- Joined
- Jan 12, 2009
- Location
- Greenville, Ms
Have you ever heard a mechanic say he hates working on his own stuff? Well propellers are no different for me...LOL...
I am very ticky when it comes to my personal equipment but this past weekend I let that slip away from me.
I was running down the lake at 65 or so MPH and I hit one of those stupid silver carps with my prop, I noticed that I lost some bow lift and I knew that I lost some cup in the tips, So when I got the boat back to the shop I pulled the prop to take some measurements and to repair the slight bends that the carp had taken the liberty to give me.
As I was checking the blades I look over and see what at first I thought was a scratch, nope, A scratch it was not, it was a crack about 1/2 to 3/4 inch long, then I found another blade with the same size crack, these cracks where located on the leading edge of the blades, so I repaired the cracks and alls well again..
The moral of all this is inspect your propeller very carefully, especially if the leading edges have any chips or nicks, this is where the crack will start, once it starts it will continue to travel just like cancer untill one day the blade will fly off and create even more damage.
In my case, this particular prop was thinned and highly modified, the edges was nick free.
Best way to check for these micro nicks is to run your finger nail from the hub all the way out to the tip, if you feel a catch, have it fixed...
....
I am very ticky when it comes to my personal equipment but this past weekend I let that slip away from me.
I was running down the lake at 65 or so MPH and I hit one of those stupid silver carps with my prop, I noticed that I lost some bow lift and I knew that I lost some cup in the tips, So when I got the boat back to the shop I pulled the prop to take some measurements and to repair the slight bends that the carp had taken the liberty to give me.
As I was checking the blades I look over and see what at first I thought was a scratch, nope, A scratch it was not, it was a crack about 1/2 to 3/4 inch long, then I found another blade with the same size crack, these cracks where located on the leading edge of the blades, so I repaired the cracks and alls well again..
The moral of all this is inspect your propeller very carefully, especially if the leading edges have any chips or nicks, this is where the crack will start, once it starts it will continue to travel just like cancer untill one day the blade will fly off and create even more damage.
In my case, this particular prop was thinned and highly modified, the edges was nick free.
Best way to check for these micro nicks is to run your finger nail from the hub all the way out to the tip, if you feel a catch, have it fixed...
....