Russian Typhoon Submarine

Part 6 - Inside Hull Hardware

	When the sub is fully operational, there must be a method for securing the two hull halves together. To accomplish this, I´m using aluminum angle rails and flat pieces which were purchased from the local Lowes Hardware store. I bought four 1/16" X ½" X 8´ pieces and one 1/16" X 1 ½" X 8´ piece.
The four 1/16" X ½" X 8´ pieces were cut to length and holes were drilled on the attachment side every six inches. Then, after clamping the pieces to the bottom half of the hull, epoxy was poured into and around the holes. As you can see, I´ve suspended the hull from the my garage door rails with line for curing the epoxy. I had to do one side at a time so the epoxy wouldn´t run out of the holes!
	Here, you can see I´ve installed 5 aluminum crossbars on the bottom hull half and am working on installing the rails on the top half. The crossbars were made from the same angle pieces and were bolted to the rails with stainless steel bolts and nuts. As before, the rails are being installed with epoxy.
I haven´t decided how to secure the top and bottom bow sections together yet (bolt, spring clip or whatever) but I´ve glued (CA glue) a piece of Celtec on the bottom hull half as a starter. I would like to figure a way of securing them together without the use of a bolt. I may even decide to us a pin method. In any event, the Celtec piece will be used.
	The stern end of the top half will be secured to the bottom half using a vinyl window tilt latch purchased from Lowes Hardware. First, I glued (CA glue) a piece of Celtec onto the hull half, and then I mounted the latch with wood screws. This Celtec stuff is great to work with!
Here, you can see I´ve glued (CA glue) a piece of Celtec onto the bottom half that will serve as the latch catch. The Celtec also serves to flatten the stern section a bit. Did I say this Celtec stuff is great to work with? A quick test of the latching mechanism after the CA glue dried proved positive. The latch held both hull halves together, and it released very easily using a screwdriver through one of the side ballast holes. Look mom ... no bolts to obstruct the absolute beauty of this submarine ... yah ... OK ... whatever!

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