[Date Prev][Date Next]
[Chronological]
[Thread]
[Top]
[PSUBS-MAILIST] Fw: Fiberglass sub.
Jim,
The idea of constructing a fiberglass sphere out of pentagons sounds good.
This method is used in acrylic spheres in order to build a sphere with a
homogeneous wallthickness. For a grp hull I think building it in one piece
is more simple and secure . My idea is to make a male mould of a quarter
sphere. This mould will be made of wood and will have the dimensions of the
INTERNAL sphere. From this male mould I will make 4 parts (orange peels)
with a wallthickness of only a view mm. The 4 parts will be joined together
on a rotatable frame. At this stage I will have a sphere witch is smooth on
the inside and rough on the outside. At the locations of the viewports
inserts (steel reinforment rings) will be placed. The next step is to apply
45 mm of grp. Vacuum will prevent air inclosures. Making it smooth will be
timeconsuming but not to difficult. The flanges for the viewports and the
hatch will be glued in place with some sort of thick epoxy mass. After
painting I will have an internaly and externely smooth pressurehull.
Greetings,
Thijs Struijs
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jim Rudholm" <jmrudholm@psnw.com>
> To: "Thijs Struijs" <thijs-struijs@planet.nl>
> Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2002 7:14 AM
> Subject: Fiberglass sub.
>
>
> > Thijs,
> > Interesting design!
> > I have a copy of Busby. There was a U. S. Navy acrylic sub, more like
> > an underwater elevator, called the Nemo. It was made with12 65mm thick
> > clear acrylic spherical pentagons and rated 180 meters. 2 crew.
> > Fiberglass pentagons could be made in a female mold, vacuum assisted.
> > The mold could be CAD/CAmmed in aluminum to a high finish. I don't know
> > what diameter of the complete sphere is necessary but the diameter of
> > the sphere/ the diameter of one pentagon is approximately 15:9.
> > Machining and assembling the windows, connections, and the hatch would
> > be easier on the individual pentagons than hemisheres.
> > Jim
> > --
> > http://www.psnw.com/~jmrudholm
> > Kingsburg "Swedish Village", California
> > Fast, Good, Cheap- pick any two
> >
> >
>