Concrete submarine

[rwatson]

That masted sub impresses me. The concept is very sound IMO.

It might not be a great sailboat, but the ability to skulk beneath bad weather impresses me.

A wild idea I had of having a wheels on it as well, which would mean you could crawl up on deserted beachs as well.

[pkoken]

Don't forget some wings so that it could fly... Maybe Doug Lord can figure out how to equip it with hydrofoils so it can foil too.

[blackdaisies]

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/submarines/

A steam powered sub.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/micro...ubmarines.html

Here's a modern one.

They have boat airplanes already, so adding ballast to make it sink underwater would not be far from reality.

http://sub-log.com/homemade_submarine_plan

http://www.vintageprojects.com/boats...ine-plans.html

http://www.rqriley.com/aquasub.html

For building plans, see above links.

concrete subs:

http://sub-log.com/homebuilt

[Fanie]

Sorry I know this may sound off topic, so at the risk of someone buggering my points up I would like to mention that as far as I know the Italian maffia is big on concrete submarines, I think. In many of their movies they talk about it and 'sleeps with the fishes' is heard frequently.

[blackdaisies]

Those are concrete shoes here in the US and they say some people sleep with the fishies too.

[rwatson]

oh hearty ha ha you guys you :-)

Actually, the semi submersing sub in the link I liked was not concrete, it was metal, so the concrete references showed you didnt actually read the details.

I can believe in metal subs, but not concrete ones.

The idea of adding some sort of "walking gear" should be viable, because extra weight doesnt affect a sub as much as say a yacht. It would also be usefull when navigating shallow waters, because keeping a sub at a fixed shallow depth (say 10, metres) is quite tricky, and commercial subs avoid shallow waters like the plague. If you had some sort of tracks or wheels, then if you reached bottom you wouldnt stick, you could "drive" across the ocean floor ( rocks and coral outcrops notwithstanding).

The idea of viewing the ocean floor from the comfort of an enclosed ship appeals to me, as does the concept of being able to land at remote places. Now - all I need is money for the R&D and development of the concept.

Anyone want to buy some shares ??????

[Arildo]

Got my updated picture now RWatson?? I'm currently building at my sub. now! Now its Friday here-late. I'm doin my hobby that seems to be: "sanding"! I have been in touch with "one of the great", -A man who been making a lot of special effects on movies. He has been the maker of "R2-D2" from "Star/Wars"!!! (Englishman)He will help me out with demoulding my sub.! I needs perfections on demoulding my sub. If unsucsessful I cannot start from scratch again, If I do, I think my wife will either kill me or leave me....

[rwatson]

Thanks Arildo - yes I did get your pictures. I was going to email back, but heck - lets make it public. :-) I think you should start a separate thread about your project with progress reports and the like. It would make great reading. Keep up the good work.

Sanding is the main skill for fibreglass workers. What we need are "smart epoxies" that know where to lie down and harden. I have talked to pots of polyester till I am blue in the face, but they still insist on running off the mould onto the floor, intead of staying where I painted them.

I am told that the reason goop runs onto the floor is something called gravity, but I dunno - seems a bit unrealistic to me!!!!

[marshmat]

The Canadian military has some old helicopters that love to dive into the water and some second-hand submarines that hate the water. There has been some talk of exchanging their roles.

Recreational submarines are a cool idea in areas with clear waters, lots of stuff to see, etc. There are an awful lot of places, though, where you'd be on the submariner's equivalent of IFR- no visibility, dependent entirely on navigation and sonar systems. I think that makes the concept a bit harder to sell.

Stability at sea, though.... storm coming? Pop up the mast and dive. Great solution. Now, to reconcile that with bridge clearances....

[Arildo]

Hi again Watson (whats your first name)? - I'm sorry to inform you that the progress will be slow, wife and childs are screeming for attention! I can only work in the middle of the nights (at weekends mostly)when they all sleeping. Now its 01:56 and I can do something! Sanding the last part, and that is the canopy.. Do you think its looking nice? How to public picture?

[Arildo]

Sorry, my wife just called me to go to sleep!
Please rederict answ. to "arild.olsen@lifi.no"
logging off, and sanding finish 4today!!!

[Arildo]

Not "off" yet, It seems like people from the very east, stay up early (or very, VERY late), and people from America up early. Me something between, however got a problem to stay awake! (04:39)

[blackdaisies]

The Australian one at the bottom is concrete.

Inside photos:



It is definitely made of concrete. I would imagine some of the plans could be made for ferro concrete building. You might have to take one design and turn completely around, but you have all the important components listed in the plans and can include them or have a concrete plan written from any of them.

http://imulead.com/tolimared/concretesubmarine/

[rwatson]

They are all "ferroconcrete" = that is - steel reinforced, and except for the one on the bottom right, they are all the same sub built by the same guy who is supposed to be building the 200 ton sub. You can check out a couple of other threads that went through all this stuff.

Any *new* information?

[blackdaisies]

You didn't even have that, so why are you complaining? There are many plans available, so the ones I could find, I posted. I am not a designer.

What have you found? I don't see any pictures of any you found? The point is that a concrete submarine is not a strange idea, and a long thin one could hide a pop up mast and sail on top of the water. There are even human propelled ones to buy plans for. Some of the plans are free if you look over the urls you can find them.

What new concrete submarine do you have to show?