The prop shaft was fitted during the initial build and lined up with the motor as close as possible however the final fitting takes a little more time. The first obstacle to overcome is the brass propeller I purchased has a 4 mm thread and the shaft is a 5 mm thread. Because of the shape of a propeller it is impossible to hold it in a tree jaw chuck or indeed the collets, this means that a jig has to be designed in order that the propeller can be held in a three jaw chuck perfectly true. The jig is quite difficult to descried but it has to fit around the parallel part of the prop (which is only between the blades), and to ensure concentricity the point of the prop also needs to be supported. Now secure and running perfectly true the new thread can be machined. To increase the hole size it can’t be drilled out using a normal drill, this is because the drill will be pushed off centre by the uneven cutting of the existing 4mm thread, so the hole is enlarged using a stub flat bottom drill, or a slot drill this will ensure the hole is machined true. The thread can now be cut in the newly machined hole.
The motor and shaft can now be aligned; initial alignment is done by a solid brass connecter which is then replaced by the flexible coupling. Because the motor mount is made of wood supported by wood and a prop shaft mounted in wood, a final tweak can be made with the motor running and observing the “note” of the motor which will alter when the best alignment is achieved

I have been looking at all sorts of alternative smoking devices and have now come to a system that I think will work for me. I purchased a vaping device which I felt would be a self-contained unit , easily charge easily replenished and would work for a long enough period for a day’s sailing. The system comprises of :-

1 An ecig devise - Smok Stick V8 Kit
2 A water pump –Dosing Pump Mini Peristaltic Self-Priming
3 An air pump DC 5V 6V Mini 370 Motor Air Pump Vacuum Pump Self-Priming
The e cig required some modification in that I needed it to work by a simple switch action that could be incorporated in an electronic circuit rather than the push button on the side of the unit. So I decided to dismantle the unit with some help from You tube the end caps are a push fit in the end of the tube and they are a tight fit. The guy in the video attacks the unit with a rather large hammer, I took a more gentile approach and mounted it in the lathe collects and gently wiggled it loose. This seems simple but it took an hour to release it. Having got the internals out I could see the on/off switch which was part of a circuit board and had tiny soldered joints. Using the multi-meter I determined the terminals that switched on/off and using a big, big, magnifying glass and a modified soldering iron tip I was able to attach two wires. I drilled a small hole in the base and fed the wires through then refitted the end caps, the unit can now be operated either by the button or just connecting the two wires.
I now need an electronic devise to switch the components on/off at varying periods, this is where my electronics expertise comes in – “call a friend” Graham93 Warrant Officer another member on the site had offered to help me out so I gave him details of my requirements which was :-

An E cig device which requires switching on/off pulsed at 3 sec on and 3 seconds off this also needs, at the same time to switch the water pump & air pump on/off at 1sec before the ecig and stay on for 4 Sec and off at the same time. However Graham said he could make the timings’ variable which meant that with experiments I could make the devise work to optimum safety and look realistic. The starting point for timings was:-

See table (table wouldn't reproduce in the text Pic 3)

The device was delivered after a week and it also came with a two page instruction manual, so I wasted no time in testing it, albeit out of the boat and it worked perfectly, at this point I didn’t have the final pump unit. So I then started to fit all the parts into the boat which will let me try it in the bath!

Many thanks to Graham for his contribution to this smoker, It has really performed well.

Ecig smoker

▶️

Electrics continued
The size of the electrical requirements for this vessel seems to be mirroring the real thing.
I need to finish the assembly of the front cabin roof so I can run the wiring harness through the cabin interior before I finally fit all the flooring and control panel. This also means that the cabin lighting has to be fitted as well, these are the imitation strip lights I made earlier, there are 3 in the front cabin, 4 in the mid cabin, and 4 in the rear cabin. The wires all pass through the pre drilled holes and hopefully will be all hidden under the Port and Starboard sides of the boat, they then go into the box containing the circuit board. The pump for the fire monitors needs wiring, and the Turnigy switching device installing to allow the water to be switched on/off from the T/X. Leads will be made up to go from the receiver to the two fire monitor servos. The power for the lights is from a 6V 2500ah battery which will also power the pump for the fire monitors.

First to finish is the wiring in the front cabin roof, I have worked out that I need to bring 8 wires from the roof down into the front cabin and then back to the control box and the spotlight rotation servo lead back to the transmitter (you may remember that the roof is on a hinge system and lifts up). I have used an 8 pin JST Lipo Balance Lead Cable Plug Sets which is quite small enough to be unobtrusive. All the wires come to a socket which is mounted in the sliding cabin recess. The 8 wire leads then goes down to another socket which is mounted above the centre window where the wires continue down two tubes mounted in the window frame and exiting in the front bulkhead space, they can now travel down the side of the boat and exit to the control box and receiver.

