Introduction

[Buchner@mega-com.com (David Buchner)]

Hello, List.

I don't think I ever even announced myself, but I've been reading your
messages with interest and just haven't gotten around to thinking much
about my sub yet (lakes are all still frozen here...).

My plan is far less ambitious than many of yours sound, with crush depths
and all. I'm thinking more along the lines of 10 feet down max, cruising
around in shallow Minnesota lakes, maybe like one of those with the
pontoons which stay on the surface ("training wheels" I think of it) and
the vehicle itself hangs below on long arms. This is mostly because I'm
trying to be realistic about my lack of engineering cleverness and my lack
of desire to be known as the guy who drowned himself in a homemade
submarine.

Besides, these depths would more than provide the effect I'm going for: a
vehicle with lots of switches, levers, cables, and hoses - which I can
drive around under water. It's proven difficult to explain to many people -
sort of a cross between an art project and a kid's fort-out-back where I
can "play submarine" with a generous helping of "stuff I always wished I
had when I was little".

Anyway, I've got this beautiful 200 gallon stainless steel milk tank I
bought from a Finnish farmer for ten dollars, and one old trolling motor,
and a big heap of fiberglass cloth.

I was delighted a while back to see questions like "how long can you safely
stay submerged before needing fresh air?" because that's exactly the sort
of out-of-the-blue way I'm approaching this. I figure I could research that
stuff all professional-like, or I could just close myself in there in the
front yard, right after I get the hatch finished, with a walkie-talkie and
a trusted observer right outside. And breathe. I've always heard a gallon
of water weighs about 8 pounds, and just recently finally *understood*
something I've "known" for a long time - that boats float because they
weigh less than the water they displace. So I figure I need this little
bastard to weigh about 1600 pounds total in order to get it to where I can
force it to go underwater. I'll send along a scan sometime of the little
picture of me paddling it around the dock last summer.

Which brings me to the thing I've decided should be my #1 priority: a
submarine trailer. In order to do the kind of trial-and-error experimenting
I want to, I need to be able to put this thing in the water and take it out
quite a bit, and I need some kind of specialized trailer to accomodate it -
especially once I've got a big weighted keel-thing hanging from the bottom.
I've been thinking of one like those they use to haul large propane tanks
(or lower coffins, I guess...).

I actually have a great many more detailed thought-out things, about
control cables and windows and ballast and so on. I've been thinking about
this for many years while I lived in the city. Now I live in the country,
and I have a yard in which I've been able to start accumulating stuff.