Metal Prop Gap Fillers for RV-14?

Hi All,

I'm in the process of fitting my spinner to my Hartzell CS prop. I made the two cutouts in the spinner where the prop shanks fit. I made the cuts just inside the lines pre-scribed on the spinner from Vans. The cutout pieces were preserved all per plans to fabricate the S-606A spinner gap fillers. I've needed to enlarge the spinner openings so they're not rubbing against the prop blades. This enlargement is causing the seams where my prop gap fillers will go to grow bigger and bigger. It's to the point now where I'll have a 3/32" to 1/8" gap in the seams where the gap fillers will fit against the spinner prop openings. Not thinking that'll look very good. But maybe this is common? Of course, the plans show nice tight seams there.

My questions are:

1. Should I not worry about it and live with these (to me) large seam gaps with my gap covers?

2. Has anyone fabricated new ones of metal that have nice tight seams? If so, how did it turn out? What aluminum thickness did you use? And how did you bend the thick aluminum to conform to the curve of the spinner bulkhead? My spinner fiberglass is about .082 thick. I was thinking about using a scrap piece of .063 to make new gap covers.

Thanks for any advice and everyone's time.

Cheers,

Scott Davis

Thanks for the quick reply and the photo. Very helpful. They look good. After seeing yours I think I'm going that direction too.

Cheers,

Scott

On mine I used the spinner itself as a form and laid up a couple of 4-ply pieces of fiberglass that I then cut and trimmed to fit perfectly. I'd be mighty impressed when a person can make that cut and still use the piece without adjustment.

I thought about that option too. Are you saying you laid up 4 layers of cloth on the outside circumference of your spinner and used something like wax as a release agent with peel ply on top? How thick were your completed gap covers? Do you have any photos?

I really appreciate your time and advice.

Scott
602 290-5363

Mine are aluminum.

I used 4 layers of the 9oz cloth I used for other things, over a heavy plastic wrap I put on the outside bottom of the spinner. Tape or wax should work equally well. After making a big piece I cut out the filler pieces and it fit great. I might have made two, one for each side. The curve of the uncut spinner bottom gave the filler pieces the right curve (right enough....). I might have read somewhere the spinner is 4 layers of cloth so I did the same and the thickness was just right.

Thanks for the details. Very helpful.

Scott

JDA_BTR said:

On mine I used the spinner itself as a form and laid up a couple of 4-ply pieces of fiberglass that I then cut and trimmed to fit perfectly. I'd be mighty impressed when a person can make that cut and still use the piece without adjustment.

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I did the same thing…very happy with how it came out.

spinner gap fillers

Bsquared said:

I did the same thing…very happy with how it came out.

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Me two .... I used Saran wrap ( cling film as we say in the UK ) around the spinner and then laid up glass with west systems epoxy to make the parts
then slowly trimmed to size before riveting on the aluminium piece and nut plates Nice job