Continued to install running gear.
Made an athwartship bulkhead for the 2 motors, angled so as to align the motors to the propshafts/huco couplings.
Once satisfied with the fit, the support was epoxied into place and will be further treated with p40 for security.
Rudder tubes next...the holes were drilled for 3.75mm OD brass tube and, tubes 5cm long, made.
Unfortunately, on doing another check I realised I had somehow managed to drill the hole for the Port rudder tube 3mm nearer the stern than that of the Stbd one. Now needed to P40 fill the hole and re-do it !
I knew I should have used a jig but thought I could just "eyeball" it.
Harking back to a comment made a while ago (I think it was Bob K) with regard to varifocal lenses - unless you are looking right at the centre of an object, the lenses distort the angles and therefore can throw you off by quite a margin. Even looking directly at a tea cup - looking at the centre of the cup from above, the cup is perfectly round. Move the cup slightly to one side and it appears egg shaped.
...but I digress.
Well, the hole was redrilled after very careful measuring (3 times) and now the supports for the rudder tubes have been made and set in place.
The next task was to make a stand so that the hull could be held perfectly still before attempting to line the rudder tubes up.
So, made a pair of cradles with 11mm ply and stretchers from 15mm dowling rod. This was then lined with soft draft excluder...this stand won't be painted - it's just for building on.
Next, the rudder tubes were fitted and tacked in place. The rudder shafts were then cut to size and a flat filed on each for the tiller arm screws to land on.
Then the arms were made and soldered up, on an old knitting needle of the appropriate size and secured in the vice then test fitted to their shafts - so far, so good.
Flats were then filed on the lower portion of the shafts to accept the 2 halves of the blades.
The blades were fashioned from plasticard.
Before going any further with the build, decided to fit the servo. So, a cut out was made to accept the servo and a platform fixed in place.
All the electrics were then temporarily rigged for confidence check - all working ok.
Once again, removed all non-fixed items, taped off rudder and prop tubes then cut away a portion of the motor mount bulkhead (for later cockpit rebuild).
Rudder posts have now been epoxied in.
A card template was then made and transferred onto 4mm ply to make the rear bulkhead. Cut out rough then sanded to final shape. Same for for'd bulkhead, with an additional cut out to accommodate the battery.
Finally for now, the running gear was rigged again and tested, both on the bench and in the test tank (bath tub) and all is working normal - thank goodness.
Almost forgot to mention - the propshafts and rudder shafts were greased BEFORE going in the water.
A few photographs....
Photo 1: Getting things lined up.
Photo 2: Component parts for tiller fabrication.
Photo 3: Rudder manufacture under way.
Photo 4: Servo rigged ready for testing.
Photo 5 & 6: Electricals temporarily rigged. (note the rx in bag to avoid dust contamination)
Photo 7: Lining up the rudders prior to tightening down.
Photo 8 & 9: Electricals tidied up and rigged.
Regards,
Ray.