Old Props...

[Ron Hill]

Man, dod I have A.D.D., as I went to answer Sam's question regarding rake...

Found these old BONDOS....This is a NEW Super Stock wheel... but lookat the pattern's name...

[Mark75H]

Are you using the Bondo impressions from a finished prop to try to make a copy of that prop?

[Ron Hill]

There are times when you need a "QUCIK and Dirty" copy... I make all my pitch blocks out of bondo, then cast them into brass...

If I know the pitch, the bondo works great for getting the shape...when sanding...

What I like is to have the BOND "CLICK" on the blade like when you put your flase teeth in...then, you know the props is close...

I use thickness templates, too!

Ron

[smittythewelder]

Not sure which thread I should post this to . . . .

I have two old Kaminc steel 2-blades, the kind I used to see on D Racing Runabouts in the early-mid-'60s. Ugly old-fashioned blade shape. Pitch comes in quite shallow and finishes quite steep. For fun, I want to cut the hubs and weld up a 4-blade. I'll have to devise some kind of fixture to position the blades. Do you know what variety of steel ws used in Kamincs, so I can come up with a good filler rod?

[Mike Schmidt]

Give me a call some night or weekend at 860-349-9310 or durring the day at 860-344-4920 and I will explain the easiest way to do this.

Michael D-1

[Ron Hill]

Smitty,


You machine half the hub away on one two blade (bottom half), and half the hub (Top half) on the other prop...then you just weld the hubs and blades...you don't need four parts, just two and make them an "X"....

Is this close Mike???

Did you evey finish Mayer's two blades??? I've been trying to get him to sell me some two blades and his says "Schmidt has them all." Hmmmm..

[smittythewelder]

Now why didn't I think of that?!!! Okay, what welding rod?

[Ron Hill]

17-4 or 316...prop won't know the difference...

[smittythewelder]

Now, are you you using any of the standard welding tricks to minimize locked-in stresses? Maybe make very short beads and cool between welds, as you would with cast iron or some sheetmetal work? Maybe back-step your beads? The heat-affected zone is pretty close to where the blade gets thin, esp. at the join-point of the two props. Though your method of making a four-blade is easier, it would seem that my notion of slitting and welding the hubs would keep the heat-affected zone confined to the thickest, strongest part of the prop, ie., the hub. But maybe these stainless props are less touchy than I imagine. Have you done many of these 2-to-4 props? And have you done any of the non-stainless makes?

I appreciate the info, Ron! Prop-work is fun; I wish I had got into it years ago, purely for my own ammusement. I had one of your DSH wheels in the early '70s; worked good.

[Ron Hill]

When the Listers were "HOT" in CSH, they won three Stock Nationals in a row....Three blades were just getting into the picture, when I came up with the idea of welding two blades into four blades.....

The last race of the season, I gave Larry Lister a new Four Blade CSH wheel...which he won with, but would have probably won win anyway....Being a "RON HILL PROPELLER" HOUSE MAN, he told everyone they were fast as anything and like "Jack the Bear" in the corners...

Well I made about six up.....by welding them...Then, the Stock Commission put a ballot measure that said,
Three blades only." And it passed and is still in effect in Stock (APBA)...I sold what props I'd made to Mod guys and as far as I know some are still running them....We just clapmped the mothers together and welding them and sanded the back!!!!

Is there a better way, probably...But I have done the same on Flat bottom inboards...and they are holding up!!!

[smittythewelder]

Results are what counts! Since Mike was kind enough to give me his number, I'll call him this weekend and get his take on this stuff.