Posted Sat, 04/09/2011 - 23:19 by Drew
First, here is a picture of the new rudder control arrangement. I disassembled everything and added a spacer tube to go between the 1/8" shaft and the hull penetration tube so things operate much more smoothly. I also put a stainless steel washer at the bottom so that the hull tubes wouldn't dig into the resin of the rudders. Then, I filed small flats onto the rudder shafts for the set screws to grab. This provides both a positive grip for the control horns and makes assembly adjusments a non-issue since the screw will force the horn to center on the flat. I also decided to use ball links for the rudder linkage. I used some threaded rod (2-56 I believe but I prefer 4-40), Align Trex 600 balls and Quick UK Rocket links. The Q-UK links are just the nicest I've found and I highly recommend them. They also come in a variety of colors. 
All in all, it doesn't look all that different but it operates 1000x better than it did.
Posted Sun, 02/06/2011 - 12:59 by Drew
Last night I received a pair of 12v 6.2Ah and 12v 10Ah SLAs from my friend Cody and both sets seem to be good to go but the 10Ah batteries are a bit big for NC. The 6.2Ah batteries are the same size as those that are normally marked as 7Ah so they should be an almost direct replacement. The 10Ah ones are essentially the same dimensions as the 7Ah ones but about an inch wider. It would have been nice to run on a single 10Ah battery so I could have a spare if needed but I have not figured out how to fit one. Since receiving the batteries, they were all topped off and m
Posted Tue, 02/01/2011 - 20:29 by Drew
As I said in my previous post and at the club meeting, I have been working on fixing up my hobby room and organizing it some. Here is a picture of my hobby table AFTER cleaning it up and generally organizing things some.
Posted Sat, 01/22/2011 - 17:53 by Drew
Brian stopped by today to transfer North Carolina to the Morgan Shipyards for refit and eventual return to operational status.
This delivery comes at an interesting time since the Morgan Shipyards is in the planning stages for a fairly major overhaul of the drydocks and refit facilities in general. Even so, the shipyard is looking forward to this new project.
Posted Fri, 10/08/2010 - 17:27 by Drew
A few weeks ago, I noticed that my super duper charging cart wasn't rolling around very well. After some inspections and tests, I discovered that the steel hex bolt axles were moving around in their holes and impacts had caused them to deform the aluminum around them which was allowing the wheels to rub inside their wheel wells.
Posted Fri, 10/01/2010 - 14:39 by Drew
After the last sailing day, I realized that I needed a miniature turkey baster to bail the water out of Huntington. I've also been searching for some new rubber to use as a bumper on the bow. Well, yesterday I received a small order from McMaster-Carr that included some syringes and leur-lock dispensing "needles". I purchased one that is fairly long for water bailing purposes and two other shorter ones that I might use to grease my shafts. I also received a length of black foam rubber that looks promising as a new bow bumper material. I pulled the old
Posted Mon, 08/09/2010 - 13:36 by Drew
Today I recieved my order from http://www.cheapbatterypacks.com and I have to say that I'm quite happy. Reasonable prices, great quality items and very fast shipping. They are located in Oregon and I ordered on Friday of last week and recieved my order today (Monday). I purchased some seemingly impossible to find banana plugs (4mm bullet type connectors) to use for charging leads, some balance taps, JST power leads and a bunch of large heatshrink. The JST leads have very nice and long (~10") leads on them which is a welcome change from those sold elsewhere that
Posted Thu, 08/05/2010 - 11:37 by Drew
I have been fiddling with the new Mabuchi motors that I received and so far they look large and promising. At 7.4v they appear to have similar torque to my geared down Maxons but also appear to be even slower and more precise. I am disappointed to see that they only have 2 M3 mounting holes as opposed to what seems to be a standard 4 holes. I am looking forward to making a temporary motor mount and exploring how they perform. Last night I confirmed that everything
Posted Mon, 06/14/2010 - 12:41 by Drew
I took Huntington out for a sail this weekend and I was very surprised when she went dead in the water after maybe 30 minutes of sailing around. I have not determined the cause as of yet but since it happened shortly after switching battery packs (for no particular reason), I am slightly suspect of the battery pack that I swapped in. It was however raining pretty hard out at one point and the seas were pretty rough. Luckily, we managed to rescue her.
It is sad that her otherwise flawless record has been tarnished.
Posted Mon, 03/22/2010 - 09:32 by Drew
This is actually the third RC charging cart that I've constructed. The first cart was a milk crate that I modified by adding wheels and a handle. The second was more of a purpose built cart constructed from marine grade plywood. It held up pretty well over it's year or two of service but it too had it's flaws. So, late in 2008 I decided to sell that cart and have a third and hopefully ultimate cart constructed. The design is based on some toolboxes that I saw while at the Norfolk Naval Shipyards.