[PSUBS-MAILIST] Trustworthy launch

[Dan H.]

Scott,

Congratulations!   By the pics you have posted and the success of your launch, I'd say you did a great job on your build.  If Captain K were still with us, I'm sure he'd be proud to see another of his design built, especially as nice as your is.  Great job!

About the vents, going to 3/4 lines would definitely help vent quicker.  If you your not venting though, it's probably because of water being trapped in the line.  Line size probably won't help that.  

To test for water stuck in your vent line, use a piece of hose to blow backwards through your vent valves.  Either do it at the beginning of your dive with the conning tower open or have someone on the outside of the sub do it.  If it's getting water trapped in the line, you'll blow it back through and then it should vent all the way properly.  

I had that trouble and fixed it by adding a few fittings after the check valve on the line that brings HP air into the tanks.  I fashioned a piece of tubing to blow some of the HP air directly in the fitting connecting the tank to it's vent line.  If my MBT isn't venting properly, I just give it a shot of HP air with the fill valve and blow the trapped water out, then continue venting.  Not having the lines dip up and down as they come along the hull would fix it too but it wouldn't look to nice.

Again, great job,
Dan H.
And yes, you need a bunch of lead inside.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: swaters 
  To: personal_submersibles at psubs.org 
  Sent: Sunday, September 15, 2013 11:19 AM
  Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Trustworthy launch


  Hey guys. I did the first dive in trustworthy. The boat is bone dry with no leaks or even weeping after being in the water for three hours. I did have a few electrical problems due to not getting the grounding bolt area clean enough of epoxy paint, but that is a easy fix. A problem I had was not weighing enough. It was me and a buddy we both weigh 175 pounds or so. The two drop weights are 250 pounds total (same as kitteredge). I ended up putting 100 pounds of lifting weights, about 200 pounds of old jacks and it still wouldn't go down. I had the safty dives stand on it and it went down. After scrathing my head for a while I decided the scuba tanks on the outside which had 100 pounds negative boancy now is close to 0 boyancy so that makes due for a little, of the extra floatation. But what about the extra weight of the jacks and the divers? The only thing I can think of is the tanks were not venting well. I notice they got hydro locked way to easy. It seems like the 1/2 " line is way to small. So the only thing I can figure out is maybe the ballest tanks were not venting all the way. Everything about my sub is built just like the blue prints so that is the only thing I can think of about it being to bouant. Any thoughts?
  Thanks,
  Scott Waters








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