BobKat; save those scraps!!

[peells]

Epoxy On The Hatch!!

Hi guys,
I decided to work on the mini Cat today and have Epoxied the Styrofoam form of the shape I chose. It took two coats with a nib sanding between the two and no I did not thin with alcohol or anything else!! I just used straight old 30 min epoxy and mixed about 1/2 of it and painted it on with a flux brush, it worked great, the second coat flowed out real well, and I cut the underside out further up closer to the front for more battery clearance, I needed it for a 3 cell, I was toying with the idea of pouring some lacquer thinner into the cavity and melting the foam out, but so far have not tried that. but here are some pictures of what I have been doing.
The third picture is so you can compair how much of the hatch I cut out on the under sde.

[peells]

A little more on the Hatch

Well I posted these pictures elsewhere on this site but they really belong here.
I have melted the Styrofoam out of the epoxy and left my self a translucent top,
I used carb cleaner to melt the foam and it did it really fast then I just shook out the excess fluid and let dry.

[sailr]

Now you gotta put some foam back in for hatch flotation ;-)

[peells]

Well another coat of epoxy with color in it and She will be ready for the water!! last night I got all the various odds and ends mounted and the cable length just right, (sure am glad my next one is going to be a twin power)
1.) the motor is a 3200 Kva outrunner 400 heli size.
2.) the battery is a Hextronic 3s 35-40 c 1450 Mah lipoly
3.) the rudder system is Hand made by your's truly.
3.) the drive is a 3/16" x1/8" out put for running the 1/8" props from OSE,
4.) the strut is a no name brand from R2hobbies 10.00 bucks
5.) the servo is a hextronic digital micro servo.
6.) the esc is a ebay yellow wrapper kind 30 amp (no name)
7.) the radio is an old 3pm Futaba FM which I had laying around and it tested out good so I am running it.
More to come in a few days as I will be test running it at my local pond, and yes a video will be done!!

[ace028]

Well, did it make a maiden voyage? Was it faster then my mini twin?

[peells]

not yet but this weekend though!!!

[zanda]

i need help with what battery i should get as the lipos's from what i have been told would work better on a single brushless not a twin and how i should run the esc to the batterys .. much apreciated..

[peells]

I would put 2-4s1P with about 4000mah in a parallel circuit with 2 taps so you can plug in both esc's and they will have the exact same voltage potential which is good if one cell is a little weaker than the other and it will double the run time (you should have 2 batteries) I have found some 4000 mah 4s lipos on hobby king for a reasonable price I think they are Rino brand.

[peells]

BobKat The Movie

Well Guys here is the Movie I promised. it is on you tube, the quality isn't quite there as my twins videoed it for me (they are 9) but we got the first Voyage!!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9bQxBR86xg

Ok Avanti your turn buddy!!
This boat is entirely coated in Epoxy (Zpoxy pt 39- 40) with yellow dye added.

[sailr]

Love the video and the family interaction! Haha. GREAT! The boats a little ripper for sure. Might need to move your COG forward just a tad.

[sailr]

The coupler's danged near bigger than the motor

Well another coat of epoxy with color in it and She will be ready for the water!! last night I got all the various odds and ends mounted and the cable length just right, (sure am glad my next one is going to be a twin power)
1.) the motor is a 3200 Kva outrunner 400 heli size.
2.) the battery is a Hextronic 3s 35-40 c 1450 Mah lipoly
3.) the rudder system is Hand made by your's truly.
3.) the drive is a 3/16" x1/8" out put for running the 1/8" props from OSE,
4.) the strut is a no name brand from R2hobbies 10.00 bucks
5.) the servo is a hextronic digital micro servo.
6.) the esc is a ebay yellow wrapper kind 30 amp (no name)
7.) the radio is an old 3pm Futaba FM which I had laying around and it tested out good so I am running it.
More to come in a few days as I will be test running it at my local pond, and yes a video will be done!!

[adamja]

Oh that runs like a dream imo :p Jumps quite alot still seems like great fun I wanna get mine made soon! :) Good work.

[ace028]

Dad, looks like it was fun, definatly looks faster then my twin, but I bet its that 3 cell lipo you had id there. My single 4000mah 2 cell in that little boat makes the thing almost like a submarine when stationary. Hopefully I can run a 3 cell in it somtime soon.

That yellow dye in the epoxy looked good in the vid, does it look pretty good in person? Looks like you need to do some tuning and it should do even better, and maybe drive it with less chop.

[sailr]

once you get that little cat setup right I doubt the chop will bother it that much. Cats have a way of handling the rough stuff.

[peells]

The poor thing is only 16" long the chops it was going over in scale were like 10 foot waves well maybe 5 feet,
to address the cog things are so tight in there I may just have to add some tire weights (the sticky kind, I know i need some on the left side to get it balanced out. the battery hogs all the space but I may need an ounce or so up front I will be looking into it, and yes the coupler is almost larger than the motor, ( I wish they made them a little smaller)