Hi Welton,
Welcome to the group.
That's a cool looking little tugboat you've got there! I've long been an admirer or Glen-L's designs, though I've never been ambitious enough to take on a construction project like that. I have done a few electric inboard motor installations however. To answer your bearing question, probably the simplest way to go is to buy some flange-mount bearings from an industrial supplier (McMaster-Carr for example), and come up with some kind of bolt-together configuration to mount everything. I used 1/2 inch aluminum plate and 3/8 angle in a couple of my setups. You can see an example of one of them in the photo section under "McMillan". The aluminum front and back plates were cut on a water-jet machine, but you wouldn't need to get that fancy. It's also probably twice as heavy as it needs to be for that size of motor (about 5 HP the way I had it set up). That installation was replaced by one of my brother's prototype systems, and the mount now lives in another project boat of mine. You can see that one in the photo section under "Albin 25". I'm using a toothed belt reduction now instead of chain since the chain was very noisy. You can probably get by with a vee belt under 3 or 4 hp or so. They're a bit less efficient but they are cheap. I used a CRE (cut raw edge) vee belt and cast iron pulleys from a local farm store on a Duffy 18 conversion.
Of course there are many ways to skin a cat, but this configuration has worked well for me and was relatively simple to put together. If you want to go with an engineered "store-bought" solution, there are a few options out there including my brother's company (www.electricyacht.com).
Since you're obviously into woodworking, you could probably come up with a mount using some ply and hardwood instead of aluminum. You'd need to watch the heat dissipation little more carefully since you wouldn't have all that heat-sink surface, but on the plus side you'd have better electrical isolation. It is a good idea to have your motor case electrically insulated from the prop shaft to minimize prop corrosion being caused by leakage currents. I've handled that by using plastic flange "food grade" bearings, and in another case by using an insulated shaft coupler.
Jeez, I got a little long-winded there. I'm sure others will have comments as well. Good luck with your projects and please keep us posted!
Jim McMillan
--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, "Welton Rotz" <welton@...> wrote:
>
>
> Hi! I am a new member. A great deal of info in this group!
> I just finished HERCULES (see C. Welton's HERCULES) in photos.
> This is a modified Glen L design. I added the fantail and changed the pilot house.
> I have been thinking for some time about adding electric power to my modified Ranger 20 sailboat.
> A 5 hp Honda 4 stroke was more power than I needed, a 2 hp Honda is not quite enough.
> Any suggestions?
> I am also getting ready to build an 18 ft. electric launch on a sailboat hull.
> Elco has a 19 ft. launch with a 3 hp electric. Sounds good to me.
> Question; How does one build in a thrust bearing on a home build unit of motor, reduction pulleys, etc.?
> Best,
> Welton
>
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