HMS K9. ShaftsI am trying to replicate the square telescopic prop shaft couplers ingeniously used by ‘Albion’, although with less space to play with. Cut the nylon dog-bone couplers in half, cut square flats so they fit in the square brass tubes, then drill and tap for size 0 x 6.4mm stainless s/tap screws. I sourced just the right sized stainless springs from inside Biro’s. One square shaft slides over the other making 50 mm from dog-bone pin to pin with the spring compressed 30%.
The purpose of this is to ensure a pressured ‘rattle free’ connection, yet allowing enough latitude to remove the dive module.
Next I can start to install the fixed prop shafts in the lower hull. There is a slight angle, and I have used the coupler shafts to equalise the angle, half on each dog-bone. The shafts pass through the hull at a very shallow angle so long slots were needed. A temporary jig was made to adjust/set the positions of the shafts. The shafts and tubes can then be shortened to the correct length.
Using jig to finalise positions of shafts before setting in hull.Quite a bit more work to do before finalising shaft positions, but you can see my method.
Slots need lengthening even more, but am starting to get alignments nearer to ideal. Prop shafts in surface warships are a whole lot easier.
PS: Generic information on a class built across seven shipyards is useful, but not definitive of specific ships. Although based on Vickers drawings each yard utilised their own techniques and parts.