Nicked Propeller Repair

[Don52]

My friend and customer ran his boat in shallow water and the propeller hit the ground, which nicked the edge of the propeller. I have seen more damage when a propeller hit a branch in the water. The following four pictures show the damage to the propeller.

1. Nicked propeller


2. Nick-1


3. Nick-2


4. Nick-3


The first step was to sand off the paint so that it wouldn’t contaminate the weld. I also sanded off the mushroomed Aluminum near the nick.

5. Sanding paint off

[Don52]

I used a bar clamp to rigidly clamp the propeller to my welding table so that it wouldn’t move while I was working on it.

6. Propeller clamped


I used a piece of copper to keep the weld from sagging.

7. Propeller ready for welding


Here are three pictures of my welds.

8. First Welds


9. Weld-2


10. Weld-3

[Don52]

And here is my setup for grinding the welds.

11. Welds ground down


12. Close of one blade


All finished and painted.

13. Propeller all done and painted

[tarry99]

Very nice........is there any concern for balance?

[Don52]

Very nice........is there any concern for balance?

My friend said that he would get it balanced.

-Don

[aametalmaster]

Nice fix. I have been doing them since the late 70’s. Zero issues with balance.