First Build ---- Redtail Kneeler Hydro

[siberianhusky]

There will be a new rigger 90% finished today, should be glueing it together by noon. Gotta go downtown to see if that guy has 1/4 brass tubing, found a good source for 1/4" diameter solid carbon rod for boom tubes.
Recovered from the snow, today is build day!

[kendt]

Dud i've got tons of small carbon tubes. Dont buy any !!

[johnmaclean]

Well I went at it again last night for about an hour. Finished sealing the battery compartment/radio box. Sanded most of the hull and did some filling along the seams on each side of the nose piece. They will need some additonal sanding to have all the surfaces flush. A little more sanding and I will be ready for a primer coat. I used Krylon paint last winter when I refinished the hulls of a couple of sv27's but I'm thinking of going with duplicolour for this one. Hope to have some pics of a primed hull by the weekend. As much as I want to get the project done, I don't want to do it by sacrificing quality.

ALso itching to get started on the JAE21 build. Picked up the plywood for it on Sunday at LHS.

Its coming along well. All thats needed for the water pickup is a fitting with a lock nut behind the prop. You can use a splitter to route the water to the motor/esc.

Ken, where would I find a fitting for the water pick-up you mentioned?

[johnmaclean]

Primed the hull this afternoon and it is hanging in the garage for the next couple of hours. It didn't take long for the imperfections to show up. The lighting in my basement work area is less than desirable so now its' all about the sanding and filling and priming again. I think I have a paint scheme in mind. . . similar to my yellow sv27. Also have a plan to fabricate the steering horns for the REK lower unit. Made a mock up the other night. Will need to access a band saw to cut the profile.

[johnmaclean]

Spent a couple of hours on the kneeler last night.

Fabricated a couple of lexan hatch sections for the rear compartment.

Epoxied in male bullet connectors to bulkhead to accomodate female connectors from ESC.

Installed brass sleeves to allow motor leads to pass through hatch as well and a transom water fittling to accomodate the cooling water intake line to the ESC.

Finished fabricating the steering horn for the REK lower unit and installed fittings on it to connect 4/40 steering rods.

Need to do some bending on the steering rods to align the servo horn with the outboard.

Need to order a cooling jacket for the motor as well as a "Y" fitting to split the water cooling between motor and ESC.

[siberianhusky]

I have a some y fittings arriving in the bunch of hardware I just bought. I'll give you one when they arrive.

[johnmaclean]

Getting there

Just completed all of the hatches for the kneeler. Decided to keep them uniform so they are all made from 1/8 " clear plexiglass. Need to pick up some more blind nuts for the hatch over the battery compartment along with some kind of weather sealing, push rod seals for motor leads and steering rods and I think the hardware aspect of the project is complete. Found some foam strip at the LHS las year and used it on one of my sv27's.

Now it is on to removing the hardware in order to sand and fill in preparation for final finish and do the bathtub testing to ensure everything will stay dry when it needs to.

[Brushless55]

Very very cool man!

[siberianhusky]

Neoprene weather stripping from the hardware store, many widths and thickness'.
Lakefield had some nice pushrod seals, not sure if I bought the last of them though. You have to ask though, he had a box behind the counter with all kinds of assorted stuff.
Don't think it will be too long before we can hit the water, going to be an early spring, not much snow so water levels should go down pretty quick.

[johnmaclean]

Thanx, Brushless 55 . . Being my first build it is seeming to take forever. Its a good thing I luv the tinkering as much as I do actually running the boats.

[johnmaclean]

Thanx, Mark. I'll check out that weather stripping idea. I asked Richard at Lakefield about those pushrod seals. I'm gonna order a couple of Aquacraft pushrod seals that attach to the radio box on the sv27. They should be ideal.

I'm on afternoons this week. Can get together any morning from Wednesday to Friday. Let me know if it works for you. Gonna give Ken a call tomorrow. I think his wrist surgery is coming up soon.

PS .... haven't started the rigger yet but I did order the parts.

[siberianhusky]

Work has been insane the last 3 weeks, these warm days and below 0 nights are evil, everything ices up overnight, went through 300 tons of material in January.
I really want to see that boat though!
Haven't really accomplished much lately, except buy some things.
Need a couple days off the recover.
Cheers

[johnmaclean]

It has been a while since I updated the progress on this build, in part because it has been painfully slow. I re-sanded the entire hull because the glossy white pint I applied was great for highlighting way too many uglies underneath. So I sanded and sanded and sanded some more. Then I put on the first coat of duplicolour primer. More sanding, but not as much now, another coat of primer, a little more sanding and so on until I was finally satisfied that it is ready for a base coat. The temperatures are starting to rise in southern Ontario so I’ll probably get the base coat on in the next week. The hull is now a grey colour.

[johnmaclean]

water pickup installed.jpg


It took some time to research and decide on a water pick up configuration. I opted to drill the raised knoll near the end of the cavitation plate and install a 3/16 brass tube cut off at a 45* angle. Silicon tubing from there up to a “y” connector should get the water to the cooling jacket on the motor and into the hull to the ESC.


Getting the steering rods aligned with the steering horn that I fabricated for the motor proved to be a real challenge. There isn’t a lot of clearance between the transom and the connectors on the steering horn. I had originally installed ¼ inch brass sleeves through the penetration but they proved to be far too small resulting in considerable binding. The servo horn was also too short which complicated the setup further. The connectors on the steering horn are about 2 ¼ inches on centre. The longest servo horn that came with the Hitec was just over an inch. My LHS fixed me up with a kit from Hitec that included a horn with the same dimensions as the steering horn. The steering rods now run parallel with each other right out through the transom. Don't have pics of the modified setup yet but will post tomorrow.

IMG_5214.jpg

[johnmaclean]

Deciding on push rod seals was also a challenge. I was looking for seals that would protect an opening large enough for the push rod to operate without binding. I am not completely satisfied with what is there now. I picked up some Dubro push rod seals from LHS and adapted them to fit the openings 7/16 diameter. I bench tested the set up a couple of nights ago and was disappointed to find that there is till some binding. I’m not sure how much throw I’m gonna need with the outboard but would like the option of having full travel in both directions.

Pics to come.


Waiting on water cooling jacket for this build and the JAE 21 that I started on Saturday and I needed a diversion from the steering thing for a while so I thought I would try my hand at carving a scale driver. That is turning out much better than I imagined and hope to have him finished by the weekend. . . . at least the shaping. I’ve been doing some research on finishing Styrofoam and hope to pick up materials in the next few days.

scale driver 6.jpgscale driver 1.jpgscale driver 2.jpgscale driver 5.jpgIMG_5650.jpg