The Jackal Submarine

Elevator & Diving Controls #2

Here I am drilling the 3 mm holes that will hold the levers in the center position by a spring loaded 6 mm steel ball that will pop into the hole when the lever hub rolls over it.

17/12/2015

The 3 mm pilot hole for the spring and steel ball.

17/12/2015

The 6 mm diameter (and 6 mm deep) hole where the steel ball will sit in with the spring. When the lever is not in the center position the ball will pop back into the hub, compressing the spring allowing the lever to complete about +/- 45 degrees of rotation.

17/12/2015

The spring (uncompressed) sitting inside the hub along with the steel ball that will go inside when ready.

17/12/2015

A view of what it will look like when assembled. The ball has been pushed outward by the spring and has located into the 3 mm hole. This way there will be a definite click when the elevators and diving planes are in their neutral position. There will also be some resistance against the lever as they are pulled away from being neutral.

17/12/2015

The lever hubs ready to be mounted.

17/12/2015

The bearing ends now have some 3 mm mounting holes.

17/12/2015

Elevator & Diving Controls #1

Today was far too hot to weld (reaching 30 degrees in the shed) so instead I started rigging the diving controls with 3 mm steel cable. Clamping them together with some Aluminium crimps.

17/12/2015

The smaller steel bar turns the levers rotary motion into a linear one. The longer steel bar turns the large movement from the lever into smaller, much finer movement for the diving planes. It will also reduce the load on the lever (if there is any at all for the sub's not breaking any speed records) and will give more control over the diving angle.

The elevator controls will be exactly the same.

17/12/2015

Status Update

It has been a while since the last update but work is progressing slowly. The first hull pressure test won't be happening for a while yet and I've decided that the pressure within the hull will be the same, maybe slightly below, that of the outside water pressure. This way it'll reduce the stress on the hull and be safer.

Here's a quick overview of recent progress.

LASER CUTTER

I have finally bough myself a Chinese brand 40 Watt Co2 Laser Cutter. It has a cutting area of around 30 cm x 30 cm. Not massive, but big enough to cut several panels out for the subs ballast release system, the throttle control and the elevator / diving plane controls.

17/12/2015

Welder.

I bought myself a $1200 welder capable of TIG welding aluminium as well as steel.

17/12/2015

Elevator & Diving Controls.

A few pics of the progress on the control system. The elevator lever will be next the diving plane lever so both can be used together or independently. I'll have an update on this system when it's finished.