I'm looking to put a three inch metal spinner on a OS 160. I'm looking for first hand experience in comparing the quality of the Dave Brown to the Great Planes aluminum spinners. I don't want one that I will have to cut (read mutilate) for the apc props. Anybody looked at them side by side for quality. They are close to the same price. I don't like to buy and discard.

Most aluminum spinners have to be modified to use on the
larger engines. It is not hard to do. I use the 1" belt sander.
They will cut almost as fast as hard-wood. You will of course,
have to rebalance the spinner cone after you open it up.

Dave.

Ok, thanks. I can live with that. But..............still looking for some info on which of the two is the best overall quality.

I don't which one is better....They're all pretty much the same to me,
till you get up into the Jumbo Tru-Turns....

....I would think that with a 3" spinner (smallish) and a big fat hub on a
larger APC....will take a lot of massaging....

Dave.

I've never owned the great planes aluminum spinners, but I do have a 2.5 inch DB Vortec spinner. Quality is pretty good, although I played hell getting it to work with my Saito 100 and a APC 15x6 prop. I had DB factory cut the spinner for $5 which they did a good job with. The problem was finding the right jam nut to work with the 100. I actually had to file the jam nut down about 1/16th of an inch in order for the hexhead screw to tighten completely. I used a truturn jam nut if I remember correctly.

How do you balance the cone?

Joe

Use a dubro or a top flight magnetic balancer. Those things are great. I take a dremel tool and grind out a small bit on the heavy side until it balances out. Do this on the inside of the spinner so you don't destroy the appearance of the spinner.

Cool, thanks.

Joe

On balancing a spinner - it's important to balance the backplate by itself first, since you will never be putting the cone and plate together in exactly the same position. After the backplate is balanced, put the cone on and balamce the assembly, and this time cut material from the cone ONLY to correct any imbalance.

Bill.

Bill that makes total sense. Thanks for the info.

Joe