Sunday, October 09, 2011

UB 40

Assembled Submarine with ballast can in place.
Showing detached ballast. Ready to surface Sir!

For a change of pace this weekend, I decided I'd try making one of the wooden toys I found in "Carpentry And Mechanics For Boys", by A. Neely Hall.

The model is of a Submarine that will submerge and, on touching bottom, release a can of ballast an then rise to the surface. It has been quite an easy build so far, although I've not yet gotten onto making the mechanism for dropping the ballast can. Now, apart from letting the children have it (madness, surely!), what ever shall I do with it???

3 comments:

Bluebear Jeff said...

Is the ballast can retrievable? or will it contribute to littering the waterways?


-- Jeff

Ross Mac rmacfa@gmail.com said...

I rather think that this calls for a merchant ship and some form of spring loaded torpedo, perhaps one cocked by the descent and released by the ascent?

Old School ACW said...

Jeff - the model is intended more for the bathtub or swimming pool. However, for the pond or creek one would epoxy a line to the can - without it, the sub is just a piece of wood!

Ross - I agree. I was thinking of a dastardly plan to torpedo the Royal yacht by a Criminal Mastermind with an Infernal Device. Perhaps one might use a aluminium cugar tube with a rubber-band mechanism inserted therein?