John, I love the Coastie theme! You did a great job there!

SO, I've been gone all weekend, with no phone service. Camping with the Boy Scouts in the Boonies. Great weekend. I missed some fun conversation here I see. Mad, thanks for the PM, back at ya. I will have to check out the vids about the cameras. I still need to get one, but I'm letting the spending cool down a bit after the 3 RC cars I got for my sons and I. They are the true money pits of the RC hobby. These boats can be so cheap once set up. Cars? They never end.

Be CAREFUL when you clear it..VERY light coats, the reducer in the clear will melt the graphics..do about 5 mist coats..then the thick ones..

Looks good, keep it that way..

7, gonna order the roam2 this week, best for what I wanna do, just boats, and its waterproof without a case, and much smaller than the gopro..the back deck of the red kmb will be the cam platform, im thinkin..

Originally Posted by Firehawk989

The Tic-Tac box is flexible enough that you can press the buttons with the camera inside anyway.

Fair enough. I think the ones we get might be different. While you can press them as you say, they seem to be a harder plastic and I felt there might be a chance of cracking them in time. Anyway, it's just a suggestion. People can make of it what they will.
Btw, how did you make/shape the glass front

Originally Posted by madbugger

Btw, how did you make/shape the glass front

As I looked at that Waterproofing a Keychain cam video, the first thing that popped into my head was how easy it would be to make a front case lens out of a cheap dollar store lens from a Dollar Store reading glasses lens. Most of them are plastic and a simple template taped on the lens and a trip to the grinder or belt sander and you are done with a nice clear lens for the waterproof case. With a little experimentation, you might even make some variety of magnifications with different prescription reading glasses. Think that should be very possible.

John

It was a very thin layer of ice on the loch only about 1mm thick so it didn't even ride up it just went right through it. I was going slow ice breaker style but my friend went full power through it without problems.

We got most of the hull back because when it crashed it pushed most of it into the hull. it happened a couple of feet from us so it didn't get a chance to sink but I think people running more than one boat should think if putting strips of carbon or something along the side on the lower half of the hull it's not even a millimetre thick . a jet boat at full speed will have no problems going right through it because the plastic just cracks rather than deforming.

i also had my CEN aqua jet boat out with its 3600W motor on 6S and it destroyed the coupling so i have another ordered . my friends nitro boat ran ok for a while untill the vibration made every screw on the boat undo its self then the exhaust fell off lol

Originally Posted by madbugger

Fair enough. I think the ones we get might be different. While you can press them as you say, they seem to be a harder plastic and I felt there might be a chance of cracking them in time. Anyway, it's just a suggestion. People can make of it what they will.
Btw, how did you make/shape the glass front

I work in a microscopy lab, so I used a diamond scribe to mark off a rectangular piece of the appropriate size on a microscope slide, then just broke away the excess. No need to round off the edges or anything since it all ends up being embedded in glue.

I can see evidence of where I've pressed the buttons on the plastic, but so far it doesn't look serious enough to warrant replacement. When it does, it will be a simple matter of eating some Tic-Tacs and popping the slide out of the old box to glue it in the new one.

Originally Posted by geofrancis

I think people running more than one boat should think if putting strips of carbon or something along the side on the lower half of the hull it's not even a millimetre thick there.

Sounds like you might have had a defective hull, mine appears to be a solid 2mm or so thick all around. The cold temperatures may have made the plastic brittle and more prone to breakage as well. I have sent mine full speed at rocks many times to get air and do stunts, and I see no signs of cracking other than the tip of the bow before I glued it up nicely.

Thats what I was thinkin..seen to many vids of full speed into trees, rocks, etc..these hulls are the strong point..

Geo, tell your friend he better balance props, or he will be shaking a lot more loose..

Originally Posted by jgestner

It looks like it works pretty well on them! Where can I get that COATING? EDIT Check Below! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1Xlu...ayer_embedded#!

For all of you in US and Canada that need one badly -----> http://www.gibbonsmotortoys.com/gibbons/index.php

John

*****I just found some of the secrets for the hull coating on
Wickipedia
Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE, UHMW) is a subset of the thermoplastic polyethylene. Also known as high-modulus polyethylene, (HMPE), or high-performance polyethylene (HPPE), it has extremely long chains, with a molecular weight usually between 2 and 6 million. The longer chain serves to transfer load more effectively to the polymer backbone by strengthening intermolecular interactions. This results in a very tough material, with the highest impact strength of any thermoplastic presently made.[1]

UHMWPE is odorless, tasteless, and nontoxic.[2] It is highly resistant to corrosive chemicals except oxidizing acids; has extremely low moisture absorption and a very low coefficient of friction; is self-lubricating; and is highly resistant to abrasion, in some forms being 15 times more resistant to abrasion than carbon steel. Its coefficient of friction is significantly lower than that of nylon and acetal, and is comparable to that of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, Teflon), but UHMWPE has better abrasion resistance than PTFE.[3][4]


******* I just found some for sale in sheets, rods, and extruded shapes http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/def...aign=usplastic
And in .060 sheets that could be cut into strips for some reinforcement on the bottom of our hulls at
http://www.interstateplastics.com/Na...calculate.y=16

It's sure not cheap and I would prefer to find a way to use it more like a paintable coating, but it's a start!

