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Round tips on Warp drive blades

R

ricmey1

Well-known member
Well I rounded the tips on my 4 blade warp drive, probably 20 to 30 percent quieter. It does not have the harsh flapping nosie it used to.

Update: Wow! you guys want pictures! I will take some this evening and try to post them tonight. I will also go into more detail on what I did and how I did it. Rick :lol:
 
ricmey1,

I'd say thats pretty good stuff :)

Use a grinder? How did you measure to get them all alike? How much? Is it the X type Warp?

Thanx Gben
 
Neat!

Tell me more, tell me more!

I'd really like to see photos and a detailed description of how you did it. Did you make a jig like Waterthunder suggested?

I am interested to know how the tips will hold up after rounding off the nickel leading edges
 
Get us some photos. If you cannot post one, email it to one of us.

Would be sad (or about what I expect) if a airboater developed a propeller improvement that the makers cannot figure out.
 
marshmaster pat":onaajyst said:
Would be sad (or about what I expect) if a airboater developed a propeller improvement that the makers cannot figure out.
Click to expand...

Especially when it is such a simple thing to do. The factory could set up to do it in a fraction of the time it would take us, and they could round the nickel edges so the tips would still be tough

This subject, along with my buddy borrowing a 5 blade Warp on his 220 GPU has me really thinking about going this route.

He was able to turn a 5 blade 68" the same RPM as his 74" wood prop (2800), with about the same push, but with a good bit more snap
 
One more thing, Ricmey, did you notice a difference in RPM after rounding them?
 
Well way to go Ricmey1 you are in the 2% of airboaters willing to try something new, I'm glade it worked out for ya I hope you enjoy your new prop design. It’s common knowledge that rounding off the tip of any prop makes them quieter. Especially a Warp Drive I think power Shift is going for the slower turning prop to make them quieter each manufacture is trying something a little different. The Warp Drive is cool because their solid and you can test various radiuses on the tip’s. A squared off tip creates bigger max thrust numbers which I have found is all that the airboaters care about. That’s why all the prop manufactures leave them square. Just think an airboater with a grinder in his own backyard just made his prop 30% quieter. It will loose a little in the max thrust but I bet he likes his prop better now that it’s quiet. In just about every instance the prop with the max thrust is not very responsive in an airboat (UNDER 15 FT) I WOULD LOVE TO ROUND OFF THE TIP’S of a power shift for testing and run a 2.68 gear box at my standard 2,100RPM. I have a customer of mine that has a 2.68 gearbox with mufflers turning a power shift prop at 2,150RPM when he run’s down the river all you hear of his boat is the gearbox howling. And it’s a rocket that will eat up aircraft motors on the water and the hill. It would take a light race boat with no polymer to beat this 15ft three seat ride boat. I want to play with the sound issues but their isn’t enough money in it to merit the time. Only a large established prop manufacture can do this because I have learned with the average airboater nobody wants to try something new.
 
Would this work with a wood prop. I like a wood props but I would like for it to be quieter. I'm going to put mufflers on my boat , as soon as I get some cash saved back up.
 
The wood prop isn’t as easy because if you loose some thrust you can’t replace it by simply adding more pitch. Plus the leading edge of a wood prop is wide and covers more of the blade and may be an integral part of the tip’s rigidity. I’m a complete idiot when it comes to wood props haven’t ran one in ten or so years. So I can’t make any suggestions from experience.
 
I was just askin you never know. I have some friends that are AP techs
I'm at there shop from time to time. I been lookin at the props on the planes I see that the tips are rounded.



(Only if the idiots that hates airboats knew that folks was trying to make them quieter)
 
Waterthunder,

I think there will be some interest generated in noise reduction soon. That 2% you mentioned is about to be converted to 100% by legislation. I suspect the subject will come up at the FAA meeting on the 9th at Loughman.

Jim
 
Here's a photo of Ricmey1's propeller mod:

DSC00039.JPG
 
Looks good. Keep us informed how it performs.

The Q-Blade that sensenich makes has the trailing edge longer. Some turbo props on the airplanes have that same longer trailing edge.
 
Pat what effect do you suppose the trailing edge has on sound? How about thrust?

Is it better to round the trailing edge like Ricmey or leave it square?
 
Red - Don't have a clue how it would effect push, but the leading edge is tapered back to the trailing edge on lots of turboprops blades on aircraft and sensenich Q-blade.

Lots of the metal aircraft blades are rounded like that blade in the photo and some are squared on the ends. Will look for some information on that.

Jim - you played around planes some, any ideas.

cchart - I agree, but when I win the lottery, I plan to head over to Florida with money in hand and doing some serious prop testing on the same rig. Heck while I am dreaming, I may as well plan on chopping on some blades to see what that does.
 
Pat,

I have heard trhat classic developed the rounded tip for the warp drive. I think they have a template.

The older props on the planes I learned to fly in (50+ years ago) mostly had rounded tips. The squared off tips came later and they were supposed to produce more thrust. I have seen q-tip props that were square but had sort of a flange at the tip (bent to the rear). I'll try to find a picture of one.

I don't really know, props are sort of black magic.

Jim
 
I read on a site about props that the squared-off edge is also supposed to help slow the boat down when you let off the gas.

Any truth to that?
 
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