electric thrusters for QM2

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Chaps,fellow boaters, countrymen..

Having removerd the electric motors form the RTR Severn, in preparation for proper remote control, it struck me that the units are not, or dont seem to be, sealed against water, and that they could be used as seperate thrusters for, say , a QM2 model, or similar. More to the point, I wonder if you could not simply encapsulate a small electric motor in, for instance, resin, and use a push-on prop, and have an instant thrust unit. The RTR ones dont seem to suffer from being soaked, and indeed I believe electric race types used to run-in thier motors underwater (no idea why??).

It seems a shame to spoil a QM2 working model by using ordinary shafts when a solution may be at hand??????     Ashley

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Ashley

I tried this a couple of years ago with a pusher tug by placing a 600 size motor in a length of plastic waste pipe, making seals for each end and making a short tube and shaft to go through one of the ends. I plastic welded a smaller pipe onto the waste pipe at 90deg and passed the motor wires through this into the hull, thi smaller pipe was connected to a servo inside the hull and used to turn the entire motor pod.

It worked very well and the tug could move in any direction with the minimum of fuss.

Paul

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Paul. Interesting. I will file this idea away for future consideration…    Ashley

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Ashley

Here is a drawing for you to peruse.

Paul

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Paul. I have perused at length. A 600 motor is a fair size to have a under a boat, your pod must have been a whopper! It strikes me that it would be relatively easy at that size to make a bevel drive system, using some easily and cheaply available gears to do the same thing.  The motor coud be fixed with a bevel drive system, with either a bevel at the top or simply having the motor face downwards over the pod swivel, driving the downwards shaft directly…  If short lengths of brass prop-shaft tubes were used as the downwards drive and the horizontal moto drive, then they could be soldered together with plate to hold the bevel gears in engagement, and then a casing of suitable size and style for the boat could be built up around the cogs… avoiding water sealing probs at the bottom end (water lubrication)      Ashley

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Ashley

As you know I like to build big boats so the pod size was in scale to the hull, the pod casing was a piece of 1 1/2in plastic waste pipe and the domed ends were off anti-perspirant roll-on bottles.

Paul

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hello Ashley and Paul

Just found this in Ships Nostalgia and it seems relevant to the thread

Bob

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Bob, nice tidy unit, but looks a bit like a hydraulic drive to me ???  It strikes me that one of the larger manufacturers should be offering some pod electric drives, wot with there being more and more ships so equipped (arn`t the RN Bay class LSD(A) class ships pod driven??)   They would be handy for all sorts of boats, tugs, ferries etc   Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

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