Tough guys make their own tools. (The evolution of a propeller puller.)

I have some doubts that the port axle is slightly misaligned at the strut end, the reason for the doubt is that there is a shiny spot where the axle goes in to the hull and after visual inspection it seems that the strut  is slightly bent. So, off with the prop so that I can get a closer look at the cutless bearing and see how it looks like. 

I have five bladed props. Those of you who have them probably know the trouble off getting them off. I cant use any normal pullers and I wasn't even sure if commercial purpose made ones would fit. So, it's DIY time again. 

Inside there is a prop puller...

I decided to do a proof of concept and do fiberglass/balsa templates so that I can be sure it fits. Naturally I have epoxy, glass from my other boat renovation project and some balsa from my model building days. So I did what comes naturally and did models form 11 layers of glass and some two layers of 3mm thick balsa.

Baking some prop pullers, or templates 

Why did I make them so rugged, they are templates after all? I wanted to find out if the templates are correct and would work. I built them tough and even did the post cure baking in the oven so that they would be as tough as they can be. Wife was very pleased to find out that I used her cutting board as a level surface to laminate on and she especially valued my idea of using the kitchen oven for the post cure process. Well, ere's a tip for you all prop puller builders out there:

If you wrap the cutting board with some kitchen film the epoxy wont stick, in fact you can peel the film off unharmed after curing. So the cutting board was saved and yes, the sweet smell of epoxy faded away after some time and has not had any effect on our cookings...

Testing the templates

I was actually amazed how much force I can put on this balsa cored templates. Eventually they bent and that was enough, I had the templates done. Now I only needed to get them copied out of sufficiently strong material, in other words steel. I had the templates with me and got some quotes for them and as they approached and went beyond reasonable costs (nearly 200€) i ended up using the connections my father in law had. Five days later I had the templates back and the actual puller cut to dimensions and coated. This time the cost was reasonable. 

10 mm thick steel, this should work. 

Custom made to exact dimensions, the beauty of craftsmanship. 

It took me about six hours to get myself and the beefy puller to the boat, half an hour later the prop was off. The sound that a bronze prop makes as it gets free from years of being stuck is a very satisfying sound, or actually a pretty damn loud BANG. Depends on your view of the world, I guess.

Ready, steady go...

It fit perfectly and still took a significant amount of pull to get it off the axle. It was another rainy, dark and a cold night but I managed to keep warm. The important part is that the prop is off, it's all that matters.

Remember to keep the nut on the axle, if not the prop will fly away...

In the picture above you can see that there is actually a "spacer" (just right to the prop) between the axle and the hub, it has a slot for the key and so does the axle. It is a kind of double tapered design and would probably have held up fine even without the actual prop nut. 

The axle without the "spacer", key slot visible at 12'o clock. 

View of the cutless bearing, damn...

Finally I could see the shape of the cutless bearing and yes, it is worn on one side more than the other. I think I have some work to be done. The strut seems to be bent towards the center line of the boat, not much but enough for me to think that it a reason to be concerned. I will change the bearings anyway to both axles but probably need to this strut off and send it to be straightened. Well, we'll see I take on step at a time.

Cover up time again.

It was once again time to cover up the old girl. This time it was again a new place and slightly tricky since the allocated space is slightly shorter than the place we had last year. Naturally I used the bushes in front of the boat and extended my structure on top of them. 

I had to transport all the timber and the boat stands from a nearby marina since now we have the luxury to haul her out in the same harbor where we have her in the summer. Last winter she was about ten minutes drive away, now only two minutes by bike. 

It took me a while to figure out where all the bits and pieces belong even though I spent a good amount of time marking them in the spring. It always amazes me how much I can forget in such a short while. 

The covers have been already on for nearly a month and I'm glad about it since it has rained nearly constantly. So far they have also withstood the wind test, top gusts at the harbor peaked at 19,5 m/s, no effect on our covers. 

Looking for the summer..