April 27, 2007

Dear Diary
Today we went to Long Beach. Once we got there we discovered that one of the engines on the sub was not working and we had no idea why. The propellor was spinning but it was not producing any thrust. We finally discovered that the engine was cavitating ( just churning the water, like a blender) but we faced another dilemna, how would we stop this. We discovered that it was cavitating because the propeller's plane was located at the end of the engine tube close to the plane of the tube. There must have been some evil power working against us because we did not bring any sandpaper to shoten the tube. First we asked everyone else if the had sandpaper, they didn't then we asked the lifeguards if they had any, they didn't. We tried sanding it on the rough surface of a diving board but ended up sanding the board and earning a disapproving glare from the lifegaurd. We were considering taking a piece of paper and hot gluing sand from the beach onto it or selling our souls to the evil spirit haunting our project when we found a wire cutter. Through all of our hardships good prevailed, and although it was rather difficult to chip off pieces of a plastic tube without flicking the pieces into our eyes we prevailed and in doing so decided to name our sub the H.M.S. Posieden after the ancient Greek god of the sea. We proceeded to begin testing our sub and astounded everyone with our awefullness( full of aweness).


HMS Poseidon in drydock while we contemplate how to fix the cavitation problem


HMS Poseidon in the water


Our newly chipped engine tube

April 24, 2007

Dear Diary
Today we completed the sub!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We attached the surgical tubing to the ballast system, attached the both the ballast and engine tubes to the the frame with black nylon wraps and completed the wiring from the engines to the battery. The battery compartment was comprised of one 2 inch diameter, 11 inch tube.

April 22, 2007

Dear Diary
Today we assembled the engine pods from two 2 inch diameter tubes which wer 14.5 inches long. The propellers are going to be inside the tubes so they will act like water jets. We drilled the holes with an awefull (full of awe) drill press. We also compleed the bulkhead sections to prevent water from reaching the engines. The reason why we had assemble the bulk heads and engine tubes at home was because we did not have the proper equipment (such as a drill press) at school.

Us using a drill press

4/21/2007

Dear diary
Today we contsructed the aluminum frame of our submarine. To do this we cut the pieces of aluminum, drilled holes in them and riveted them together.The frame will cosist of of two 8 inch L shaped pieces connected by a flat piece, the engine tubes will be strapped to the L shaped pieces with nylon wraps and the middle tube with the battery will rest on the connecting piece also connected with the nylon wraps. Two other 5.5 inch aluminum pieces will be riveted to the L shaped pieces each with another, with two shorter 3 inch L shaped piece connecting to the ballast tubes also with nylon wraps.

Cutting the frame

4/20/2007

Dear Diary:
Today we completed the ballast system. The tubing for it was 1.75 inches in diameter and 12 inches long.
Instead of one, long tube, it will consist of 2 separate tubes sitting on top of the three body tubes. Each tube will be made up of two ballast containers which are each 3 inches long, with a small, plastic sleeve to connect them. This small connecting tube will be sealed with silicone sealant. Over the connecting joint, there will be a larger plastic ring to ensure containment. The ballast tubes are made of a large, outer tube with two arcrylic bulkheads sealing it off, and with a smaller tube running along the top to allow the movement of air through and into the tube.

ballast tubes

APRIL 18, 2007

DEAR DIARY:
TODAY WE STARTED TO WORK ON OUR SUBMARINE'S BALLAST SYSTEM.
WE GLUED TOGETHER THE BULKHEADS ON EACH OF THE 4 INDIVIDUAL SECTIONS OF THE BALLAST TUBE. AFTER THE TUBES HAVE BEEN SANDED, A SECOND, LARGER TUBE WILL BE FITTED AROUND THE FOUR SMALLER SECTIONS AND SEALED OFF. THE SAME BULKHEAD DESIGN WILL BE EMPLOYED IN THE OTHER TUBE, IN ORDER TO RETSRICT WATER FROM VITAL SYSTEMS.

NAMES WE ARE CONSIDERING:

HMS TAEPODONG III
HMS NOSOTROS MMVII
USS ULYSSES
USS FREEWILLY

TODAY, WE ALSO HAD OUR 2nd DIVE SESSION.

UMMM....
pictures of us working

April 12

Dear Diary: well, our first dive day was on the 10th. we learned how to assemble our scuba gear and de-fog our googles. Our submarine will be comprised of 4 main tubes. two of the tubes will be engine pods, the middle one is the battery compartment, and the top will be the ballast system. the ballast tube will have a series of holes along the bottom to let water in, and an aquarium pump would put air into the tube. when the pump is not functioning, water will free flood the tube, causing the sub to sink. when the pump is activated, it will push air into the tube, increasing the sub's displacement, thus making the submarine to rise.

April 10

Today we created our shopping list, had our first dive and worked on the project research. Here are the plans for our sub.