HrMs O-1 by FreekS - FINISHED - 1:32 - RADIO - first Dutch submarine 1906-1920

[FreekS]

After cutting the sub near the stern, I will now mount a bayonet so that the boat can be opened and a "tech rack" mounted in the stern section which can be pulled out of the bow section.

 

As the bayonet is slightly smaller than the boat, I glued some wooden rings into the stern section. As this section gets narrower to the stern these rings can be firmly mounted. The bayonet fits well in this (but is not glued yet).

 

 

 

The bow section gets slightly wider towards the bow, and thus the wooden rings have been fixed with three small wedges. These allow the ring to be precisely centred and allow the bayonet to be test fitted and the two halves of the boat connected. The wedges have now been glued in place and the next step is to fix the wooden ring with epoxy resin.

 

 

This was definitely a slightly scary operation - but it looks good - though only when the seal is proven to be water- and air proof will it be finished.

 

Freek

Edited December 25, 2013 by FreekS

[Jim Lad]

So that's the secret.  I was wondering how you were going to get access to the internal workings!

 

John

[mtaylor]

Very ingenious, to say the least.

[FreekS]

I have now completed the installation of the bayonet. It is glued in with epoxy glue and (hopefully) made waterproof with epoxy resin.

 

Next is to start to work on the outer plates of the deck section. These are difficult, I am using 0.8 mm triplex wood, which bends mainly in one direction. Especially at the bow it needs to bend in two directions. So I have installed some wood blocks as glue surfaces.

 

 

The two front hull plates have been glued in (compare with original foto on page 2).

The torpedo tube door will not be functional and has been glued in place.

 

 

 

All surfaces under the plates have been treated with epoxy for water repellency. Clearly there is some work to be done with plamuur/putty as there are a few unwanted curves in the wood. But that will be fixable I think.

 

Freek

Edited January 12, 2014 by FreekS

[FreekS]

More work done on the superstructure. Did some finishing work on the bow plates using epoxy resin. Needs a few more rounds I'm sure! Also built the rest of the side plates of the superstructure so that the shape of the boat is getting close

 

Also did some work on the hatch, periscope and the little hatch that closes the periscope hole when retracted.

 

 

Freek

Edited January 19, 2014 by FreekS

[ianmajor]

Freek,

 

Love the hatch. This sub is coming along beautifully.

[WackoWolf]

This is looking, nice eye for detail. Keep the pictures coming.

[Jim Lad]

Just catching up ,Freek.  She's coming along well!

 

John

[FreekS]

 

hi all,

 

On photos of the O-1 clear horizontal seams are visible on the hull. I presume this is where steel hull plates are riveted ov each other for strength.

 

 

On another forum I saw a means I'm making this,

I glued thin, 0.8mm think wood strips to the hull, and applied epoxy putty to one side of that, while leaving a step on the other.

Then with a sanding machine I sanded the wood and dried putty even to about a 0.5 mm thin step (equivalent with 16mm steel plate in reality.

I have a number more to do but it's pretty simple to do. I am very curious what it will look like after painting (and possibly applying rivets)

 

 

Freek

[Sparks]

Hi Freek,

 

I'm rather new to this forum and not quite operating yet. This is my first post.

The picture above of the (mini) dockyard triggered me.

I know this one in Vlissingen/Flushing in The Netherland; my place of birth.

About 40 years ago it was of no use anymore (financially) and it was dumped full of sand and in this way disappeared underground.

Recently it was restored and repaired to fully operational, including the praticularly formed dockdoor.

If you are interested, I can search for some information and pictures about this restoration-project and itss results. If so, just PM me.

 

Greets,

Flip (or Phil (= more international)).

[Piet]

Hoi Freek, looks like that'll work just nicely for you.  Yes, they are called lap joints and for strength there should be at least two rows of rivets in staggered pattern.  She's really coming along great, nice project.

 

Cheers,

[FreekS]

Flip

 

Thanks for the idea! I've found a number of photos of the dock, and maybe once my boat is ready I will actually build the dock as a stand. Probably Parton the dock as it was much bigger than O-1

Thanks for you interest!

 

Freek

[FreekS]

Today was another milestone. The prop I ordered from the props hop arrived! It looks fabulous!

The prop has a diameter of 52 mm, has a small pitch (so a relatively small size motor can be fitted), and a 4 mm smooth hole for the shaft with a small locking nut. This is needed as with a threaded shaft it would become very hard to remove the prop once mounted. Now I plan to make sure the motor can be unscrewed and then the shaft pulled 'into' the boat.

 

The prop will look like an integral part of the hull, as a small conical part of the hull continues behind the prop.

The conical stern piece has two boreholes through which the "shafts" (probably not the right word) of the rudder and the dive planes will turn. Those will also turn on the horizontal and vertical fins of which two are shown in below pic.

