just a bit too big! It looks cool though. The only problems I had were blowing a fuse (it was underated anyhow for safety reasons), and one cooling line wasn't passing water through. The one that worked was ice cold on the heat sink! And oh yeah, my bathroom is too small. The first two are easy to fix . I just have to run the conduit and wires for the bow section and it's off to the reservoir! Of course with it being 30 something degrees (F) outside I might wait a bit . - MT Stern_Pan_View.MPG Edited January 24, 2007 by MechTech Quote
MechTech Posted February 3, 2007 Author Posted February 3, 2007 (edited) UPDATE 3 FEB 06 FIRST UNDERWAY TRIALS - FINALLY! First off, I had to pilot and film all by myself - at the same time (my wife wasn't interested in going to the reservoir ). That means not all of the manuevers were spot on and some shots shaky. I couldn't show off all the manueverability. Second, one of the motors failed. I'll have to troubleshoot the cause. I hope I don't have to rip one of the pods apart . That means reduced overall speed by 1/4. She handles great with or without the stabilizers out. The stabilizers out just looked cooler . Overall I had over an hour of fun putting her through tests and checking performance. My little boat doesn't run anywhere near as good as this "big boat." I'm singing "I like big boats" to the tune of "big butts." Third, the videos are short and some edited (lower quality) to be able to post here (500k and under). Sorry but better than my last posting. She runs VERY quiet! The bow thruster sounds like an outboard motor though. Enjoy the movies. [attachmentid=40182] "High Speed" pass (stabilizers extended). It's a scale warship, not a speedboat. [attachmentid=40145] The bow thruster close up (it's noisy, but powerful)! [attachmentid=40146] A quick swing around. [attachmentid=40151] Going sideways! This was hard to do with one hand! [attachmentid=40152] 360 Spin [attachmentid=40155] Bow thruster stering EDIT: I fixed the fourth motor. It's seal leaked a little and I had to oil it. No sweat! I'm about to move house 10 miles this upcoming week and I have some job related studies to do. That means I'll probably be out of circulation for a while - but not if I can help it! Take care! - MT Bow_Thruster_Close_Up.MPG Swingin.MPG Sideways_1.WMV 360_Spin.WMV Bow_Thruster_Steer.WMV High_Speed_Pass_II.MPG Edited February 4, 2007 by MechTech Quote
do not disturb Posted February 3, 2007 Posted February 3, 2007 its pretty fast, way faster than i thought it would be. can't wait till you get the flight deck and tower finished. Quote
Dante74 Posted February 3, 2007 Posted February 3, 2007 OMFG! It looks amazingly stable. Can't wait to see the finished model. Good luck with the move and your studies. Quote
MechTech Posted February 3, 2007 Author Posted February 3, 2007 Thanks guys! It was a blast! Hardly any rock at full throttle spin. I just went back to edit that the fourth motor was frozen up. Probably rusted after the last trials. It's as good as the others now. Note to self: lubricate after each run!!! That's testiment to how good the MCD speed controllers are. One motor was frozen up and the other still ran (both on the same controller) and didn't blow it (or the fuse). - MT Quote
big F Posted February 4, 2007 Posted February 4, 2007 Nice Really stable and from the looks of it its fast. Good luck with the move, see you on the flipside. Quote
isamu_dyson Posted February 4, 2007 Posted February 4, 2007 woooooooooohoooooooooooooooooo ! you did it !! your hard work have paid !! congratulations Quote
MechTech Posted February 4, 2007 Author Posted February 4, 2007 (edited) Thanks guys! It should run better with all four motors now! I was surprised at how little bow wake it has for being as broad as it is. The high speed pass clip got dropped so I re-added it back. The hard work has paid off Isamu! I just have to do the anchor and hook up the stabilizers to the receiver and the bottom is done! On to the top soon! Hopefully it won't take a year too:D! Thanks again! - MT Edited February 4, 2007 by MechTech Quote
neptunesurvey Posted February 5, 2007 Posted February 5, 2007 Looking great. It diffently does move will under its own power. Just remember not to do high speed maneuvers with the planes on deck. It would suck to have do a salvage operation. Quote
MechTech Posted February 6, 2007 Author Posted February 6, 2007 I intend to give them the ride of their lives! Could you imagine a modern carrier doing 30 knot spins! I'll stick to land! - MT Quote
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