Only just my Opinion! This is an exceedingly bad idea. These are expensive potentially dangerous engines that produce more vibration in the plane of rotation than small engines. Anything attached to that crankshaft needs to be up to the job and not cheezy, cheap plastic. Think about it why would many use multi bolt hubs instead of the common single nutted shaft\s with small engines? Also if you are going to use a capable electric starter plastic spinner is even a worse idea.

John

I use only aluminum spinners now, except for electrics. I have had too many plastics come loose during start up.

My opinion about using a starter on a gasser was not to ruffle any feathers. With that said, IMO is a gasser any gasser that will not hand start has an issue. It can be carb issues, tune issues, wrong prop orientation or a number of things. I have successfully hand started a G38, G45 and G62 along with a dozen or so electronic ignition engines. Whenever I had one not want to start I would take it home and would always find an issue. The reason why I don,t like starters is the fact that I have seen more then a few times the starter slip off the spinner and go into the prop.

I have a G-62 that I could never hand start, a MAG ignition so I just installed a spring starter and it fires on the first flip now. The original post was about Nylon spinners and not plastic. I had a big box of the old Nylon spinners with the aluminum back plate, they mounted just like the aluminum spinners and worked just fine, even with a starter except they would develop a starter groove on them. I have used the plastic spinners with the aluminum back plate on a number of gas engines but only hand started, no problems with them at all. If someone has one of the screw on all plastic spinners on a plane I won't even pit next to them, I have seen too many of them blow apart like a hand grenade.
Starters on gassers?? When we still had a lot of the Madera racing every pit had one. After I rebuild a carb I have needed to borrow a bigger starter to get the engine going the first time. After that they all hand started.

Gene, I remember the old CB Associates spinners as well. Never had gool luck with them. Back in the days of Madera all the engines were being run on alcohol with glow plugs. If you got one too wet it would kick back hard. One other thing to remember is that these guys were competitors, they would practice their start up routine as well as flying practice and everyone on the crew had a specific job. Not really the same scenario where Joe walks up to Bob and asks him to hold his airplane while Joe applies 20 lb of force to the starter while Bob tries to keep the airplane from rolling back. As for the Mag engines, having the prop at the correct orientation really helps with a solid follow through to them started. Obviously this all just one mans opinion, do you remember how I started my pylon airplane there in Vegas. The bottom line is safety, use the correct equipment for the job and if your starting process requires two people make sure you communicate the process to your helper before you turn the airplane on.

I still have a starter from the Madera days for the unlimited class and it was a gasser. The starter is out of a Toyota truck with a 12 volt auto battery all mounted in an aluminum box centered to the height of the spinners center. Fuel/gas was handed out with the props by the officials.
The G-62 I still have on hand was gotten in a trade and it had been in a crash and could use a new Carb but I did the repairs and it still works, it would just never hand start, not even after running and still warm. The spring starter is fool proof, just choke until wet then crank it over and let it go, instant fire. I hurt my shoulder and arm trying to get this one to start.
I needed to borrow a starter every time I rebuilt the carbs on all my gassers using the new alcohol proof diaphragms for some reason. Once run they were fine?? We'll see, I have a Brison in my new plane and it was put up wet a couple years ago after a bit of a crash. I have plans on getting fuel to flow through the carb though so I may not need to go to a starter.. This time it has a nice aluminum spinner on it too. I think my last nice nylon spinner was on it when it hit the ground.

I'm flying 50cc planes with plastic aluminum backed spinners, and they hold up just fine. Most are over 3" in size too.

They key ( as others have stated ) is to make sure that the spinner & backplate does NOT contact the prop.

The backplate should only contact the prop close to the hub to avoid deformation as the prop nuts are tightened down.

The starter does not exert a lot of force on the spinner unless you use the "bump" technique ( a very bad idea IMHO ).

Or they would just make the cut-outs so big they would look horrible in 99% of all cases.

Dave Brown and Tru-Turn will both cut your spinners for you and the price is right. I've never had a Dave Brown spinner but I know they advertise the service. I've had several spinners from Tru-Turn and they do a very nice job - much better than I've ever done. It was well worth it. But those aren't nylon either.

I just received a 2 1/2" special order from Tru Turn. I was surprised, but the prop isn't that unusual, but they didn't have one already made. I am using a 3bladed 15x7 Master Airscrew. They did a great job on the special order.