Re: Introduction

[Ray.Keefer@Ebay.Sun.COM (Ray Keefer)]

Hi David,
> about my sub yet (lakes are all still frozen here...).

Figure a couple of months to finish. If you wait till the lakes are unfrozen
to start, they may be frozen by the time you finish. 

> 
> 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

Try the "AquaSub" design. It does everything you want. Total cost is $1K -
$1.5K. You can get a look on the web by starting with the PSUBS web page:

	http://pw1.netcom.com/~rayek/new.html

and follow the links:

	Sources
	AquaSub
	AquaSub: A Submarine You Can Build

> 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.

I would rather be famous for something else too.


> 
> 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".

Aren't we all in this boat. ;)

> 
> 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. 

Careful. Once carbon-dioxide poisoning hits, you blackout. No warning.
The AquaSub gets around this by continuously pumping air from the surface.
If you are happy with surface pontoons this is probably the safest way to
go.

You may also create an oven if you are outside in the sun.

> 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.

Sounds like fun.

> 
> 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...).

Let us know what you come up with. Most of us want to be trailerible.
Which can be tricky because of the deep draft of submersibles you tend
to have to get your trailer deep and a long ways from the boat ramp.
While keeping your tow vehicle dry.

> 
> 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.
> 
> 

Any thoughts on how you are going to keep your hull penitrations from leaking?

Regards,
Ray