Russian Typhoon Submarine

Part 1 - Bow planes and associated hardware

	Here, I´m beginning to manufacture the retract mechanism for the bow planes. A friend of mine (Tommy) and I recently traveled to Norva Plastics, Inc. to purchase some material. Tommy, who has a REAL BOAT (he thinks), needed some plastic material for his bilges. I needed some for my rudders, planes and other inside stuff. We both settled on Celtec which is a wonderful product. It is a PVC type material but in sheet form. It cuts, files, drills and sands very easily. You can even bend it around corners if heated to 150°.
I used a Contour Gauge to first determine the inside hull curvature and then transferred that onto the Celtec. I cut the material on the band saw and then sanded the edges smooth. I temporarily secured the pieces together using simple wood screws, but the permanent hardware will be stainless machine screws and nuts.
	After drawing the bow planes onto a sheet of paper, I then cut out the templates and transferred them onto the Celtec. I used the band saw to cut them out, and a band sander to contour the edges. You can see the rough surfaces here before fine sanding and installation.
Here is the beginning stage in the manufacturing of my bow plane retract and actuator mechanism. It is a modified version of the mechanism provided in a kit by Alexander Engel. Since I only had a picture of the Engel mechanism, my dimensions were calculated to fit my submarine. Also, the Engel version uses more hardware, an electric motor with gearing and a servo whereas mine will use Celtec, Clippard components and a servo.
	The parts I used so far are: Celtec (Norva Plastics, Inc.) Stainless steel bolts and nuts (Home Depot) 5/32" Brass tubing (Debbie´s RC World) 1/8" Brass rod (Debbie´s RC World) 5/16" .062 Wire Brass Wire Stops (Lowe's) 1/8" Shaft Universal Sockets (Debbie´s RC World) CA Glue (Debbie´s RC World)
Next, its time to manufacture the horns for the bow plane retract mechanism. Staring with a piece of brass sheet, I cut two lengths and smoothed the edges on the belt sander. I originally bent both ends as you can see here, but ended up cutting one of those off as it was not needed.
	After drilling a hole for the brass tubing and another hole for the clevis, I mounted and soldered both horns in place. Notice the miniature clothespin to hold the tube from twisting, and also to keep the horn away from the Celtec. Celtec melts very easily! Next Step - Part 1b - Bow planes and associated hardware (continued)

Return to Planes / Rudders Index

If you have any suggestions or comments about this site or construction, please send me an email by clicking here!