Originally Posted by jgestner

Hi Gang
The more pictures and websites I look at of the real Jet boat in those videos above, the more I think I see that they seem to be screwing or riveting that Teflon-like sheeting to the metal hull. Maybe it's not feasible for us.

On the other hand I did find a place that sells it in what they call slick strip in a self adhesive tape form. http://www.eplastics.com/Slick_Strips

Originally Posted by geofrancis

It was a very thin layer of ice on the loch but only about 1mm thick so it didn't even ride up it just went right through it. I was going slow ice breaker style but my friend went full power through it without problems.

We got most of the hull back because when it crashed it pushed most of it into the hull and it happened a couple of feet from us so it didn't get a chance to sink but I think people running more than one boat should think if putting strips of carbon or something along the side on the lower half of the hull it's not even a millimetre thick there and a jet boat at full speed will have no problems going right through it because the plastic just cracks rather than deforming.

Hi Geo
I am all wrapped up trying to figure methods to use the special Ultra-high-molecular-weight_polyethylene "UHMW-PE" that is used on the hulls of some of the best rock-crawler type JetBoats. It needs to be riveted on in thick sheets on the real boats, but I found a version that is sold in rolls of much thinner Tape, with a self adhesive backing. If that would stick to our hulls, I think it would do everything that the Carbon fiber would and more, in that is somewhat soft and flexible compared to the very hard/brittle carbon fiber. And it should have much better slipperiness and abrasion resistence.
I am going to order a roll just to test/play with. I already picked up a piece of the same material in a 1 inch/ near 25mm thick slab that I will be trying to machine to create a slicker and stronger intake for the bottom of my jet boat.

Just a thought.

I am also going to run an Automotive Door Edge Vinyl Trim strip around the seam of my NQD. It will act as a kind of firm, but slightly flexible bumper all around my Coast Guard themed boat. I found it a local AutoZone store, here is the manufactures website description. http://www.cowlesproducts.com/styleguard_door_edge.html

John in Merrill

Originally Posted by Firehawk989

I work in a microscopy lab, so I used a diamond scribe to mark off a rectangular piece of the appropriate size on a microscope slide,

That's what I was going to use (cheap and thin) although I may have a problem cutting it with one hand. May try using a bench grinder. If it breaks you get 50 in a pack for pennies so I can try again. And again. And again.

Btw, today I tried shopping in a different place (Asda, the UK offshoot of the US Walmart) and got some tic-tacs in the more flexible box you describe. No tic-tacs are UK made, so the box plastic must presumably vary a bit depending on where they have been sourced from. Ours come from Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and various other sources. Mind you, none of them have the bit on the inside of the lid shown here
http://foodbeast.com/content/2012/08...ers-all-wrong/
and in other similar youtube vids. But then we don't have the same range of flavours either. You North Americans get everything first!

Originally Posted by jgestner

I am also going to run an Automotive Door Edge Vinyl Trim strip around the seam of my NQD. It will act as a kind of firm, but slightly flexible bumper all around my Coast Guard themed boat.

I've used the kind of auto trim Chi uses on one of my NQDs and will be using the same on my Steve hull because the hull's black like the rubber trim, but I've been looking without success for a clear one for my other NQD which has a paint and decal scheme which can't be covered. I'd found clear automotive door edge but only in small pieces. Your find means it can be had. Now I just have to find some in the UK.

Originally Posted by madbugger

Mind you, none of them have the bit on the inside of the lid shown here.

That is exactly the type of Tic-Tac box I used, though I had no idea that bit on the inside of the lid had any function other than to seal the cap to the lid!

Geo, Chi, Fire
If I understand geo's post, it was the bow (hardest part is along the seam) which went into the side of his buddy's boat. And it was his buddy's boat that sustained the damage.That's different from ramming things straight on (or getting air going over a rock) and not sustaining any damage to your own boat.

The vacforming process means there are differences between boats and different thicknesses on various parts of the hull of any given boat. And this plastic gets very brittle in cold temperatures. And by geo's own admission there was ice on the loch.

With model planes we always find the only time there is a mid-air is when there are only two planes aloft. Put more up and it doesn't happen. Seems it's the same with boats

Just like this..

Originally Posted by Firehawk989

That is exactly the type of Tic-Tac box I used, though I had no idea that bit on the inside of the lid had any function other than to seal the cap to the lid!

It seems the lid part is a bit more solid as well on that type. One of the youtube vids I checked actually made the point that that type of lid is not universal. So we outdwellers need you US and Canada types to send us North American tic-tac boxes