britbrat

I just saw this --- a bit late -- sorry.

If you haven't cut it yet, I suggest that you use a dremel tool with a sanding drum to make the cut-outs. Wear goggles & a filter mask -- the carbon fibres are really nasty things.

spyder0069

I had a top flite 4" plastic spinner shred on me this winter. It was about 35 degrees out and I took out my GP Giles 1/4 scale that has a ST 2300. This is going on its 3rd season with the same spinner. Took off, got my first round in and then had a horrible noise. I immediately hit the kill engine and deadsticked in. Great landing. No spinner. a small piece of the backplate was still attached but the rest was gone. I was watching the plane the whole time and never saw the spinner separate from the plane so it must have left with some force. Checked over my 17x6 prop to make sure it didn't get damaged and there was no nicks. I attribute the cold weather changing the properties of the plastic causing the problem. Thank god it happened in the air and not on the ground while starting or running up. Have an aluminum spinner on it now which of course changed the center of gravity so I had to play around with that again. Which brings up a important lesson. If you have a nice plane that you will probably put a aluminum spinner on at some point do it right at the beginning. Save yourself the trouble of rebalancing.

I think the main problem with plastic spinners is prop slippage. Since the aluminun thrust thingy (forgot what they are called) from the engine can't dig into the prop you are relying on the plastic ribs on the spinner backplate to catch the back of the prop and they really don't provide a lot of grip. I've had spinner back plates be completey smooth as well. I usually throw those away because you can tell your going to have a problem when your tightening down the prop nut and the prop slips position on the backplate. Once you see that beware. A few times I have used a dremel with a cut off wheel and lightly grooved the backside of a prop to aid in grip on the backplate.

LSP972

My Feedback: (13)

I've seen this repeated enough to wonder just why??? Methinks it may be because some guys like to get a running start; they spool up the starter and then jam it against the spinner. I've seen several plastic spinners come apart from that practice; on both four AND two stroke engines.

I've run plastic spinners on four strokes for almost twenty years, and the only time I've had an issue was with an el cheapo "Pacific Rim" plastic spinner that came in an ARF. A YS 91 FZ made short work of it during a back-fire... The moral of that story, as has been mentioned, is don't run your engines too lean.

But I've had absolutely NO problems with Dubro or Goldberg spinners, up to a Saito and Laser 150, including YS 91 FZ and 120N, OS 91 and 70 Surpass, etc., etc.

I do indeed like Tru-Turn spinners; but nowadays you just about have to mortgage your first-born to afford one. I use one on my BME 50, and have one for the Laser 150; but that Laser is wearing an old 3" CG plastic spinner right now.

I simply cannot understand how all these folks are blowing up DuBro & CG plastic spinners; those things are pretty much bullet-proof.