[PSUBS-MAILIST] K-600 has been blasted

Wed Apr 5 06:00:18 EDT 2023

 Rick, yes they left four inches of hull connected to the aft tank head when they cut it off then they added the two foot section.  The hull is more than one piece because once it was completed Kittredge realized he needed more buoyancy.  I can only guess that they easiest solution in 1979 was to lengthen the hull to gain the buoyancy he needed.
I did not sandblast the interior.  I will be wire-brushing the sections that have surface rust, cover it with POR-15 and then top coat with an enamel paint.
Jon

    On Sunday, April 2, 2023 at 06:33:59 PM EDT, Rick Patton via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:  

 Isn't there a narrow piece that the lifting eye is connected to? Still confused why the hull would be more than one piece? I didn't think about Alec's comment about the inside. I hope I never have to do an inside blast!😬
Rick
On Sun, Apr 2, 2023 at 12:05 PM Jon Wallace via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:

 Well Rick, that's a long story.  The K-600 is just a beefed up K-350 and originally intended to hold one person.  Take out that 2-foot midsection you see in the photo and you can imagine how it originally came out of the factory.  While using the K350 plans was convenient, Kittredge neglected to consider the weight of the thicker hull, tank heads, and ribs of the deeper diving K-600.  When he put it in water the first time it was negatively buoyant and slowly settled on the bottom.  I believe he used thrusters to get him back to the surface, but just barely so.  I remember him telling me that if he had weighed 5 pounds more he wouldn't have made it back to the surface.  He brought it to Bath Iron Works (nice to have connections from his Navy days) and had them cut off the back tank head and add two feet of hull to increase the buoyancy.  So that's why there's a noticeable mid-section "scar" on the K-600.  :) :)
Jon

    On Sunday, April 2, 2023 at 01:47:55 PM EDT, Rick Patton via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:  

 I didn't realize that the pressure hull was made up of three pieces of rolled plate. Wonder why the aft most piece is so short? Don't think all that heat put into the hull would be a good thing,I had my sub sand blasted in pieces before they were all welded together which made it alot easier. I think the reason I did that was that the hull had been fully welded and then sat for quite a long time while life was happening and the steel might have been hazing due to it being located at my shop which was a block from the salt water. I made an enclosed place to blast it knowing that it would be messy out of 2"X4",s and visqueen but it failed about half way through from the air blasting out of the nozzle.. A ton and a half is a lot of sand! Good job Jon.
Rick

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