 

 

 

 

Lots of decisions to be made next.

Do I let the propshaft continue into the conical stern piece and place a bearing there, or do I leave the stern piece "free hanging" and have both bearings inside the hull?

How to rigidly fix the conical stern piece which will be fixed on top and bottom to the vertical fins, but not to the horizontal fins as that connection necessarily is a turning shaft for the dive planes.

 

I think I put a pic of the stern of the real boat in an earlier post - it will be a complex build!

 

Freek

Edited February 19, 2014 by FreekS

[FreekS]

Hello all,

 

Moving aft with the build-I've been working on the fins that support the rudders and dive planes and the aft conus.

 

On attached photo the shafts for the rudders and diverudders can be seen, provisionally mounted in their final position.

The prop will have a bronze water-lubricated bearing inside the aft conus, which is further supported by the two shafts (rotating) and thin wood pieces of the vertical fins. Hope it will all be robust wrt the forces that may act on the planes in a turn or dive!

 

The bearings are part of a large number of inside components that are underway from various Internet shops. Luckily I only manage to build a sub every 4 years or so, as the total cost of components is getting to be impressive. The main motor and propshaft have arrived - but I need the bearings to continue !

 

 

Freek

[FreekS]

Hi all, the build continues - slowly, as usual!

 

This week I have been working in the dive planes and rudder, both made from 1 mm messing, soldered to the shafts.

I am not a star in soldering , but by cooling planes already mounted I got a strong bond. Only the little "balance planes" on the opposite side of the shaft proved impossible to solder without destroying the other connection, so I mounted those with 2 component epoxy. Seems strong enough.

 

I filed off excess solder - the whole thing looks like it will work though it's probably not the very best looking part of the boat. Still have to polish and paint the planes though. The conus already contains one of the bearings for the shaft, and so it will be fixed by the propshaft, the planes shafts and the two wooden fins. The holes in the hull for the pushrods have been drilled, so next will be building and mounting the propshaft and motor connection, and the linkages to the pushrods controlling the planes.

 

 

Edited March 9, 2014 by FreekS

[FreekS]

With the rudders and dive planes finally mounted, I've turned to the inside of the boat.

 

Here is an inside shot of the stern Parton the hull. The pushrods for the planes and dive planes end here inside a nut assembly that will contain an o-ring, sealing the 2mm think pushrods from the sea (well, pool more likely!).

In the centre in the stern is a spring loaded shaft seal mounted in a wooden holder, the wood is thoroughly impregnated with epoxy. Behind the shaft seal is a short shaft running on three bearings, of which one is in the conus behind the prop.

 

 

Next, I mounted the drivetrain. The small brushless motor is optimised for relatively low rpms (8000 or so) which should drive my low pitch but large propellor with not too much tongue (or current). I made a wooden motor mount which will be glued on one of the bulkheads. Behind the motormouth is just enough room for the stiff connection between the motor axle and the shaft. The motor is screwed on the motormount, and if I unlock the prop from the shaft, then the axle and motor can all be pulled out of the boat for maintenance.

 

 

Next is to design how the servomotors will operate the pushrods; as you can see from prior photos, if bothe rudder and dive planes are swung out fully, they will hit each other, but when the dive planes are neutral, the rudder could swing out fully. As my boat is small and will be used mainly in swimming pools, I will want to get a small turning circle.

So I have to do some thinking on how to regulate the operations of planes and dive planes so they do not interfere but give maximum manoeuvrability. Ideas welcome of course!

 

Cheers

 

Freek

[Piet]

Hello Freek,

 

That looks very professional and such intricate detail, very nice work !!!

 

Cheers,

[FreekS]

 

 

Here is the first test of the motor. I'm running it of a 12 Volt battery and measuring the current drawn.

 

After increasing the power, the prop is making the bath into a whirlpool!

 

I'm going to have to use lower voltage or program the controller to work better at low power settings. Good news is that even with .3 to .6 amps it's already running nicely, and the drivetrain seems well lined up.

 

Freek

Edited April 24, 2014 by FreekS

[FreekS]

Dear friends,

 

Last week I drove to Nürnberg in Germany with my K-XVIII submarine to sail her in a nice outdoor pool with a lot of other subs.

 

I managed to get in over 2 hours of sailing before the batteries were exhausted. Fired three of my rubber motor Torpedo's and generally had lots of fun.

 

Enjoy!

 

Edited May 1, 2014 by FreekS

[Piet]

Hi Freek, awesome video, thanks for sharing.

 

Cheers,

[FreekS]

Some further work on the stern.

 

Last time I had built in the drive motor and tested it. Now I mounted the pump which will fill and empty the dive tank on the next bulkhead.