Next to complete are the cabin lights, all wires are brought back to the control box and separated into 3 plugs, (front cabin - mid cabin - rear cabin) the filaments are very delicate and need protecting. I used some 0.5 mm polycarbonate sheet. Time for another jig, I used a 5mm steel bar fastened to a piece of 5mm x 10mm wood, this needed to have a mating slotted piece to create the cover. I cut some 20mm strips. 150mm long these were heated with a hot air gun and then it was pressed into the jig, the covers were trimmed to length and then fitted to the light fitting with canopy glue.

The last to be wired are the tow light, the navigation lights and the front cabin “dash board” lights (which are 6v), The tow light and navigation lights are wired straight to a terminal in the power box and the dash lights are wired through another switch and back to the 6v battery.
Each of the sets of lights were checked as they were installed and so far all worked as expected, so now all the wires are tucked away in the under deck space.

Following Robs great design I made a start on my own version of a circuit board for my lighting requirements, I have the following lighting requirements:-
1. Spot light
2. Blue light
3. Mast light
4. Port/starboard lights
5. Instrument lights
6. Front cabin lights
7. Sick bay lights
8. Engine bay lights
9. Towing light

I wanted to keep everything neat and tidy so I had a plastic project box doing nothing which was just the right size. I have 1 dedicated spot light Molex connector with a large current limiting resistor and then one specifically for the blue cabin forward light and finally there are 5 connectors that are for smaller LEDs. I have 2 Turnigy switches, one is for the spot light and the other switches all the other lights. I like the circuit board Rob designed because it I like the idea of being able to take out each individual lighting circuit should it be required. The only lighting I haven’t previously covered are the cabin lights, I thought that something imitating a tubular light might look nice, so using the LED filaments from garden lights I designed a fitting for all the cabins, taking a length of square plastic tube I made a small jig that would allow me to file a recess in the tube to allow the LED to be visible, each of the LEDs had wires attached and then the whole assembly was fed into the tube. When in position I secured them using canopy glue squirted down the ends. The fittings will be glued in position at a later stage.

It’s time to finish some part completed jobs so having put an intake in the forward bulk head area I have now found that the pump (a 6v Graupner look alike apparently) was not as reliable as it is supposed to be despite being expensive, it didn’t start up every time. After taking the motor housing apart, there didn’t appear to be anything wrong with its internals, other than being a mass produced brushed motor made to not too exacting tolerances. So I decided to by a “real” Graupner 6V pump which seemed to be a better manufactured pump. The only issue I had with it was in the description it says it must have the inlet below the water line but looking at the configuration/design of the pump the inlet and outlet are on the top of the pump!
So a little re-engineering required, I made an alternative bracket which puts the inlet and outlet at the bottom making it easier to place the inlet below the waterline. Next a platform for mounting the new pump which needed to be epoxied into the hull, this was simply fabricated from some scrap plywood and epoxied into the hull. The base of the new bracket was lined with a 1.5 mm layer of vibration absorbing material. The bracket is held down with two bolts, via a treaded 2ba brass stud epoxied into the keel. The tubing can now be routed around the hull to a secure jointing position 1 in the forward sick bay and the other in the engine room.

Now this although interesting is quite a challenge for me which I’m really looking forward to as I’m a mechanical engineer and electrical /electronic is another skill to be mastered (to a degree) however at this point it’s all a bit smoke and mirrors, however here goes. Fortunately Rob has laid a well-defined path that I intend to follow with some minor differences due to different equipment. I first made a start on the control system for the battery charging and power supply to the ESC / motor, this was to be a copy of Rob’s design which seemed to be superbly fit for purpose. I first made the support platform from some 6mm black Perspex and fitted all the components onto it. Then using the 12 swg silicon wire I proceeded to cut, form, tin, solder, etc. all the joints. At this point I asked myself how many times did Rob forget to put a piece of heat shrink in the appropriate place before soldering the joint, (I lost count) then finally I placed a few tie wraps in place to neaten up the whole assembly. I have made a bracket to hold both the amp meter and the receiver in place. The receiver I have mounted at 45 degrees /horizontally so that the plugs are easily placed in position.
(next a bit of Vero Board)

