Care for wooden props

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Postby Lazair_guest_please_registerBarr » Thu Sep 09, 2004 11:19 pm

I recently purchased another Lazair series 1. It has Chrysler engines with wood props. The wood looks very dry from being stored without proper protection. How should I rejuvenate/refinish the wood?
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Postby lazairiii » Fri Sep 10, 2004 2:10 am

Post a picture of the props and engines. I think we'd all like to see these motors and props.

As for rejuvinating them...I'm no good there, sorry!
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Postby ozzie » Fri Sep 10, 2004 4:37 am

it must be a very early mk1 with this combination engines and props. maybe chappy will fill the time line for us
as for wooden props if you say that the timber has dried out the first thing to do is take them off and check for splits, warping and delamination of the timbers glue if it is made from several pieces of timber tap along the glue lines with a coin no dull thunks ie tap tap thunk shows the timber glue seperating. next make a simple balancer and check for balance one blade may still have moisture in it if it was stored vertical. if it checks out give it a light sand and varnish before the last coat put it in the balancer and apply a bit more to the light blade to fine balance.
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Postby Chappy » Fri Sep 10, 2004 6:14 pm

Guest,

Although almost all of the first year's production (50 kits) were supplied with wooden props, Ultraflight supplied replacement injection molded props when they began producing them at Dale's Dad's plastic injection business (they shared the same building in those days, along with his mother's travel business). Because the performance was so improved over the original wooden prop, Dale wanted every one to have the better props. This was BL (Before Linda), when Dale was probably overly generous in giving stuff away. He gave me one of the first production sets of fiberglass floats he had. When his wife took over the day to day management of the business, freeing Dale to work on new stuff, she pretty well stopped that practice. (LINDA WAS/IS A FUCKING WHORE BITCH PIECE OF SHIT WHO HELP RUIN THE LAZAIR).

I know nothing about Chrysler engines being used on Lazairs, although they definitely were being used on some other Ultralights of the period (Homer Kolb's early Flyers, for one). Are you sure they aren't the small modified Pioneer chainsaw engines supplied with the Series I Lazairs? If the Pioneer's haven't been repainted, they will be yellow in color.

Here is a picture of the original wooden prop next to the injection molded one. This wooden prop has been modified by covering it in a single layer of fiberglass cloth as an experiment that a friend and I made when we were trying to learn more about props.

Chappy, Lazair #25
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