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Drilling Opaque Spinner

iamtheari

Well Known Member
I am working on the spinner and I am almost ready to drill the spinner to the spinner plate. But I am looking for advice on the best way to locate the line marked on the flange of the spinner plate, since my spinner is opaque and the plans seem to assume a translucent spinner that gives an easy view of the parts beneath it. What have others done?
 
I am working on the spinner and I am almost ready to drill the spinner to the spinner plate. But I am looking for advice on the best way to locate the line marked on the flange of the spinner plate, since my spinner is opaque and the plans seem to assume a translucent spinner that gives an easy view of the parts beneath it. What have others done?

are you referring to the fwd plate or the aft plate? On mine, I clamped the spinner to the aft plate and made a quick measurement back from the aft flange edge for each hole drilled. For the forward plate, I did the same, but the measurement was from the aft plate flange edge. No need to see a line. I did not use the pre-drilled holes on the fwd flange, as I had no way to see them. I offset my new holes from the pre-drilled one and made markings on the spinner.

This was a 10, so not sure what is pre-drilled on the 14.

Larry
 
more than one way to skin a cat

I didn't have spherical magnets as called out in the revised spinner instructions so laid a small flashlight (Harbor Freight freebie) on the hub and then slid the spinner on.
Voila, the pilot holes in the fwd spinner plate shone thru the opaque spinner enough to clearly see the where the pilot hole was and drilled thru "the light".
Had to remove, shift flashlight a couple of times to get light thru other holes but worked like a charm. Patted myself on the back after that.
 
are you referring to the fwd plate or the aft plate? On mine, I clamped the spinner to the aft plate and made a quick measurement back from the aft flange edge for each hole drilled. For the forward plate, I did the same, but the measurement was from the aft plate flange edge. No need to see a line. I did not use the pre-drilled holes on the fwd flange, as I had no way to see them. I offset my new holes from the pre-drilled one and made markings on the spinner.

This was a 10, so not sure what is pre-drilled on the 14.

Larry

On the RV-14, the two parts are called the S-602-1 Spinner Plate (which is the one on the aft of the propeller, with the flange open toward the engine) and the S-603 Front Spinner Bulkhead. I am referring to the aft one. The S-603 flange is prepunched and I plan to use the magnetic ball method from Section 5.18 for those holes. The challenge is the aft one, where the flange is not prepunched and the plans call for holes to be drilled where the longitudinal lines on the spinner cross the mark that the builder is supposed to make around the circumference of the flange of the spinner plate.

A translucent spinner would make that easy. An opaque one requires some way to locate the mark on the spinner plate flange behind the opaque spinner. Your method is one that I had brainstormed about. I can measure back from the web of the spinner plate to the edge of the spinner, then measure forward from there to where the mark is.

The alternative seems to be to pre-drill holes in the spinner plate flange as close to where the spinner is marked as I can, and then pre-drill the spinner plate before using the magnetic balls to match drill the spinner.

Of the two, I like your method better because any imprecision in my technique will result in the holes being slightly off the mark on the spinner plate, whereas imprecision in the magnetic ball method might result in the spinner being slightly off its pushed-onto-the-spinner-plate position.

Thanks for the input so far on this one. I'll wait a bit to see if other tips come in before I grab the drill and dive in. :)
 
I did the spinner without moving the prop in the following way with no magnets.

1. drilled the back spinner plate as per the plans.
2. I took off the spinner and lined up a horizontal and vertical laser level on the front edge of the front spinner plate.
3. put on the spinner (carefully so nothing moved). I then traced the front edge of the spinner plate onto the spinner along the vertical laser line.
4. I did the same for the back edge.
5. Not sure that steps 3 and 4 were necessary but it did not take long. But does require that special laser level.
6. With the spinner off I lined up a laser pointer through one of the holes in the front spinner plate. Angled so that the laser was perpendicular to the flange. I used where the leaser hit the inside for a rough estimate of perpendicular.
7. Carefully put back on the spinner and clecoed on spinner along back spinner plate. in 6 places or so. In this case, it is important not to move prop.
8. used a sharpie to put a dot where the laser hit the spinner. Interestingly, when you cover the laser dot with sharpie, the laser dot will disappear when the marker is wet.
9. drilled #40.
10. Repeated with 5 remaining holes. Clecoing the #40 holes as I went.
11. Hit all the holes dead on. The top hole was interesting, since I was not rotating the prop.
12. I think that I up drilled all the front spinner hole to #30 prior to #19.

The process I used would be even easier if you plan to rotate the prop. Then you could leave the laser in place and rotate until it lined up with the hole.

