How to sharpen props. What's the best way?

[BlueBlaster]

What's the best way to sharpen a prop. I can balance them but never can get a razor sharp edge on them. Can you dremel them some and then sand them? Do you cut just the back side of blade only?

 

[Terry Keeley]

What I do is first go around the outside and trim the flash so you have a flat (dull) LE to start. Then clean up the face with sanding disks / radial disks and finally sharpen the back face to just meet the front face.

I find using my "Optivisor" helps to "see" the flat areas of the LE and blend them to a razor's edge.

 

[shoboat]

Blueblaster,

I grind the leading edge with a special 3-M unitized grinding wheel (2-S-Fine) 6"x1/4" and a 6"x1/2"

on a standard bench grinder set up on a stand for the correct working height.

Sometimes I pull out a leather strop wheel or a 3M Trizact belt. I finish the face with a 36 grit

3-M deburring wheel on a variable speed Foredom flex shaft with a foot pedal like the jewelers use.

Thick exam gloves 9 mill thickness, and the best 3-M full face respirator you can afford. You

want to stop the metal dust from absorbing into your skin. the full face respirator will help protect

your eyes and face from the metal dust also. I usually wear a Ty-vac suit too keep the dust off my

clothes. You can never be too careful !!!

Have Fun And Wear Protection,

Mark Sholund

 

[dwilfong]

I use a bench grinder with a fine stone on it to remove the bulk of the material from the back side. This is the first step to get the balance close. Then I have a shaft with a drive dog on it to put it in the vice with the nut tight. This way I can position it to use a file to finish it off from the back side. Then I use a strip of 320 emery cloth and lots of WD40 to smooth that all down. This also helps keep the dust contained.

On the front side I just use 320 and the WD40 to smooth the blade.

If you use long strips of 320 on the back side and grab it from both ends you can run this back and forth up and down the prop. Then just a little clean up on the front side run the 320 down the edge and it will be razor sharp.

Even better just call mark and have him do a prop for ya...................................

 

[Marty Slater]

just let Mark do it

a hole lot easery

 

[timothy johnson]

Thats for sure Marty, I just clean the props up, balence them and then see if it's a prop that's going to work for my setup. Then I ask Mark to do that prop for me, Mark will always work with you if he knows what your setup is. He like's feedback on his work. I'll be running some of his prop's at Huntsville.

 

[Samuel Hagan JR]

Why pay someone to do it when it's can be easily done at home.

When I get ready to do mine I'll give you a call. It's not bad just takes time and patience and Wear a face mask.

 

[timothy johnson]

Sam lots of top racers do their on props but people like Mark take the time to use the best pitch gauges, I think Mark uses 2, and other equipment to do top notch products. If you do your own that's great, may be someday when you get smoked in a heat race you will wonder why, it might be one of Marks or Raptor 347 props or one of the other prop guys here on IA.

 

[Samuel Hagan JR]

If you say so.

 

[shoboat]

Samuel,

I am sure you can sharpen and balance a propeller, but are you doing it safely?

Do you use a metal lathe to even all the blades? Are you using a Frank Orlic balancer

or something equal? Do you have the equipment it takes to do a professional job? Do you

have the knowledge to change the: pitch, cup, and diameter to adapt it to your set up?

Do you index the propeller so you know what you are running? Have you ran R/C boats for 30 years?

Have you done over 16,000 propellers yet? These are just a few of the things that people get

when they hire me to do their propeller work. I am pretty sure I provide more knowledge about the

propellers that I sell than most of the others that prepare them for themselves. The most important

thing that I have learned in business is to provide your customers with value and knowledge about

what you are selling, and believe me it takes time to learn all of this.

Have Fun Testing And Enjoy Model Boating,

Mark Sholund

 

[John Beardslee]

Why pay someone to do it when it's can be easily done at home.

When I get ready to do mine I'll give you a call. It's not bad just takes time and patience and Wear a face mask.

Samuel, I've never seen your work , but from my past experience, the work most people do when trying to balance and sharpen their own props never seemed to match up to the quality of work done by someone with the right equipment and proper skills, most times the props didn't perform up the their true potential.

Just my opinion (we all know about opinions) thanks, John

 

[Jim Recker Jr.]

Mark have you ever removed material from the hub or hozzle (don't know what it's correctly called) in order to make a heavy bladed prop come into balance? Many years ago my father had to do that on an Octura 1470.

 

[shoboat]

Jim,

I have done that on many occasions. The H-32 had some bad offset drilled

hubs that were almost impossible to balance. The metal lathe saves a lot of time

and the nice thing is that you can see how the propeller spins on a stub shaft.

Some of the 1470's just had one blade quite a bit longer than the other one.

The lathe really helps on those fun four blades from ABC.

Enjoy Testing,

Mark Sholund

 

[Greg Bonahoom]

Why pay someone to do it when it's can be easily done at home.

When I get ready to do mine I'll give you a call. It's not bad just takes time and patience and Wear a face mask.

Samuel, I've never seen your work , but from my past experience, the work most people do when trying to balance and sharpen their own props never seemed to match up to the quality of work done by someone with the right equipment and proper skills, most times the props didn't perform up the their true potential.
Just my opinion (we all know about opinions) thanks, John

I think just having the option is one of the great things about this hobby. People can also choose to scratch build a hull, modify there own motor, or anything in between. You can develop your own specialties to gain a small edge on the competition, or you can pay someone to do certain things and concentrate on driving and setup. This is what makes it so interesting to me. My Dad always told me about guys like Marty D who would spend hours at the practice pond with a pair of pliers tweaking his prop. I did personally find value in paying for propeller work back in the eighties when i got my first prop from "Beardslee's Prop Service" I have been paying for the service ever since.