[PSUBS-MAILIST] Introducing myself, and a laundry list of questions

Wed Jun 28 18:14:39 EDT 2023

Hello Mikael,welcome along to the group.You have made a good start with the reading material you have.One of the items on the sub, the acrylic dome, can be expensive & hard to come by. It gives a much better viewing experience than a cheaper flat view port. I would have a good look at that at some stage.You can buy plans for a K250 or K350 submersible. Both 2 person & capable of 250ft & 350ft operating depth.Be aware that the plans are out of date & you would need to rely on the group for up to date options.There is a site "Guernsey submarine" with hundreds of pictures documenting a K350 build. Well worth looking at to see what you are getting in to.If you dont have a conning tower it is difficult to get in and out of the sub with a wave running. You need a substantial trailer & often an extension bar to be able to float the sub off the trailer. I heard someone say they could only launch off 1 in 5 boat ramps; they tend to end before the sub floats off.An option if you are shallow diving is to build an ambient sub. I did this as a prelude to a 1atm sub to test my design. An ambient sub is pressurized on the inside to the same pressure as the water at the depth you are at. So you dont need a strong hull or acrylic dome. It is quite cheap and relatively easy to make but a lot more dangerous than a 1atm. You would need to do a scuba course, as  you are sitting dry but in a bubble of compressed air and subject to the same decompression laws as divers. Also there is limited life support time compared with a 1atm & you would need to get out & head for the surface if you were entrapped etc. The other down side with an ambient is that all your electronic inside the hull are under pressure, so items like large capacitors need protecting.I can give you more information if you are interested. And there will be some pictures of my build on the psub website under members projects. BTW I controlled it with a PS2 controller so beat Stockton to that one.AlanRegards  

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  On Thu, 29 Jun 2023 at 9:40 am, via Personal_Submersibles<personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:   
Hello, all,

First things first, I’d like to introduce myself. I’m Mikael, a college student studying mechanical engineering. I’ve had an interest in building my own submarine for about 3 years now, after building small ROVs with my robotics team and competing in the MATE championship. 

The sub I want to build is a 1atm submarine that can carry 1-2 people and dive to about 150-200ft. The main purpose of this would be an engineering challenge to myself. 

   - What general advice would you give me to get started? 
   - How do I do this safely? I think I need to address the elephant in the room of the recent Titan tragedy – how do I avoid having that happen to me? There’s the obvious, design with plenty of safety factor, build in redundancy to life support and surfacing systems, etc. What else do I need to be aware of? In particular, what are the less obvious/more obscure issues that might crop up?
   - What skills do I need to pick up before embarking on this project? I have a little bit of experience with machining, I’d need to get better to make parts I’d trust with my life. I can only assume I’d need to learn to weld. Are other skills like SCUBA necessary? Do I need to learn HAM radio for any communications devices?
   - Ballpark, how much would this cost to build? To operate? What costs are involved in the process that I likely wouldn’t expect?
   - How do you source/fabricate your pressure hulls? I’ve heard of people using propane tanks, but also that doing so isn’t really the recommended strategy, because detailed information on them is scarce. I have no idea how else you’d fabricate something like that on a hobbyist budget.
   - What books/reference material should I pick up? So far I’ve picked up Manned Submersibles, Concepts in Submarine Design, as well as the ABS rulebook and the Design, Construction, and Operating Guidelines from the PSUBS website. 
   - What other questions should I be asking? 

Thank you very much for any help you can provide! I know that’s a lot of questions.

 - Mikael
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