April 21, 2002  FIRST POST to FifeFamily.net
 ...a test of sorts.

SUBMARINE REPAIR
In which, Karl resurrects David's broken radio controlled submarine by salvaging parts from Nathan's broken submarine.

Dave's submarine had a bad habit of never returning from dives.  This meant swimming every time you used it.  Finding the leak was an elusive problem.  A serendipitous discovery revealed INVISIBLE cracks in the pressure hull which opened up ONLY when pressurized.  Even if you knew were to look you couldn't see the cracks unless you applied finger or water pressure to the hull.  The remedy was to completely replace the pressure hull.

FINISHED PRODUCT


A WORK IN PROGRESS.  The yellow torpedo-like thing is the cracked pressure hull.

CORROSION ON THE SALVAGE SUBMARINE.  Most of Nathan's submarine was unsalvageable.  It had sustained water damage to nearly all components inside.  The motors were frozen, and the radio was inoperative.

PHYSICAL DAMAGE.  Nathan's sub was damaged in some critical places as you can see in this picture.  This piece has a powerful magnet inside which is connected to the propeller.  The piece pictured below is also a powerful magnet which is connected to the motor.  The piece below fits over the cylindrical shape of  this piece.  One side of this piece is exposed to the dry inside of the submarine, the other is exposed to the wet outside.  It forms a perfect water barrier between the outside and the inside, while allowing the two magnetic pieces to transfer rotational energy to the propeller magnetically.

MORE PHYSICAL DAMAGE.  You can see that the magnetic drive unit is cracked.

MORE PHYSICAL DAMAGE.  There were lots of little cracks like this one in Dave's submarine.

RESTORATION:  The nose of the submarine didn't stay on properly because the plastic clasp was broken.  I repaired it using a thin horizontal slice of the old tail fin and some epoxy glue.

RESTORATION:  I epoxy glued the horizontal stabilizer back onto the sail.

ALMOST DONE:  You can see that the new sub is really mix and match.

IMPROVEMENTS:  I used scuba-diving silicone grease to form a positive seal over the battery compartment.

IMPROVEMENTS: I  soldered a second length of antenna to the first for greater range.  The new, longer antenna sports a FOAM EARPLUG.  This earplug causes the antenna to float up to the surface so it stays as close to the transmitter as possible.

Go back to top to see the finished product.