The blade cut-outs in the aluminum spinner that came with my plane didn't work with the Prince prop I bought soon after I got the plane home back in 2006. I got the bright idea to use the aluminum spinner as a mold and thought to make myself a new spinner out of fiberglass, like Mark outlined on his website. I filled the spinner with foam and used the resulting plug as a mold to lay up the glass. I think I ended up doing it twice before I was happy with the result. I did some finish work on it and did the cut-outs to fit the new Prince and then put it on the plane. I didn't paint it but it looked pretty well done but when I got out to look at it with the engine running I could see the spinner tip wasn't centered. There was a little wobble. A little wobble is too much wobble so I gave up on making a fiberglass spinner and ordered a new aluminum one from Great Plains. I can't remember just how I screwed up the new spinner - I either dropped it and dented it so badly I couldn't get the dent out, or I mis-cut the cut-outs so badly it made the spinner unusable - my memory is hazy on this - but I ended up ordering yet another one from Steve & Linda. This one I was more careful with and managed to get the cut-outs just right. I took the spinner to a metal anodizing shop and had it anodized in a gold color. With the black Prince prop it looked great. Even though I took the Prince off once I ruined the leading edges in rain (and after I'd learned just how inefficient the "P-tips" actually are), the cut-outs I'd cut for the Prince fit nicely on the new Sterba 52-56 I bought as a replacement. The gold spinner and new Sterba are still on the plane. The point of this story is that there had been cracks around the cut-outs on the original aluminum spinner. I'd repaired them with JB Weld and pop rivets. After some grinding and polishing that works okay as a spinner repair. It helps to have your own prop balancing equipment - the Dynavibe in my case. But back to the point of this story . . . with the new anodized spinner I cut sheet metal inserts that follow the curves of the cutouts and used JB Weld to glue these doublers around the inside of the spinner cut-outs. This has prevented any cracks from occurring in the anodized spinner. This has turned out to be a good idea. Cut and attach some doublers to the inside of the aluminum spinner cut-outs and it will prevent cracks. Do a prop balance after any changes to spinners or props. Somebody in your local EAA chapter surely has a Dynavibe by now. I consider mine to be an essential hangar tool. It is vibration that causes the spinner cracks in the first place, so keeping the prop/spinner balanced is really important.
Mike KSEE ____________________________________________________________ Old School Yearbook Pics View Class Yearbooks Online Free. Search by School & Year. Look Now! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/552c104b257c1104b1d35st03vuc
