byoung466

My Feedback: (16)

My new plane is using a 12mm prop shaft. Anyone have a good way to drill the APCs.
I was thinking about getting a tapered reamer.

patternrules

My Feedback: (6)

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXNL18&P=7

wingster

My Feedback: (26)

If you're going to use an APC electric prop you should take a look at the following advisory at http://www.apcprop.com/v/html/tech_support_notice.html as well as the paper insert that comes with the prop. Basically you need to use a tapered reamer and insert it from the front of the prop. Only the bottom of the factory drilled hole is accurately aligned. The tapered reamer will oversize the hole at the top so that the bottom of the hole actually does the alignment. You can find tapered reamers on ebay for a reasonable price.

Ed Lyerly

Brian,
I don't like using the 12mm prop shafts. If you switch to an 8mm prop shaft you can use a tapered reamer to open things up to a little more than 8mm, then use the appropriate adapter ring (a set comes with every APC-E prop) to get the prop perfectly centered on the 8mm shaft.
These fit AXI 53XX and Power 110 and 160 motors:
http://www.hobby-lobby.com/propadap.htm8mm.htm
Ed

Jason Arnold

Hi Brian,

I use a Great Planes stepped reamer to take the hole out to 10mm and then use the Fox 12mm stepped reamer to go from 10 to 12mm. When you go out to 12mm it will be bigger than the precision hole in the back of the APC prop. It seems silly to me that APC puts the precision hole on the back but I'm sure they have a good reason... lol

Be careful with some of the tapered reamers as some are of very poor quality. One I purchased looked ok in the shop but when I put it into my drill press it wobbled all over the show. It was only good for the round filing cabinet(bin).

Cheers
Jason.

Ed Lyerly

The reason is that the center of the prop is where the hot plastic is fed in to fill the mold. APC is able to provide a molded in "locating ring" but the hole can't go all the way through the prop because the hot plastic would have to flow around a post creating a weak spot on the other side when it comes back together. The hand drilled hole in the center of APC props is just that .... it is hand drilled by the press operator molding the props. The work (drilling the hole) has to be completed on one prop before the next one pops out. This opens the door for slight misalignment of the center hole as provided. The molded in shoulder is precise, so that is why the bushings are provided to assure the prop is centered on whatever size shaft you are using.
Ed