Lindy
12/15/2009
Tonight I worked on fitting the spinner. There are several ways to do this, and I'm sure I'm not the first to do it this way, but I haven't seen it done on the internet. THIS IS NOT THE METHOD IN THE BUILD MANUAL. First I ran some masking tape all the way around the rear spinner bulkhead, and used a ruler to mark the edges of the prop blades.
Then I removed the tape, and put it on the inside of the spinner. The "T" indicates the top blade of the prop as it sits on the airplane. That blade is also marked with a "T". What looks like a "K", are the arrow marks to the edge of the prop blades.
I then took these marks on the inside...
...and transferred them to the outside. Worked great since the spinner is just transparent enough to show the marks thru to the outside.
In order to transfer the contour of the prop blade as accurate as I could with what I had available, I started with a piece of .041 safety wire to copy the shape.
I took that basic shape, and traced it on to a manila folder, which is just thick enough to work as pattern paper.
I used an Exacto knife to cut out the shape, and then I taped it to the two bulkheads to mark any changes needed. It was pretty close, but it did need some trimming to fit just right.
Then I took that pattern, and transferred it to the outside of the spinner, and traced it with a Sharpie.
I used the Dremel tool with a thick cutoff wheel to make the cuts, and about twenty minutes later, I was able to fit the spinner after some minor filing to smooth the edges a bit! I will also be able to use the cutouts as covers for the face side of the prop. The spinner still has to be trimmed a bit more with a file and sandpaper to get it nice and snug, but this is a great result for the time I had tonight!
Of course I had to take a pic of the whole airplane with the spinner sitting in place for the first time! Sweet!!
2.0 hours