Prop work

[kookie_guy]

I'll post this here because this area is generally most populated with seasoned guys. Anyhoo, I got my X642 nicely balanced and super sharp. Now the controversial million dollar question......

To polish, or not to polish? Searching google for several hours, there tends to be a difference of opinion on the topic. I'm asking the guys with experience, what works best?

1) No polish?
2) Polish only front (nut side)?
3) Polish only back (drive dog side)?
4) Polish both sides?

From what I found, #3 is never done, just left a nice brushed finish. So the big question is really the front (nut side) of the prop.

cheers.

[jingalls007]

polish ONLY the front. you will notice quicker acceleration out of the turn if you don't polish the back end.

[Gerwin Brommer]

you will NOT notice any difference in speed, front polished or not !

[jingalls007]

Perhaps someone would be willing to test this theory with there nifty eagle tree data software. Duc perhaps??

[Gerwin Brommer]

You can't test it.
Windspeed, waves, batterytemp, wind-direction,all that should be 100% the same while testing before/after polishing.
And what would be the outcome of the test ? A 1/4 of a mile/h difference ???
that doesn't prove anything.

[jingalls007]

You can't test it.
Windspeed, waves, batterytemp, wind-direction,all that should be 100% the same while testing before/after polishing.
And what would be the outcome of the test ? A 1/4 of a mile/h difference ???
that doesn't prove anything.

If you had two identical prop's one polished one not then you could run a 3 minute heat with one, take the boat out, run a 3 minute heat with the other. That would keep the testing conditions relatively the same. It would be an interesting test either way.

[Raydee]

I have done it each way and I can't tell the difference in performance. I polish mine just so they look pretty sitting at the bottom of the pond :(

[kookie_guy]

thanks for all the input guys. I'll probably polish it up just for looks as well then.

Raydee, you polish the front (nut side), what about the back (drive dog side)? Do you leave it raw or do you sand it?

[jingalls007]

I have done it each way and I can't tell the difference in performance. I polish mine just so they look pretty sitting at the bottom of the pond :(

been there, it sucks..

[teach]

I polish mine just so they look pretty sitting at the bottom of the pond :(

Thanks Raydee, I should make that my signature!

[bwells]

wait a minute, I'm confused, I thought the front was the drivedog side and back the nut side. I sharpened and smoothed only the drivedog side. Is this where I goofed? I read to leave the back(nutside) alone as this creates splash and that is a good thing. opps

[jingalls007]

wait a minute, I'm confused, I thought the front was the drivedog side and back the nut side. I sharpened and smoothed only the drivedog side. Is this where I goofed? I read to leave the back(nutside) alone as this creates splash and that is a good thing. opps


that's how I understood as well, could be an oversight....either on his end our ours :smile:

[egneg]

The face is towards the back.

[kookie_guy]

the sites and DIY's I read, the front to back was something else. That's why they always explained whether they were refering to the drive dog side, or the nut side. In my statements above, the front is the nut side, and the back is the drive dog side (most common way I saw in my searches).

Regardless of the terminology, the nut side is the one you wanna polish. The drive dog side is where you remove the material to do the balancing. You do not want to remove any material from the nut side.

For sharpening, you do most of it on the drive dog side, then hit the nut side with fine sandpaper to give it that razor edge.

[bwells]

Okay, then I'm safe cause that's what I did except for filing a little on the nut side. I'll try that. Thanks

[DISAR]

Ooow, got really confused but it's Ok now.
The front-fwd side of the blades is the back, and the back-aft side of the blades is the face...
Or back side (fwd,drive dog) is the suction side, and the face (aft,nut) is the pressure side.

So sharpen and remove material for balancing from the fwd-drive dog-suction side and polish the aft-nut-pressure side. (I rewrote to remember it)