Posted Wed, 12/28/2011 - 11:13 by Brian
A couple of months ago Stephen from Strike Models sent me a new variant of the negative pressure cannon I reviewed after NABGO last summer. This time the cannon was in good working order so I was able to spend a good chunk of a day experimenting with it in the live fire cabinet. This review is shorter than the previous review because I don't really see a need to document a complete tear down of the cannon - it is basically the same cannon with a few small tweaks. However, I will describe what I liked, what I didn't, and include a few pictures to illustrate new points.
I also briefly introduce the new adjustable regulator that Strike Models plans to offer in 2012.
Posted Mon, 08/15/2011 - 20:10 by Brian
Stephen had left it with the NTBG guys after NABGO and asked them to mail it to me when they finished. They sent it to me about two weeks after NABCO but I didn't get time to unpack it until I was getting ready for last weekend's target practice.(I've been little distracted this summer)
Before you read this review you should at least skim through the review of the previous Strike Model's design. My comparisons of the two cannons will make more sense if you have read the earlier review.
Posted Tue, 06/07/2011 - 18:54 by Brian
I finally got around to cutting all of the extra material off of the backs of the barrel bends. I took some friendly ribbing at last month's meet when someone observed that the manufacturing marks read as '666' on the back of one of the turrets. What can I say? Nassau is a beast of a boat? 
The process is not rocket science - actually it is an old wood working technique.
Posted Thu, 06/02/2011 - 18:37 by Brian
Drew has been trying to sell me on the idea of LiFePO4 cells for a while... has have Stephen and Keri... and it looks like they are about the only thing that is going to fit. Tonight I cut some dowels to the size LiFePO4 18650 cells to see what fit where. As I posted earlier I thought the 18650 cells would be the best fit. However, when I started trying to fit cells in the ship it was hard to get an eight cell (4s2p) pack to fit anywhere. No matter how I laid out the pack the cells were just barely interfering with rotation or touching the CO2 bottle.
Posted Mon, 05/30/2011 - 13:34 by Brian
Holy <bleep>ing <bleep> is space tight in Nassau... I knew batteries were going to be tough but this is nuts... Last meet's discovery that Nassau basically needs to run at 12 VDC to get to speed was a major blow. It basically knocked out any possibility of using sealed lead acid batteries (SLAs).
Posted Sun, 04/03/2011 - 19:30 by Brian
I spent the afternoon finishing up the magazines and associated hardware (barrel risers, feed tubes, bottoms of barrel bends). Because of the difficulty in making discs in Lexan I drilled all the holes for the magazine covers using a rotary table. This post shows what I did.
Posted Wed, 03/30/2011 - 18:08 by Brian
After some trial and error I finally found a way to reliably cut Lexan discs on a hole saw. So I finally have the raw disks for Nassau's magazine covers. The trick is to use a block of wood to both guide the hole saw and clamp the Lexan. This keeps the hole saw from shaking on the mandrel and very securely clamps the Lexan in place. The other thing is to not try and do this on a $40 Harbor Freight drill press... its spindle and chuck simply can't handle the torque needed. So I did all the drilling on the mill with the gear box dropped into low.
Posted Sun, 03/27/2011 - 12:28 by Brian
This weekend I knocked out some of the remaining high precision pieces for Nassau's cannons: the machined barrel bends. Nassau's small size and my insistence on keeping things as close to scale as possible required something with a tighter bend than transitional barrels. Last year I experimented with other ways to support depression using machined barrel bends. Experimentation showed that the machine bends were at least as efficient as traditional barrels. So this weekend I started making the parts to be installed in Nassau.
Posted Wed, 03/23/2011 - 18:59 by Brian
I just wanted to let you know that Staples has a $70 off coupon for the Kodak Mini Video Camera. The coupon expires 3/26 and is good in store only. However, the coupon makes the camera around $30. It only takes 640x480 video but the price is definitely right. The camera is very small, very light and waterproof. You might want to consider picking one up (in store only).
Posted Mon, 03/21/2011 - 17:03 by Brian
I've not been good about posting when I am working on things. I thought I would write a quick post to talk about what [little] has been done on Nassau since a got Nassau floating a few weeks ago.
This post talks about the workshop upgrades working towards a dedicated shop, new magazine walls for Nassau, and starting work on the machined barrel bends for Nassau.