Section: 44

Hours: 4

Added safety wire to the prop nuts.

Section: 44
Hours: 6

Today I mated the spinner and gap fillers to the prop and prop bulkheads. This involved drilling holes into the bulk heads and adjusting the opening around the blades to allow for full travel in pitch adjustment.

A couple days ago I added some fiberglass to the edges of the gap fillers so I could create a better fit.

Section: 44
Hours: 1

I will be drilling more holes in tight spaces in the spinner and other places soon and my current 90 degree drill attachment is not working very well because the gears are slipping. I searched for a higher quality angle drill and found one from Aery Tools.

Section: 44
Hours: 4

I started work on the prop spinner. First I cut out the slots for the prop blades using the scribed marks on the spinner.

Then I marked where the bulk heads go and roughed up and sealed the areas that contact the bulkheads with resin.

After running my head into the prop blades a couple times, I got smart and added some cushioning to the blade edges. I'm sure I will continue to run my head into the prop, but at least now it won't hurt as much :-)

Section: 44
Hours: 4

I mounted the prop today. I'm not sure if I will need to remove prop later so the bolts are not final torqued or safety wired yet.

Section: 44
Hours: 3

The IO390 ships with an expansion plug in the prop shaft. Before installing the prop, you must remove the plug. One method to remove the plug is to carefully drill a hole in the plug, expand the hole slightly using a screw driver and then use a slider hammer to pull it out. I found a slider hammer at Harbor freight.

To remove the plug, insert the hooked end of the slider hammer and then slide the weight on the hammer forcefully to the end of its travel. Have some rags on hand to catch the oil that dribbles out. Also, take care to remove any metal filings left behind in the shaft.

Section: 44
Hours: 2

Riveted spinner plate assembly today.

Section: 44
Hours: 4

I worked on the spinner plate assembly today. I marked the cutout area on the spinner plate using the doubler ring and then drilled a series of holes just inside the mark. Next I used the dremmel cutoff wheel to trim closer to the mark and finally used the dremmel drum sander and files to cut to the final mark.