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Prop Repair: How it Works

Boat Bling

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Prop repair has always fascinated me. The ability of a skilled technician to hammer, weld and massage a mangled piece of metal back into shape in order to propel several thousand pounds of boat across the water at high speeds is an artform.

This morning I visited Props Plus in Scottsdale, AZ to conduct dealer training and picked up a repaired prop for a friend's boat. They're still in the process of setting up the repair equipment and organizing tooling which up until a few days ago was housed in their Denver location. Props Plus does just about all the work for the Phoenix area boat dealers and service shops and receives units from all over the Southwest. They were kind enough to show me around and let me take pics of the process.

(EDIT: Apologies for sideways pics)

Props Plus Scottsdale
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Props awaiting their turn (see what I did there? :D)
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Early stage of repair. Prepping by removing surface coating and exposing bare metal
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Adding new material via welding
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Welding rod for each material
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These are blocks (should have taken a close up) which are used along with a hammer to form the ears back into the proper shape. Don't know that these are available any longer so they must be collected over the years
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Once the prop is back in shape it must be thoroughly sanded to blend the metal working marks. This is a pile of sanding belts received from their Denver location awaiting sorting. You can imagine how many of these they go through.
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Once shaped and sanded, the repaired prop will look something like this. It is fully functional as-is but not cosmetically appealing with the color contrast clearly showing the area that was repaired.
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The final step is the tumbler or 'Vibe-A-Prop' machine. The white pieces are affixed to the hub to protect the mating surfaces and the assembly is placed into the media, along with water and a compound similar in consistency to clay. Not sure how long this process takes but for brass, aluminum and props awaiting paint, this is the last step.
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Stainless props are placed into the 2nd stage of the machine filled with a finer media and if needed, are polished further to a showroom shine on a buffing wheel.
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RitcheyRch

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Very cool. True works of art and I would love to watch those guys do their magic.
 

Stainless

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Great post Boat Bling! Do they have a try bf you buy program?
 

Boat Bling

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Great post Boat Bling! Do they have a try bf you buy program?

Not sure where they stand re. trial programs. Give them a call and ask for Brett or Mike. Tell them Zack w/ Boat Bling sent you and you'll either get a deal or pay 2x, depends how well Hot Sauce is selling that week :p

Prop Plus AZ
(480) 949-0840
www.propsplusltd.com/
 

screaming pete

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Black Magic right there I read a long time about props stuff on Mercury's web page..great info.. I learned to always carry a hone to take off any burrs because they can cause cracks and prop stress.:thumbup:
 

ka0tyk

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interesting that they dont go onto some balancing mechanism... i guess thats a "stage 2 upgrade"?
 

Boat Bling

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interesting that they dont go onto some balancing mechanism... i guess thats a "stage 2 upgrade"?

That's a good point. They very well may perform some sort of balancing prior to final polish and I could have easily missed that step. Sounds like we need a followup. Who wants to ding a prop for the cause so we can track it through the workflow? ;)
 

Flying_Lavey

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That's a good point. They very well may perform some sort of balancing prior to final polish and I could have easily missed that step. Sounds like we need a followup. Who wants to ding a prop for the cause so we can track it through the workflow? ;)
If I had money to get it repaired a
I have a 22" pitch 3 blade with a crack on the trailing edge of 1 of the blades.
 

SHOCKtheMONKEY

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That's a good point. They very well may perform some sort of balancing prior to final polish and I could have easily missed that step. Sounds like we need a followup. Who wants to ding a prop for the cause so we can track it through the workflow? ;)

I have a dinged prop. I'll send it in if we can get pics. :thumbup:
 
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