How beat up is too much?

[Steve_in_NJ]

After digging up my lawn a couple of times, one of the props on my quad has taken a beating. The 12" prop is now 11 7/8", and the ends look like this... At the risk of asking a silly question, is this the time to retire this prop? Or can I reasonably get more flights out of it?

 

[SoCal Blur]

At the very least that prop will be badly out of balance and will cause unecessary wear on the motor as well as vibration. It's time to retire that puppy.

 

[RTRyder]

Anytime a prop loses material at the tip it's time to turn it into a paint stirrer unless you want to spend the time and effort to cut it down to a smaller size then rebalance which probably isn't worth the effort unless you have at least 3 others to cut down to match...

Ken

 

[Steve_in_NJ]

OK, off it comes. I suppose I will collect them until I have a set, then make a rainy day project out of sanding and balancing the lot. Thanks for the input!

 

[cootertwo]

Yea, I don't buy expensive props anymore, I go through too many! I see the price of some of the bigger carbon fiber jobs, and I'd cry like a baby if I dinged one.

 

[Steve_in_NJ]

I am paying about $5 each for 12" CF props on ebay these days (buying two pair at a time). Not too tragic I think.

 

[Old Man]

Most carbon props start out as top and bottom shells that are joined together with fiber filled resin. When you take off the tips you generally take the tip back to where you passed the point where the two shells were bonded and all that's left is the glue that was holding them together. The distance back from the prop tip the glue is solid is never the same between props you you're risking everything in continuing use of a damaged carbon prop. Wood is a lot easier to trim back on the opposite tip and rebalance for use as a smaller prop. You do have to be darn sure there were no longitudinal splits created when you banged a wood prop though.

 

[gtranquilla]

To do it all right you would have to trip back all the prop tips on both ends of all the props, i.e., 4, 6, 8 and after that the tedious rebalancing work etc. So...... is it really worth it?

After digging up my lawn a couple of times, one of the props on my quad has taken a beating. The 12" prop is now 11 7/8", and the ends look like this... At the risk of asking a silly question, is this the time to retire this prop? Or can I reasonably get more flights out of it?