C032 WATER TANK SCALE MODEL & MEASUREMENTS

We went back to work on “Samourai” after a long break. Our first job was to create a scale model for our new stainless steel water tank. The aim was to make sure the dimensions were matching our bilge.

For the mockup model we used two types of MDF hard boards . A thin and a much thicker one to make the structure . This way we would have the required stiffness.

After shaping the bottom with the thin MDF sheet, we used the thick one to create the front and back walls. We also added two internal baffles to secure the water movements when at sea.

We turned the model upside down, fabricated the top cover and assembled all the pieces together.

A first test inside the bilge showed how accurate the height and width was according to our floor mounts.

Both side sheets were added to finalise the mockup.

The whole project took us approximately five afternoons of work.

 

 

 

 

The four little wings are made to secure the tank to the floor mounts. Each one of  them will be drilled in order to insert 6 mm hexagonal bolts.

The model was then taken to our favorite work shop here in Northern Greece. We spent a bit of time discussing all the technical details with the welder and agreed to use 316 stainless steel in 2mm sheets for the tank. At the work shop an industrial computer designer took the time to create a digital plan including all measurements. He found out that the capacity of the tank would be around 85 liters. We were more than happy to hear that ! Next month, hopefully, we will have the real thing into our hands !