Re: Cement subs? more to learn

[Rick Lucertini <empiricus@sprint.ca>]

Axel Iehle wrote:

> I won't build a cement sub.
> For one single reason: I have no time to make
> the tests  [snip]
>
> My goal is to build a sub. As soon as possible.    [snip]     I'll rather let my
> imagination/artistic sense work on the design of the sub.

> [snip]      I have no time, no money,

Hi, Axel and All

An idea: If you can tear yourself away from designing/building a "real" submarine,
you may, perhaps, be able to nurture your artistic angst by using conventional boat
building techniques.   Pardonay moi?

Picture this: using cedar strip plank, you bond a layer of these strips over a marine
ply surface with epoxy adhesive.  Next, you apply a layer of glass cloth over the
cedar strips with epoxy resin.  This isolates the wood, the cloth almost disappears
and reveals the cedar strips' beauty.

Of course, if you consider the hull (hydrodynamic, of course) as merely a shell to
guide water around your cockpit, then you'll have all sorts of design ideas come to
you in the middle of the night when you should be paying your wife more attention
("Yes, Axel, there . . . yes, there!!!").  If your immediate response is  "Where - by
the band saw or on the workbench?", then I humbly suggest you are on the right track.

I am a great science fiction fan and have been collecting design ideas from
everything from Star Wars toys to my TinTin t-shirt.  At my age that's a lot of
ideas.  I never stop collecting.

You can build an ambient dry sub, design a fast, stunning hull form using
conventional boat building techniques, have a huge canopy, and get underwater CHEAPLY
and SAFELY using scuba and off-the-shelf boating equipment.  The modifications are
minimal and simple.

These one-atm boats are just too tricky to design AND build AND test with the
resources available to most people.    Something is bound to go wrong at some stage.
It's not a comfortable way to dive at all.  You think more about safety than enjoying
the experience.  Besides, who wants to be at 300 feet and hear "Snap, crackle, POP".
I would be constantly worried about the THWUMP that was coming.  They are very
dangerous, you know.      :-D

Let me know if this idea turns you on.  I can show you how to minimize cockpit volume
to save your dive cycling air, stay dry and still egress in an emergency.  You may
have to contact me privately because this is not a "real" submarine.

Rick

--
Rick Lucertini
empiricus@sprint.ca
(Vancouver, Canada)