Hello Alec. Yes, I have been in contact with that company and in fact
they have the best prices I've found so far. I was quoted last week, the price
on a 2:1 semi elliptical tank head at 96 inch diameter, 3/8 inch thick, AS
516-70 steel for $1420 each.
This is about a third of the cost for one produced in California.
I am pretty sure I'm going to place that order next week.
I will, however be ordering two heads at 72 inch diameter. The man I
spoke with also quoted a price of only $340 for a 24 inch hemisphere tank end
at 5/8 inch thick, hot formed from a single piece. I have two very different
designs in mind and have decided to go with my original design using the semi
elliptical heads. ( but a little smaller than originally planned )
It looks sort of like a 50's era flying saucer, with the pressure hull at
72 inch round and 52 inches high. The displacement gives me about 6500 pounds
of buoyancy, where the 96 inch design was way up there at 11,000 pounds. (
OUCH! ) I'm hoping to increase the thickness to 1/2 inch for about $1000 per
72 inch head. Some reasons for going back to the original design are,
first, I can't find a 30 inch one piece hemisphere, and second, the two head
design is inherently more resistant to external pressure. It also requires a
lot less welding on the basic hull. Really only two welds for the envelope,
and then adding all the other stuff like a hatch, windows, mounts, etc. which
any design must have.
The other design ( which I spent the last 2 months on ) was pretty cool
and would have been pretty quick, but it doesn't have the basic spherical
shape. More like a sports car than a sphere. Looks cool, goes fast, cheap to
build, but small inside and only for a much shallower depth than what I really
wanted. I saw a sub made by a Chinese company called Tarwa ? and it looked
like it used the two head design. It probably is thicker than mine, and I
think it is designed to reach a 1000 ft depth. They make them for sale I
think. Anyway, I'm rambling. Thanks for the contact and yes, they are a good
source.
When I get the pieces, I'll come back on line and give all you guys an
update. Maybe I can even post some pictures as the work progresses.