On the photo you can see the tube drawing water from "the sea", and the black pump head of a 200ml per minute peristaltic pump.

The pump motor is visible on the near side of the bulkhead, which can close off the stern section with one screw attached to that is a half-cut plastic tube which will hold all further technicals.

 

 

In the next picture the assembly is closed and the pushrods for the planes can be seen. the servomotors to the side have been discarded as I want to have miniseries mounted on the pump motor to save space.

 

 

And that is the next job!

 

Freek

[Piet]

Hoi Freek, ingenious and impressive!  Lots of thought must have gone into this but then again you have plenty of experience with your KXVIII build, which should be of help.  I love the video you made a few weeks ago.

 

Cheers,

[FreekS]

Thanks Piet!

 

May has a number of long weekends! Last week I finished the insides of the O-1. Below picture shows how the servos have been put in place and these operate the planes. Behind them a waterproof bag is placed as a dive tank. It van be filled with about 200 ml water and should then submerge the boat. In the front compartment are the electronics controlling the pump, an automatic leveller so under water the boat will come to an even keel, and two LIPO accus underneath the electronics.

 

The main functions have been tested dry, and tomorrow the O-1 will accompany the K-XVIII to a annual submarine model event in the netherlands (Seabottom Subsail). There I can get further advise of the experts and spend a nice day sailing K-XVIII. weather forecast is great!

 

 

I'm switching again to outside work, planning to make the distinctive "eye" for the achor or mooring chain (not sure if she had an anchor!) out of messing, and also still need to make a square of messing rods connecting the fins holding the dive planes and rudder.

 

Oh and here is another model in a Dutch museum!

 

Edited June 8, 2014 by FreekS

[mtaylor]

Have fun and smooth sailing.  I hope you'll show us some pictures.

[FreekS]

Subsail is over again. The technical bits of hr ms O-1 were finished on time and seem to work.

However, the boat has not seen water yet as its unpainted. My other boat (K-XVIII) did get into water and even fired a torpedo but I had little chance to film in the pea-soup like water.

 

On a short holiday in Switserland I took a box of tools, including my 15 W soldering iron.

So after mountain hikes I could make some of the details.

 

First the steering wheel, in the case of O-1 mounted outside the conning tower and horizontal. The coin for scale may be unknown to some, as the Dutch have discontinued it but the Germans have not.

 

 

Here is the completed steering wheel, and the mast. This submarine from 1905 still had three masts (plus two periscopes).

 

Also these old boats had lots of details, here a few thingies for tying ropes to, foundations for the fore and aft-masts, and guide-eyes for the (anchor?) chain (I have not found out yet if the O-1 had an anchor)!

 

 

Greetings Freek

[Piet]

Hoi Freek, now that's totally awesome!  Nice job on the helm.  Three masts eh.  Will they be square rigged or fore and aft?         Kidding of course.

[FreekS]

@Piet, bedankt voor het compliment! As with most ships, fotos indicate many changes made during the boats life. As this was the first Dutch sub, it was a testbed. In fact the drawings I have are of the "mid-life conversion" when the dangerous petrol engine was replaced by a Diesel. The early photos often show two short masts with stripes fore an aft, I think to help trim the boat. Later fotos seem to have three full masts with navigation lights etc.

As my O-1 will be a working model, and those masts were clearly taken down for submerging, I will make the early version with the two "trim masts". As I call them.

 

Another very visible feature of the boat are the flanges that were used to rivet the deck section and the fins to the pressure hull. Rivets themselves are only visible in dock fotos, I think they were probably hammered flat and covered with many layers of paint.

I cut the flanges from 0.4 mm carton (so in rl they resemble 12 mm steel), and glued them on the boat. Next they were coated in thin 2 component epoxy resin to make the waterproof.

 

 

Edited June 29, 2014 by FreekS

[FreekS]

 

 

Dear all,

 

Lots more details made such as the stabilisers (Piet you can translate "kimkielen"!), and the stanchions on the deck, held in particular tiny holders.

The stabilisers fins are again mounted with carton flanges impregnated with epoxy resin.

 

Next step is painting of the hull followed by the deck planking.

 

All for now again! Thanks for your interest!

 

Freek

 

 

 

[ianmajor]

Freek,

 

I can't wait to see it in action. It looks great.

[Piet]

Hoi Freek,  nice progress you've made and am looking forward to the paint job!

 

"kimkielen" is the plural for "kimkiel."  This would translate to "bilge keels" in plural and "bilge keel" in singular.

 

As all of you may have noticed that on my model of the O19 she doesn't have "bilge keels" because she has those mine compartments on the side of the hul making her rather stable.  All other models of the Dutch subs do have them though.

 

Cheers,