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diemai

Making prop bearings on a drillpress

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Hi , I'd like to post this little describtion in here , since in the thread "source for ccw prop blades" , opened by tc-lures , some interest in my homemade prop bearings came up .

So I went down to my shop and made sucha bearing for this little essay , unfortunately not all of the pics , that I took , turned out well , I apologize for that , but I'm sure , that the working proccess is still understandable .

Since I do not have a metal lathe in my shop , I have tried to make smaller round metal parts out of round brass dowels simply by chucking them in my drillpress and working on them by filing against the rotating workpiece , which worked out to my satisfaction .

I have made these prop bearings that way , but also inline-spinner bodies , bullet weights for worm rigs and weights for weighted floats are possible to furnish in the same manner .

Only by now I have wood lathe , that has a chuck as well , so I am nowadays doing such work in that one , since it is more powerful and it is also more convinient to work on a horizontally chucked workpiece .

But for this describtion I did it in my drillpress for once more .

Allright , here we go :

First , cut off a piece of that brass dowel , approx. 1" long .

In this case , the dowel is 6mm in diameter .

I can buy these brass rods in local tool marts , but also RC-model shops carry them .

After file the two ends smooth and plane and slightly break the edges .

This is only done for better eyeballing to mark the center hole position with a 90° center punch .

If the indention should be out of center , one can "move" it a bit by setting the punch at about 45° and gently hammer it into proper direction , after make it a bit deeper with the punch .

Mark either side of the workpiece this way .

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Edited by diemai
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Now drill from either side just big enough for your chosen prop's shaft(screweye or wire shaft)to pass well without binding .

The two holes do not to have to meet in the middle of the dowel piece , I work down ONE bearing from EITHER side of it , the remainder is waste .

I fix the dowel piece on one side of the vise , this way I can eyeball the vises edge aligned with the dowel for a perfect vertical position .

You must also extend the center hole of your prop blade according to your desired bearing diameter , in this case here I chose 3,5 millimetres , the center bore of the bearing is 2,0 mm .

After break the edges of the hole in the prop .

Sorry , forgot pics !

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Now chuck the dowel piece firmly and take a bigger coarse file to work down the dowel to desired bearing OUTER diameter and bearing length , smoothen with a smaller fine file .

The files teeth would get smeared with brass chips after a while , clean the up with a steel bristle brush or a special file brush to retain sharpness again .

After that you need to furnish the smaller bearing diameter , that must SNUGLY fit into the prop blades center bore , it should only potrude only about 1/10" in it's length over the blade's thickness when assembled .

This part requires some accuracy , but its not that hard to do , remember to take fine files for the finishing touch .

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After perfect fit , diameter and length of bearing is done , take a triangular file and make a groove at where you want to separate your finished bearing from the dowel .

After take a metal saw blade and cut it off .

It is better not to cut all way through since you might loose the tiny bearing in all the dirt and debris in your shop(at least in mine , lol:huh::lol:) as it falls down , better cut halfway only and break off by hand !

Break all edges of the bearing and stick it into prop blade in desired direction(the thicker part should always point to the rear of your lure) .

Now place the bearing on a steel surface , here I utulize my vise , and use a hammer to hit the thinner diameter a couple of times to comprime it just like a rivet's head .

Take care not to hit and/or bend the props blade .

This proccess would most likely also deform the bearings hole , so it must be redrilled briefly with same diameter as before .

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OK , the prop blade with bearing is done now , off course such bearings can be made for homemade props as well , but the smaller , the more finacky it gets .

But all in all , they let those flat props perform a lot better , since they provide more guidance of the prop on its shaft .

Hope , all is understandable , if not , just post ;)!

greetz:yay: , diemai

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