Prop Maintenance

[Brian]

I carry, on-board, a spare stainless steel prop.

How can I "polish" it so it looks nice and presumably works better?
And, should I then spray something on it, to keep it in pristine condition and to protect it from the general dampness?

[thewavehumper]

I am sure theres more people with more and better solutions than me. But in the tradition of Alan P tile polish treatment then olive oil is remarkably good at claening stailess steel

more marketable solutions would be wd40 and duck oil for preserving and there bound to be something in the chandlers for doing stainless steel properly.

[Charles]

Brian, get yourself liquid cement cleaner from any hardware store - it is very strong - dilute it 50/50 or a slightly stronger ratio mix if required. Simply stick the prop in this mixture and you will be amazed at how readily every little bit of dirt, corrosion etc, etc comes off. The longer you leave it the better the results.
Once you are satisfied that everything has been removed, rinse in clear water and dry properly. Polish it with any good car polish and store. It is not necessary to use any oils or such like as this treatment would suffice.

[thewavehumper]

Charles

Will this work on other metals as well,

Stuart

[Pete7]

Managed to loose 2 knots polishing and very lightly touching up the edges on mine why ? don't know, although agreed it was on different days and conditions.

Might be a useful thing to do just before selling a boat though.

Pete

[Charles]

Originally posted by thewavehumper
Charles

Will this work on other metals as well,

Stuart

Stu, don't know is the short answer. I have only used this on my s/s props.

[Searider]

Can confirm that concrete cleaner works on Bronze props as well.
- Will be good for the new VP propellers.

Don't know about aluminium though.

Duncan

[thorper]

We use coke for cleaning brass artifacts from wrecks - its amazing how versatile that stuff is!!

Be careful cleaning with acidic or corrosive liquids - I have heard a nasty story about a guy cleaning stuff with brick acid who forgot to wash his hands and got 3rd degree burns somewhere he shouldnt.

Ricky

[Steel Dev]

Re cement cleaner on s/s this sounds an interesting solution but I'm not sure about the long term affects on the rubber bush, but I see that Brian has a Bravo 1 leg so may have the flo torque system so would be able to remove all the bush from the prop before treating it this way. Be very wary of using this system on aluminium props as I think cement cleaner is caustic based, but I'm not sure.

Once cleaned I would advise that you do cover the with some sort of spay to protect it as some brands of propeller are more prone to corrosion, especially inside the hub, you can spray with "corrosion guard" which is supplied by Mercury for protecting propellers, although there are loads of other products on the market which leave a film over the surface.

A polished prop certainly looks nice but it will not work any better, damage is the killer of performance, however minimal it may seem, so the prop should be checked for any signs of damage to keep it in tip top condition

[Hightower]

If your prop is in less than perfect condition, how do you remove all those pits and abrasions and would you dress the edges to a knife edge or leave slightly blunt?

[Charles]

Julie - I think it's fantastic that you make the time and put the effort in to essentially give us free advice - thanks very much.

As far as Ribex goes next year - will you have the facilities to effect minor prop repairs in Cowes?

[Steel Dev]

As you have probably gathered I love boating so its no problem to pipe up and say something about props.

If the props in a "less than perfect condition" it depends how bad it is as to the advise. The whole prop and edge should be a near the original as possible. If the prop has sustained damage to the edge it could be out of balance as well. For pits and abrasions don't be tempted to file or sand these as you will end up thinning the blade section and this will affect the strength of the blade and its performance, you would be better off filling it, so its a bit of a judgement call.

At RibEx next year, we can certainly give your prop a visual check for damage. As to making repairs on the stand, sorry this is not feasible as we won't have the specialist machinery there and would have no way of balancing the prop. If have any damaged props you can bring them with you, standard repair time is only 2-3 days so you can have it back in time for the next weekend.....

[Ribald]

Originally posted by Charles
Julie - I think it's fantastic that you make the time and put the effort in to essentially give us free advice - thanks very much.

In view of all her help I think that Julie should be made an "Honorary Ribster" (even though she has a plastic boat )

[Hightower]

Thanks Julie,


Haven’t got the RIB yet, but although the prop looked in reasonable condition, the previous owner had painted it!!! He was said to have painted it to make it look like a conventional prop for security reasons.

[Brian]

Charles and Julie-thank you both.

I intend, therefore to do the following:
1. Use a solution of the concrete cleaner to bathe the prop. blades, using a small sponge. Carefully avoiding rubber bits and greasy splines.
2. Wash hands!!
3. Spray WD40 all over.
4. Restow gleaming prop.

And there was me thinking I would have to do unspeakable things, for hours on end, with a wet-n-dry lamb's bonnet or something and an electric drill!

[Charles]

Originally posted by Brian
Charles and Julie-thank you both.

I intend, therefore to do the following:
1. Use a solution of the concrete cleaner to bathe the prop. blades, using a small sponge. Carefully avoiding rubber bits and greasy splines.

Brian - I can assure you this mixture does no damage to the bush - you really have to drop the prop in the solution for a while to let it do its magic. My lovely Solas props (supplied by Julie) had this treatment regularly and came up like new. I still use this method on my Quicksilver props I now have