REPOST

image issues
 

As I said in my last entry, I wasn’t very happy with the screw, or propeller, whichever you prefer. So after a few hours bumbling around on Shapeways, I concluded that it would take to long for them to print one. As I would have to ask the designer to scale down those design to my requirements, and then this would have to be put in the system. So I decided to make do with what I had.

As far as I know, there are only two ways of mounting a propeller to the lower stern. The first and most common, is for the screw to be mounted on the very end of the prop shaft, with the outermost bearing inside the hull taking the majority of the screws weight. The second and less common method, is for there to be two bearings.

This method is most commonly used when the rudder shaft and the outermost bearing are part of the same casting of forging, ill put a photo in a comment (it refused to be put in the blog itself) of what this piece looks like.  So instead of just the one bearing, there are two taking the weight. But that is not my reason for the this. Since this model is designed to float, the screw mounting needed to be very durable, and I think I’ve achieved that. 
 

I thought about actually hollowing out the hull and making a nonfunctional cosmetic interior, but decided against it for a few reasons. Chiefly I don’t currently own a morticing drill, and the only other way I know of hollowing out wood uses a the fire method, which I can’t say I wanted to try. I also looked at using a clockwork motor in it, but all mine are designed to drive vehicles, so the output shaft is on the wrong axis. I even measured my smallest one, and it’s just millimeters to tall, but I would have had to hollow out the hull, see above reason. So all that’s left to do is a few cost of polyurethane varnish, to stop it sinking. 
 

Stay healthy, 

Douglas