Heat Treating Interest ??

[Marty Davis]

I am interested in seeing how many boaters would be interested in a service to do heat treating of props, etc.

I purchased a really fine heat treat furnace some years ago and then bought a control unit that kept the temps in a 5 degree range for any timed period. The cost of the electronic control unit was over $500 several years ago.

A friend of mine who runs twins has had continuing trouble with bending prop blades. We were talking at a recent race and he said that the bending of the blades has almost made running twins for him impossible because of the cost of props.

I told him that I would be happy to heat treat a couple sets of props for him and just sent them to him today. I indicated that I thought it might be important enough for the hobby to offer this service to everyone.

I am interested in hearing whether people would use this service and make it worth our while. Probably would have a system where the price was the same for 1-4 props and a little more for 5-10, etc, etc. I heat treat every prop that I run so that I can maintain a sharp edge and keep from bending blades, so I know that people would love this service if they tried it.

NOT interested in working on props other than heat treating........

What do you think????

 

[RaceCraftBearings]

Count me in Marty!

 

[Terry Keeley]

Would be a great service to the community!

 

[JS_Racing]

Marty's Prop Bakery - I like it

 

[Michael Costanzo]

Marty's Prop Bakery - I like it

me too! i'm in. mikie.

 

[Elias Vazquez]

Me Three, Marty

 

[shoboat]

Marty,

I would be careful on the liability side of the business.

I can tell you some will snap them after heat treat and they

will want you to replace them. Great idea though.

Have Fun,

Mark Sholund

 

[Jim Allen]

Marty,

Who is going to anneal & stres relieve the props before heat treating? Beryllium copper props that have not been annealed properly will distort during heat treatment, changing the set pitch. This can also happen to propellers that are heat treated in the as cast condition. Be careful with this!

Jim Allen

 

[gooycheese]

I would be interested, but I am not sure any prop I have ever run would be of the quality prop a person would want to heat treat. In my case you could get the prop from me and say hmmm was this damage in shipping to me........ and any prop could very well have been damaged. Based on packing methods or shipping. My next goal is to start taking props more seriously... I need some tools

 

[Marty Davis]

Marty,

Who is going to anneal & stres relieve the props before heat treating? Beryllium copper props that have not been annealed properly will distort during heat treatment, changing the set pitch. This can also happen to propellers that are heat treated in the as cast condition. Be careful with this!

Jim Allen

Jim:

If you would, please expand on this.

With my own props, I have nevere had a problem with the configuration changing during either annealing or heat treating.

I bought an oven that will hold temps within 3-5 degrees so there is no big change during either process. Since the cost of buying a setup is so high, just decided that it was something that others could take advantage of. Cost will be very low, so it should be something important for the hobby. Especially for the large boats that have a ton of torque (twins, etc).

 

[Marty Davis]

Marty,

I would be careful on the liability side of the business.

I can tell you some will snap them after heat treat and they

will want you to replace them. Great idea though.

Have Fun,

Mark Sholund

Mark:

You are probably right....

I am "old school" so I usually don't think of things like this.

Probably would be good to have the customer place a signed disclaimer/release in the box with the props to be heat treated.

Good suggestion.....

 

[RaceCraftBearings]

A Little twist to the Dunkin Donuts saying:

Time to Bake the Props!

 

[Marty Davis]

If anyone want props heat treated right away, I have the new website in Beta Form and you can still use it to order heat treating. Website is just not polished yet.

http://hobbyheattreating.com

Prices stated are probably going to be a little higher shortly as soon as Norm decides what he wants to cover his time.

 

[Jim Allen]

Marty,

Who is going to anneal & stres relieve the props before heat treating? Beryllium copper props that have not been annealed properly will distort during heat treatment, changing the set pitch. This can also happen to propellers that are heat treated in the as cast condition. Be careful with this!

Jim Allen

Jim:

If you would, please expand on this.

With my own props, I have nevere had a problem with the configuration changing during either annealing or heat treating.

I bought an oven that will hold temps within 3-5 degrees so there is no big change during either process. Since the cost of buying a setup is so high, just decided that it was something that others could take advantage of. Cost will be very low, so it should be something important for the hobby. Especially for the large boats that have a ton of torque (twins, etc).

I have a Lucifer heat treating oven with digital control (+-5 deg from zero to 2200 deg F), but I DO NOT think this investment ($5,000 to $7,000)is necessary to be able to heat treat metals by hobby people. A 0-140 V, 20 amp variac ($200.00); an Omega Digital Thermometer ($100.00)& a Firefly Kiln ($500.00) will do an excellent job of heat treating irons, steels, coppers, etc.

The following information can be obtained from Brush Wellman Technical Briefs & Brush Wellman Beryllium Copper Engineered Materials Data Papers.

"To elicit an effective age hardening response, beryllium copper must be solution annealed & quenched prior to aging. In addition to preparing the alloy for age hardening, annealing softens the alloy for furthur cold work & regulates grain size. When peak aging beryllium castings, always solution anneal prior to the age hardening. However, if peak properties are not required, castings can be age hardened from the as-cast condition without the solution anneal".

If propellers are aged in the as cast condition, there will be no distortion, to very slight distortion. If propellers are aged in the solution annealed condition there will be no distortion. This includes propellers that have agressive pitch or cupping changes.

The designations CT (as cast & aged) & AT (solution annealed & aged) give very different numbers when applied to typical casting alloys 20C & 275C. These numbers can be found in table BV of appendix B.

275C-CT-95-105,000 psi tensile; 60-70,000 psi yield; Rc20-25

275C-AT-180-195,000 psi tensile; 165-180,000 psi yield; Rc43-47

20C-CT-100-105,000 psi tensile; 70-75,000 psi yield; Rc20-24

20C-AT-150-175,000 psi tensile; 120-150,000 psi yield; Rc 38-43

"These properties are typical of precision cast material, while properties of sand castings tend to be closer to the low end of the ranges shown".

Jim Allen

 

[Tom Foley]

Marty,

Who is going to anneal & stres relieve the props before heat treating? Beryllium copper props that have not been annealed properly will distort during heat treatment, changing the set pitch. This can also happen to propellers that are heat treated in the as cast condition. Be careful with this!

Jim Allen

I had this happen on a nice set of props that changed quite a bit after heat treating in my oven , not an actual furnace .