I’ve been pulled away from my original plan and spent too much time on smoke machines and spinning water monitors that I’ve neglected to finish the hull. The basic painting of colour is done and now only needs lacquering. Before I started applying the livery I gave the hull a light rub down with 1500 wet & dry to get rid of any pips and to give a sound surface for the final coat of lacquer and give a sound base for the livery.
I took on board a comment that Rob made about the use of the “water slide” transfers supplied, in that the depth of white pigment in the transfers made them look slightly dull, and with the trial I found the transfers were also delicate to say the least. I decided to go ahead with the vinyl alternative because if applied carefully and correctly they will look nice enough.
The process was first to cut out the block of vinyl that carried the FIRE text, followed then by cutting the individual letters out but leaving the waste as a frame for positioning the letters on the hull. So marking out the position of the “E” on the side of the hull and measuring the obligatory 3 TIMES then marking this on a piece of masking tape (at this point I left the job alone for a couple of days, the relevance of which will be seen later), the frame was then taped in position and the letters applied in the appropriate position and lightly pressed down using a finger and pressing from the middle of each letter to make sure all the air was expelled.
At this Point while I had the boat on its side I started to apply the water line starting at the bow and working backwards, I managed to apply it over the chine without any problems apart from the tape not sticking on such tight corners, however persistence paid off and pressing the line repeatedly back in position the line seems to have stuck fast. I managed to work the line around the hull in one piece finishing back at the bow.
So now to remove the frame, “Oh dear” or words to that effect, before the final pressing home of the vinyl I realised to my horror that the word FIRE was too far forward , I had placed the frame with the letter line on the wrong side of the “E”. Note don’t leave a job half way through.
I decided to remove the letters which were unusable and contact Mike Cummings to see if he could supply another set. Unfortunately he hadn’t any stock, and was waiting for new ones to be made, so an alternative was sought, I went to my local model shop and purchased some very lightweight vinyl covering called “ORATRIM white. On measuring the two vinyl’s, the supplied material was 0.0023” thou thick and the new material was only 0.0001” thou which would be better on the hull surface. I cut a set of letters and went through the same application process as before (right side of the line) and on closer inspection I found the new material was a better, brighter white and felt better on the hull. Another plus was the fact that the original vinyl was printed on so in fact wasn’t solid white vinyl and as such was very delicate when pressing down and liable to scratching the white off. The new material was solid vinyl and as such is much more durable and I’m very pleased with the results.

Much head scratching about the plumbing🤣
I mentioned that I may consider a separate water supply for the monitors as there were so many issues with it all being sourced from the propeller pic-up pipe, I tried with solenoid valves etc etc but there are too many issues about switching, water flow and future breakdowns in the system.
So a separate water supply, however this has its own issues, firstly another hole in the hull mid-ship and a pick-up that wouldn't force water into the hoses when the boat is going forward, and being able to self prime the pump when stationary.
I've come up with this design that fits on the underside of the hull (with some reinforcement) mid ship

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As I said before I wanted to separate the smoke from the water so I have made an outlet that will be bolted into the transom that separates the two outlets, whilst appearing to exit through the same hole. First I machined the main body having an outside diameter of 10mm and internally an 8mm diameter bore which carries the smoke out.
Into this 8mm dia there is a 5mm hole drilled at 90 degrees sideways and connects to a second body which is silver soldered to the main body, this has a 6mm entry pipe.
The water is carried out through a 6mm tube which is soft soldered into the main body. Finally an outer ring was machined; it was drilled/tapped 10BA which will allow it to be fastened into the transom. I have yet to try this for real but I see no reason for apprehension!

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I have to thank Rob for his trail blazing manufacture of his nets as it made the process of making mine much easier.
I have made mine slightly different because early on in the build I decided to made the cabin roofs as flat and not cluttered as possible to make the painting and rubbing down much easier. So my rails that hold the nets to the roof are made to the same dimensions but are fastened to a sub board which can be attached via pre drilled pins at the very end of the build.
I cut a board to accommodate a 6 x 9 net having a spacing of 23mm squares. I tied the longitudinal ropes (WARP)to the pins and then loaded the home made “needle” which was made from a piece of 3 mm brass rod with a 2.2 hole drilled in one end to glue the rope into and the other end was machined to a point. Having loaded the needle I tied the end to a pin and started to tread the cross treads (WEFT) going through the warp tread until I had crossed all 6 warp threads and tied off on a pin at this point a dab of super glue sets the joint. This continues on 9 weft treads.
The net has now to be fastened to the cabin roof rail and the pole at the bottom of the net. This “pole” is a 3 mm dowel with holes drilled at intervals along its length. The ends are looped through the holes and back through a piece of black shrink sleeve making a secure joint. At the top a similar process of looping around the rail and securing with a piece of black shrink sleeve.finished the 1st scramble net.
“REPEAT” Sorry I forgot to show the board used to tie the warp and weft