Hi Jon,This kind of estimating is hard to nail down but, I am giving it a bare bones, materials and basic tools, your own labor, when I use the $4-$6 per pound range as an estimator, for marine grade materials. That seems to be the consensus in the homebuilder arena. Much more, $12 - $15 using someone else's yard and labor. (see article excerpt below)
Remember now, this is for boatbuilding not subs, which are more "skilled labor" intensive. A whole lot of cutting, welding, grinding...of round surfaces and small tolerance stuff. Also, when these figures are used for surface vessels, they take into account the displacement of the design water line, so in submersibles, since our "in air" weight nearly equals our submerged displacement, it is reasonable to use that figure.
This is why, my submersible "shrank" from 36' two years ago, to what George Kittredge discovered long before I did.
I'll never forget what Paul Kreemer said to me once,"Basically Joe, there's that unpleasant reality of trying to submerge a large volume of air".
Yes Sir!...quite unpleasant! :) JoeHere's an excerpt from an article written by a rather prolific metal boat designer, Michael Kasten. His website, with many articles is at http://www.kastenmarine.com I used his example because he's a metal guy
"At the beginning of the design process, in order to make use of a readily available parameter that also varies as the cube of the overall dimensions, I ordinarily use the the Design Waterline Displacement.
Although not always the case, a vessel's displacement will usually provide a convenient variable that roughly parallels the cubic contents of the whole boat. If it is less, I will use the light load case weight. In other words, I do not include any tank contents or other consumables, nor any owner supplied outfit items, i.e. just the "boat" itself and all items permanently attached to it.
The guidepost I currently use when asked what a medium sized metal yacht might cost is to begin at a preliminary average cost of around USD $12 to $15 per displacement pound. Presuming we are comparing like to like, we may then infer that the cost of a vessel will approximately vary directly with the displacement."
From: "Jon Wallace" <jonw@whoweb.com> Reply-To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org To: <personal_submersibles@psubs.org> Subject: RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 21:12:03 -0400 Hi Joe, Does the $15k include all tools necessary for construction, or for actual submersible hull and fittings? Jon -----Original Message----- From: owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org [mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org]On Behalf Of Joseph Perkel Sent: Monday, June 26, 2006 9:04 PM To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org Subject: RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] A correction to my earlier post regarding cost, the quote from the article was as follows. "Building the small subs takes very little money, Smyth said. He paid less than $10,000 for Snoopy, though he said the subs are typically built, not bought. ?The cost of materials is about $15,000,? he said, noting that the larger subs can cost millions. ?It?s mostly all labor.? So, $15K / 2250 lbs = $6.66 / lb That seems right on target, a K250 @ $15k, and a K350 @ approx $23 - $25 K built in your garage. Anyone else with any input here regarding "real" costs? Joe ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ The personal submersibles mailing list complies with the US Federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Your email address appears in our database because either you, or someone you know, requested you receive messages from our organization. If you want to be removed from this mailing list simply click on the link below or send a blank email message to: removeme-personal_submersibles@psubs.org Removal of your email address from this mailing list occurs by an automated process and should be complete within five minutes of our server receiving your request. PSUBS.ORG PO Box 311 Weare, NH 03281 603-529-1100 ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************
************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ The personal submersibles mailing list complies with the US Federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Your email address appears in our database because either you, or someone you know, requested you receive messages from our organization. If you want to be removed from this mailing list simply click on the link below or send a blank email message to: removeme-personal_submersibles@psubs.org Removal of your email address from this mailing list occurs by an automated process and should be complete within five minutes of our server receiving your request. PSUBS.ORG PO Box 311 Weare, NH 03281 603-529-1100 ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************