How to build a submarine and survive [video]
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How to build a submarine and survive [video]
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Re: How to build a submarine and survive [video]
#2It reminds me of an obsession I had when I was young (maybe 12 or 13) where I kept iterating on a design for a mini-sub I had hoped to build. I must have checked out books on the history of the submarine about that time and became obsessed with the simplicity of the original Turtle submarine — operated with hand screws (propellers).
Likely too I saw a homemade sub or scuba tow on the odd Popular Mechanics cover....
I had read enough to incorporate a lead ballast that could be released from inside the sub. I imagined props and motors based around those electric trolling motors you can get for a small fishing boat. I therefore incorporated a car battery into the design. Front and rear ballast tanks allowed me to control the pitch trim. I imagined a small electric automotive tire pump would suffice to force the water out of the ballast tanks.
I obsessed over a mechanism to allow each trolling motor to be gimbaled from a pair of joysticks in the sub. I built mechanical models with paper drinking straws and toilet paper rolls to test the mechanics.
I played with different seating configurations to minimize the size of the sub but keep it "operatable".
It was a weird and impossible fantasy that never had a chance of moving beyond the drawing board stage. You know, especially for a kid with a single mother who was a secretary. But perhaps there was some intellectual and creative stimulation that I was feeding off at the time that made the effort worth it.
Thinking about it now though, how obsessive I was, it might also have spoke to a boredom, isolation and maybe sadness I felt at the time. The sub might have been an escape for me.
To see someone build a sub for real is kind of cool. But it also makes clear how likely my design would have just collapsed right away at about 10 feet depth. I mean, I planned on using plywood for the hull, ha ha.
Re: How to build a submarine and survive [video]
#3It reminds me of an obsession I had when I was young (maybe 12 or 13) where I kept iterating on a design for a mini-sub I had hoped to build. I must have checked out books on the history of the submarine about that time and became obsessed with the simplicity of the original Turtle submarine — operated with hand screws (propellers). Likely too I saw a homemade sub or scuba tow on the odd Popular Mechanics cover.... I…
I had very similar flights of fancy as well. Some combination of low-tech, soapbox-derby materials and a wild idea that I could build a raft out of 2x4s and cross the lake! Or make a parachute out of a pillowcase! Or put wings on my bike and fly!
I’d doodle designs and look at piles of junk, imagining what I could do with the materials.
I think the appeal was partly that the proper materials were way out of reach for me, and if my terrible idea failed, it was just made out of everyday stuff anyway.
Hopelessly impractical and (as you say) a bit obsessive.
Re: How to build a submarine and survive [video]
#4I love the live translation for this talk, and others. Great work from C3 organizers.
Re: How to build a submarine and survive [video]
#5It reminds me of an obsession I had when I was young (maybe 12 or 13) where I kept iterating on a design for a mini-sub I had hoped to build. I must have checked out books on the history of the submarine about that time and became obsessed with the simplicity of the original Turtle submarine — operated with hand screws (propellers). Likely too I saw a homemade sub or scuba tow on the odd Popular Mechanics cover.... I…
Man, I went through the same thing with dirigibles when I was a kid. Never gonna be able to afford a blimp hangar though...
Re: How to build a submarine and survive [video]
#6Step 1: Build the submarine
Step 2: Don't go in the submarine
Re: How to build a submarine and survive [video]
#7It reminds me of an obsession I had when I was young (maybe 12 or 13) where I kept iterating on a design for a mini-sub I had hoped to build. I must have checked out books on the history of the submarine about that time and became obsessed with the simplicity of the original Turtle submarine — operated with hand screws (propellers). Likely too I saw a homemade sub or scuba tow on the odd Popular Mechanics cover.... I…
> I mean, I planned on using plywood for the hull, ha ha.
https://www.svseeker.com/argonaut-jr-building-and-diving-a-w... (“Argonaut Jr – Building and Diving a Wooden Submarine from 1894”)
Re: How to build a submarine and survive [video]
#8It reminds me of an obsession I had when I was young (maybe 12 or 13) where I kept iterating on a design for a mini-sub I had hoped to build. I must have checked out books on the history of the submarine about that time and became obsessed with the simplicity of the original Turtle submarine — operated with hand screws (propellers). Likely too I saw a homemade sub or scuba tow on the odd Popular Mechanics cover.... I…
Plywood sounds great!
It is used in boat Buildng all the time.(aircraft also)
By bending very thin(1/8” for example), you can add by gluing, and or nailing each later on top, which will hold the original bent shape. Plywood itself is strong, because of it's intrinsic layers, and adding more layers on top, makes it extremely strong.
Making the bow and Stern, fit and be as tight and strong - that's another problem.
Maybe you should get back to the drawing board, and continue. Sounds like a great project.
Re: How to build a submarine and survive [video]
#9Not a homemade submarine story but very much related.
When my dad was a teenager he saw a film by Jacques Cousteau, one of the coinventors of the first aqualung and became obsessed with the idea. He lived on a smallholding and had been taught to be self-reliant, so by borrowing his dad’s welding gear he made himself a home-made aqualung. But how to test it?
On the smallholding there was a water reservoir that was deep enough but when he tried it of course he had positive buoyancy so kept floating to the surface. Normal divers have a weight belt, but my dad decided to chain himself to a heavy wooden railway sleeper and just throw it in. So there he was, dragged to the bottom of the reservoir, chained to a railway sleeper with a semi-functioning home-made underwater breathing apparatus.
He must have escaped somehow but when he told the story he would just leave that part a mystery and he’s dead now so there’s no way of finding out.
Re: How to build a submarine and survive [video]
#10Awesome to see this; hope they don't go to see the Titanic.