Does this make sense? I posted 9 videos on my facebook page on what I did. Ken's RV14. https://www.facebook.com/Kens-RV14-632288410496405/
 
On the RV-14, the two parts are called the S-602-1 Spinner Plate (which is the one on the aft of the propeller, with the flange open toward the engine) and the S-603 Front Spinner Bulkhead. I am referring to the aft one. The S-603 flange is prepunched and I plan to use the magnetic ball method from Section 5.18 for those holes. The challenge is the aft one, where the flange is not prepunched and the plans call for holes to be drilled where the longitudinal lines on the spinner cross the mark that the builder is supposed to make around the circumference of the flange of the spinner plate.

A translucent spinner would make that easy. An opaque one requires some way to locate the mark on the spinner plate flange behind the opaque spinner. Your method is one that I had brainstormed about. I can measure back from the web of the spinner plate to the edge of the spinner, then measure forward from there to where the mark is.

The alternative seems to be to pre-drill holes in the spinner plate flange as close to where the spinner is marked as I can, and then pre-drill the spinner plate before using the magnetic balls to match drill the spinner.

Of the two, I like your method better because any imprecision in my technique will result in the holes being slightly off the mark on the spinner plate, whereas imprecision in the magnetic ball method might result in the spinner being slightly off its pushed-onto-the-spinner-plate position.

Thanks for the input so far on this one. I'll wait a bit to see if other tips come in before I grab the drill and dive in. :)

I used the balls on the wheel pants. The are simply not strong enough or round enough (added washer friction doen't help) to give a good hole marking location in my experience. You want well matched holes to avoid pillowing in this application. Much better to drill clean new matched holes to ensure you don't get pillowing. Be sure to clamp or use strong finger pressure holding the spinner to the flange at each hole. Also drill first with #30 and cleco each hole. Then go back with the 19 in every other hole.
 
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I did the spinner without moving the prop in the following way with no magnets.

1. drilled the back spinner plate as per the plans.
The plans leave it unclear how to do this with the opaque spinner. Fortunately, your videos included a Eureka moment for me. I'm going to build a depth gauge to go inside the spinner plate that will have a permanent mark for the location of the line around the flange. I can slide it into the plate, temporarily mark where the back edge of the fiberglass spinner sits on it, then move it to the outside of the spinner and have a locator for where to drill. Thanks for taking and sharing your videos!
 
Thanks for this thread! I like the flashlight idea, and the plans encourage you to use the spherical magnets. I'l probably use one method to double-check the other.
 
I just sanded off the grey gel coat in the areas of the holes and the spinner becomes translucent making it quite easy to drill. Makes no difference once painted.


This is what I ended up doing. Honestly I wished I would've taken this approach to begin with as it would've saved quite a bit of time and frustration.
 
I did the spinner without moving the prop in the following way with no magnets.

1. drilled the back spinner plate as per the plans.
2. I took off the spinner and lined up a horizontal and vertical laser level on the front edge of the front spinner plate.
3. put on the spinner (carefully so nothing moved). I then traced the front edge of the spinner plate onto the spinner along the vertical laser line.
4. I did the same for the back edge.
5. Not sure that steps 3 and 4 were necessary but it did not take long. But does require that special laser level.
6. With the spinner off I lined up a laser pointer through one of the holes in the front spinner plate. Angled so that the laser was perpendicular to the flange. I used where the leaser hit the inside for a rough estimate of perpendicular.
7. Carefully put back on the spinner and clecoed on spinner along back spinner plate. in 6 places or so. In this case, it is important not to move prop.
8. used a sharpie to put a dot where the laser hit the spinner. Interestingly, when you cover the laser dot with sharpie, the laser dot will disappear when the marker is wet.
9. drilled #40.
10. Repeated with 5 remaining holes. Clecoing the #40 holes as I went.
11. Hit all the holes dead on. The top hole was interesting, since I was not rotating the prop.
12. I think that I up drilled all the front spinner hole to #30 prior to #19.

The process I used would be even easier if you plan to rotate the prop. Then you could leave the laser in place and rotate until it lined up with the hole.

Thanks for posting this, Ken - I have been trying to figure out the cleverest way to drill the forward bulkhead for my aluminum spinner, and have settled on trying much the same method, so it's good to know it works in practice. In my case I've been thinking about building a simple jig out of scrap wood and a lazy-susan bearing from the hardware store, so I can leave the laser clamped in place and rotate the prop. We shall see...
 
You can always use the laser pointer method - mount a laser pointer on some sort of tripod/jig/cardboard box and aim it precisely at the hole you want to drill with the spinner dome uninstalled. Then put the spinner done in place, an the pointer is still pointed where the hidden hole would be, but now shining on the dome. Drill hole.

Ken Scott wrote this technique up in Kitplanes a few years back - this is a great way to do wheel pants, and it is remarkably precise, even though you’d thing the laser might move. But if you’re careful, and you have the hangar/shop doors closed, it works great.

Besides, you get to use a “laser”...... ;)

Paul
 
Cummins Spinner did a YouTube Video on how to drill their aluminum spinner. It’s still on YT. I used it years ago to drill my Cummins spinner. Flashlight won’t work for theirs. Lazer, maybe.
 
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