RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Alan Winnick Explorer sub

[Chris Nugent <dirkpitt77@yahoo.com>]

      Alec,

 

     What's included angle?  (I'd go thru the archives n find out, only my modem is horribly slow and I'd be here til 1 a.m.  ;))  I might have to research domes a little more. 

    In his post tonite though, Alan Winick brings up another good point I'd forgotten to include myself (thanks Alan!).  Although domes are great for visibility, it sounded a bit much of an undertaking for me to make my own, as the engineering IS a little more complicated, from what I understand.  I myself felt more comfortable just having flat viewports made.  For my first sub, anyway.  As the experience comes, maybe then I'll experiment with making domes on the next one.  :)

 

Chris

Alec Smyth <Asmyth@changepoint.com> wrote:

It is possible to make a cheap dome, if you blow it from sheet as opposed to having it cast. The big drawback of blowing domes from a sheet is that the material thins out at the apex of the curve, and it’s the minimum thickness that counts for your calculations. The trick is to design a dome with a reduced included angle. Looking at the pictures of Solo, you would probably think the dome is a full hemisphere (180 degrees). However that is only true of the outer dome. The structural interior dome has an included angle of just 120 degrees. The visibility is great but the apex thickness is reduced to a far lesser extent. So there you go… a 2” thick dome for just $1,500.

 

Alec

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Nugent [mailto:dirkpitt77@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 8:16 PM
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Alan Winnick Explorer sub

 

    For what it's worth, Stanley Plastics quoted me a little over $300 US for just a simple 1.5" thick, 12" diameter flat viewport.  I don't remember if that was certified and tested, but I opted to go that route as it seems a bit less expensive than a dome.  Eight viewports for around $2500-can't beat it.

 

     Chris Nugent

Carsten Standfuss <MerlinSub@t-online.de> wrote:

Hi - Stanley Plastic for example make this size domes - the last I
requested was about 8000 USD with certification and test - maybe about
5000-6000 without. But there are other non certificate builders make
something in this size for 3000. Depents on diameter and how deep you
want to go.. shallow water maybe less.
Look in the archive files - there are amazing amount of informations..
look for "domes" or "arcylic" or simillar.

best regards Carsten

CurtisUehara@aol.com schrieb:
>
> I have been looking at the psub picture gallery and I think I would
> like to build something like Mr. Winnick did. The Explorer sub. It
> is not too big and looks pretty easy to understand how it works. The
> parts would not be hard to make I think. But I cant make the glass
> bubble in front. Did he buy that? Who makes them? Is M! r. Winnick in
> the message group now? Thank you. Curtis Uehara.

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