Re: I got an idea, Lets talk about subs now.

[VBra676539@aol.com]

In a message dated 6/29/99 10:14:00 AM, empiricus@sprint.ca writes:

<<I've emailed some pics on battery case (actually, any kind of case really) 
flange
construction to Ray.  Hopefully they'll be posted soon.  Very basic stuff but 
it'll
keep the water out.

Rick
>>

The P-boats used fiberglas boxes with SS bands sealed into the molds. Neopene 
gaskets and ten-thousand four-hundred and eighty-seven screws (could have 
been a little less) held everything in place. HBOI battery boxes are aluminum 
assemblies (what else?) with plexiglas lids-also using neoprene gasket. 
Everybody vented with biggish relief valves with very low pressure settings 
(1/2 pound?--I forget exactly). The JSLs have valves screwed directly into 
the box lid (which is bowed upward slightly to make a high spot) and the Ps 
vented up in the sail area.\

And of course, the charm of these things is that you can load a bunch of 
batteries into a cheap container and go diving. No heavy, cumbersome pressure 
vessels to worry about. And to give the devil his due, the things work very 
well. Once you are set up to top up the battery oil when needed and all that, 
then it works, wonder of wonders, just like a battery. You still have to run 
bulkhead electrics and all that, but the JSLs have a very neat, homemade set 
of penetrators that compensate automatically and work like a champ. That's 
for the battery bulkhead, not the hull. They run power to a big distribution 
can for motors and the like, never bringing those welding level amperages 
through the hull(s). Keep in mind, all you northern psubbers, that lead acid 
batts are temperature sensitive and lose a whole bunch of their rated amps in 
cold weather.

Vance