[PSUBS-MAILIST] Jodie-B dives at last.

Tue May 27 16:25:09 EDT 2014

James,

First of all congrats and thanks for the report!!

Next time you need no safety divers at all. Problem solved.

Hey, you live on a island; don't you "know" then any girl?

Why not anodise the retainer ring?  My anodizer advises 30 Micron hard
anodizing and a Teflon treatment for best corrosion resistance.

 Regards, Emile

  _____  

Van: Personal_Submersibles [mailto:personal_submersibles-bounces at psubs.org]
Namens James Frankland via Personal_Submersibles
Verzonden: dinsdag 27 mei 2014 12:23
Aan: personal_submersibles at psubs.org
Onderwerp: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Jodie-B dives at last.

Hi All,

Managed to get my boat in the water this weekend at last.  I used the crane
again to lift in and out.  My trailer needs some modification before i can
use it.  Plus the crane is a lot easier just for initial testing.

I had proper commercial divers and boat in the water this time so i was
doing everything proper.  

I attached a temporary wooden bar to the side of the starbord battery pod
and hung weights on that until it was trimmed up sideways.  Put 24kg of lead
on that side.  Then loaded up with lead inside and eventually put in 160kg
(352 pounds) on top of what i'd already put under the deck and rear tank.
Estimate ive added a total of 250kg (550 pounds) of lead both inside out
out.  Maybe i should get on the pies and sausages.

Once trimmed up i managed to dive at last.  Didnt really intend to go to the
bottom but didnt have a lot of choice on the first ever dive.  Landed on the
bottom of the harbour at 6m (20ft).  Went up and down loads of times and got
the hang of getting neutral using the variable tank.  Seem to have got the
weight about right.  Drove about just off the seabed and found it was quite
easy to spin around and control.  Drove around on the surface a bit as well
to test surface running.  Again this was ok using the rear thruster.

Some problems.  Internal depth gauges didnt work at all, had to rely on the
exterior one.  Ive put the pipe work going up so there must be an airlock.
Never thought of that when i was fitting it.  Will probably make an oil
bladder.  No big deal.

Port side motor stopped working.  I thought it might have filled with water,
but when i drained it, it was all ok.  Unplugged it and plugged it back in
and its now working again.  Not exactly sure what was wrong there.

Got an air bubble stuck in the forward tank that could not be removed if the
boat didnt go down evenly.  A tactical hole should sort that out.

Quite a bit of corrosion on the dome retaining ring which is not anodized.
Not sure how i can stop that.

I'd filled the variable tank with Lanolin to protect it in storage but
although id pumped most of it out before diving, some residue was left and
formed a greasy film on the surface of the water.  This got on the video
camera and has fuzzed up a lot of the videos.

Completely forget to test the lights until right at the end.  Put them on
for about 5 mins, but not enough time for a proper corrosion test.

A completely random X girlfriend turned up.  I think she was with one of the
divers and didnt realise it was me.  I popped out of the hatch and could see
she was suprised "er, hello".  That was a bit awkward.

Divers scratched my lovely new lettering.  grrrr

All in all a fantastic day for me and i celebrated with several small
pressurised cannisters later in the evening....

Ive got loads of pics and video which i'll send in the next day or so after
ive sorted them all out.

Kind Regards

James

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