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Old 04-04-2009, 08:23 AM
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HighPlains
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Join Date: Mar 2003
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Default RE: 24000 RPM! Do you believe it?

The prop looks like an old Top Flite pylon prop. Maybe not the best wood prop ever made. With any wood prop you need to test and carefully inspect the blades and hub.

One test that they must be able to pass is to hold one blade and flex the other at least a 1/4 to 3/8" forward and back. If the grain has any swirls that the blades were cut through the bad grained props will break in your hands and not be thrown from a running engine.

The other area is to examine the hub area for checks in the wood from machining. This was more common on some brands and rare on others due to the type of knifes used in the shaper. A check is where the grain was lifted.

The nice thing about wood props is that you can easily modify them to get the rpm and pitch curve needed. Fuel proofing can be done with CA and a paper towel to wipe it on. When checking the pitch, if different between the two blades, it is often that the hub is slightly tapered which can be brough back to even pitch by scraping the backside of the hub with a razer blade.