Oh Punisher's thread has been on my favorites for at least a couple of weeks. =] I've already planned for the jet's internal shortcomings and the work that will need to be done to correct them. Unfortunately its the only product in its size class that exists at the moment. I'd kill for a swashdrive but... =/
lol... but honestly Ididn't have a forum membership and couldn't see Punisher's pictures before. Wow! Beautiful work he's done on the mount. The direct water contact is pretty stellar. Perhaps its PM time.
I have access to cnc waterjet/plasma/mill via a friend at Techshop San Francisco (if you've never heard of it,
www.techshop.com , every tool on the planet open to the public!) so I might try to do something similar.
He's using a simple jaw coupling of some sourt? I clicked on a few of the coupler types on SDP but didn't see one that matched his. I don't have time this exact second to click every single one. I've actually been meaning to click every possible page on SDP's entire site, just to get a feeling for all of the fun parts that exist in the micro mechanical world. =]
I had hoped to place the motor more towards the center of the boat since the jet + motor are a good 5 lbs together. But, perhaps its unrealistic to do a long coupling in such a torque-drunk application.
I've run twin full size Hamilton 213s in the real world, commercial fishing, and I've long dreamed of using magnetic couplings for that application. I notice SPDP has some but they look pretty wimpy. I wonder if anyone has experience with these?The benefits of the no contact system are said to be numerous, not the least of which is 100% over-power immunity, non-vibration and a huge tolerance for shaft misalignment. In some cases a magnetic coupling can actually be more efficient than direct couplings!
This Australian company is who I've looked at the most:
http://www.mgt.com.au/index.php?pageId=6923 and
http://www.mgt.com.au/index.php?pageId=6924
But perhaps I'll leave that for the next go round? =]