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Build Your Own Submarine

Nerobro writes "There's a group of geeks out there who are bound and determined to build their own submarines. In fact, there's a large group who have been successful. The most interesting is Cartsen Standfuss's CSSX-1. There is a mailing list, owners group and sizeable archive of information at psubs.org."

7 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. old-hat by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The back of Popular Science has had Advertisments for plans for your own submarine,helicopter,airplane,etc... for decades. My neighbor growing up made the mini-sub in his garage.

    No not a wear a wetsuit and you get an air-bubble type a full dry submarine capable of diving I believe he took it down to 60 feet... didn't have the guts to go lower than what you can safely escape from..

    Nothing new here.

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    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  2. purchasing one by solidox · · Score: 2, Interesting

    you can purchase your very own working second-hand submarine for a mere £40,000. aphex twin (music artist) has one.
    "1,000 miles on the clock. only one careful owner, an old ladie who used it to pop down to the shops to pick up her groceries"

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  3. Drug submarine found in Colombia by shird · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Theres a niche, but probably lucrative market for these things if they know where to look.

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    I.O.U One Sig.
  4. Re:Hobbyist submarine accident by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I can go sit at 10 meters for 1 1/2 hours naked with a hose and an air compressor. What's the big deal about doing it in a tin can?

  5. Spent a few years on Fast Attack subs by bubblegoose · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I spent 6 years on or working on fast attack subs. We had controls called Subsafe. This meant every part contributing to water tight integrity was tracked from the start of manufacture to installation.

    Subsafe parts were quite expensive...but you were 100% pretty confident you weren't getting some cheap Taiwanese knockoff parts.

    Where are these guys getting their stuff, the hardware store down the street? Enough said. Would I even think of going down in one of these boats? No...not ever.

    Look at the lessons the Navy learned, Scorpion, Thresher. How are these things powered...batteries? Have you ever heard of the Bonefish

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    I hope that someday we will be able to put away our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people. - Jack Handey
  6. Re:No, you just have to worry about nastier things by markom · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Please note that 100 meters is roughly 300 ft or so. These depths were "challenge" even for WWII submersibles, and those beast were after all advanced.

    If I'm not much mistaken, German type VII (the thing that Joe Sixpack associates with u-boat) u-boats were rated up to 90 meters. After that, it wass "off the warranty".

    I would think twice before going below 10 meters (30 ft), for escape could get very tricky, if not impossible.

  7. Re:They better be careful by BLAG-blast · · Score: 1, Interesting
    Actually, the way the subs work (most modern anyway) is that they pump WATER into the air tanks, compressing the air and creatting a pressure (and making the tank HEAVIER).

    I've never heard of this before, and I think there are a couple of reasons why. If you tanks contain air on the surface and you pump water into the tanks compressing the air. Then your sub dives to 33 feet, you open the valve to let the water out, but because of the external water pressure only half the water get pushed out, you would have to pressurise the tanks on the surface for you system to work, but that means you need to do a lot of work pumping water in just to sink (now try that at 1000feet or deeper).

    They are two types of balast tanks, hard and soft. The main balast tanks that keep the sub floating on the surface are normally "soft", they do not hold pressure and are normally open at the bottom (it's the same pressure inside and outside of the tank). When a sub is near the surface compressed air is injected into these tanks forcing the water out of the botton.

    Hard tanks are normally inside the sub and are at 1ATM pressure. These are smaller and used to fine tune the submarines bouancey by pumping water in or out using an electric pump (the air in the tank doesn't push the water out). If there was a power failure the hard tanks could be emptied using high pressure air

    Most subs DO have compressors to add more air pressure (and there for empty the tanks faster and more completly) however they can surface with out these (in the case of a major power failure).

    The compressor is only for filling the high pressure air tanks while on the surface. And in the event of a major power failure, high pressure air still works fine (you just turn a valve and the air will flow).

    Also most modern subs have a way to drop excess weight, like propellors and engine parts via explosive bolts (again for emergency procedures).

    This true, but because a submarine need to weight the same as the water it displaces and the submarine is mainly air they all need heavy lead weights to allow them to sink. These weight are normally attached using explosive (which aren't very reliable) or some sort of lever to release them.

    I'm sorry, i hate to inject some REAL knowledge about subs.

    Don't worry too much about that....;-)

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    M0571y H@rml355.