BBY Micro Turbine Hydro for SSSH

[Sneasle]

looking good.

[Dr. Jet]

I wound up with just one angle adjuster on the wing, and it is plenty stiff (see photo). I could add another adjuster on the other side, but I really do not think it is necessary. It took a lot of tweaking to get all the angles right on the one adjuster, and making two of them would be a nightmare to set up and adjust.

[mhall]

Now that I see the picture of the wire on the wing that you are using to adjust the wing, it makes a lot of sense. What a great idea. Very simple. A picture really can explain a lot.

The boat looks great! Very nice job!

[Sneasle]

so does that other side only have the pivot to attach it to the uprights?

[Dr. Jet]

so does that other side only have the pivot to attach it to the uprights?

Yes. The wing is very torsionally rigid. I could add a second adjuster wire, but why bother when one is enough?

[Sneasle]

kk, just wanted to make sure you didn't do something else on that side to make sure the wing was level across it's length.


I'm glad it came out as well as it did, I look forward to starting on mine... need to figure out something for the radio first.

[peells]

Are you planning on leaving your jet intake open? (or hood scoop) or closed, looks like a great spot for a mini spy camera (or better yet micro) then you could drive it using a laptop to view from as you drive better than a video game (real time), just a wired thought i have been thinking about for something fun as we do not have any model boat clubs in Redding CA.

[Dr. Jet]

Are you planning on leaving your jet intake open?

Yes

...., looks like a great spot for a mini spy camera (or better yet micro) then you could drive it using a laptop to view from as you drive better than a video game (real time), just a wired thought i have been thinking about for something fun as we do not have any model boat clubs in Redding CA.

Sounds like a lot of work.

I do know a guy that fitted an RC glider with a camera (and other telemetry goodies) and flew the glider from inside of a trailer while looking at a couple of computer screens. The glider reached altitudes over 11,000' and travelled several miles before returning to the trailer.

[Sneasle]

any updates?

[Dr. Jet]

I'm in the painting phase. Progress is slow and boring. It is analagous to "Watching Paint Dry". Shoot a coat on and wait several days before sanding, then repeat. As of this writing, the hull is primed and has the first thin color coat.

I am straightening up the disaster area known as my shop. It looks like a small thermonuclear device had gone off in it. The clean-up is time-consuming, yet nearly done, so I can get back to sanding and painting. I'll post photos when I have something that looks good.

[Dr. Jet]

Progress photos. More sanding and painting is in my future. That is the RescueJet drive system in the background.

[Avanti]

what is the width on that rascal

[Sneasle]

Nice, looks good. I've put my hulls off to winter projects. Gotta get a 3m glider built this winter as well.

Looks like I need to clean up my bombed out workbench as well.. and buy an aircompressor for my brushes :/.

[Dr. Jet]

I have a spare, small air compressor I could sell/trade. Are you anywhere near Southern California?

[Dr. Jet]

More Cool Stuff from the Notorious Dr. Jet

I continuously scan the Internet to locate usable “stuff” for the micro hulls. One big stumbling block with the little boats has been motor couplers. With the 2 mm straight-shafts I have been getting from MHZ, there is only one motor coupler available to fit the driveshaft and the 2.3 mm “Speed 400-sized” motor shafts. That is the MHZ solid unit at about $10 a pop. I had Jeff Wholt make a couple of solid 2.3 mm x 1/16” couplers for the Micro Twin Scat Cat, but that required some machining on my part as well; specifically, reaming the motor side to 2.3 mm as Jeff does not have such tooling. The cost for these custom-made couplers was $15 each if I recall. Not bad, but they did require additional work to make them usable. I would have no issue with buying more from Jeff. I had Jeff drill them with a #42 drill, then I reamed them the rest of the way with a 0.0905” reamer (yes, that is down to half a thousandth).

Well, my research paid off. I located some 2 mm x 2 mm U-joints, and have successfully bored one end to fit the 2.3 mm motor shafts (I actually used a broken one for my first test, then wrapped it with Kevlar). I believe many of the “180-Class” motors have a 2 mm shaft so this U-joint will work with those motors without any additional machining. This U-joint is available with a single spider (as you will see in these photos I will be posting later), and with 2 spiders which will accommodate seriously misaligned drive systems.

When I get home, I will attach photos of an off-the-shelf Graupner U-joint (4 mm x 4 mm in this case, but they are all the same external size - see photos of the painted hull and the Graupner U-joints are in the background), and the Micro JetJoint. As you will see they look similar, only the JetJoint is considerably smaller. If the JetJoint holds up in SSSH racing conditions, I can produce more for anyone that is interested. I have a few more on order, including a few of the “double-jointed” ones. I think I'm paying about the same for the JetJoints as I did for the solid MHZ/Wholt ones, but I'll need to check shipping costs to see exactly what the final dollar figure is.