Sheet lead pattern

[SeaBat]

I would like to create patterns of my daughters prop blades using sheet lead. I understand this was done by Poppa Smith and others. Any information on how to do this would be greatly appreciated.
Bill Thomas

[DeanFHobart]

1/16" Sheet Lead, Press on the forward side of the propeller. Scribe the propeller outside shape..... Cut with a razor blade. Then to keep the shape, you could "fiberglass" the back side to keep the shape in the lead. A little two sided thin tape helps keep the lead from sliding around.

[SeaBat]

Thanks Dean.
Bill

[DeanFHobart]

I was at Papa Smith's shop years ago in Shreveport Louisiana, and I saw how he did this. Several times.

His address was: 6329 Thornhill Avenue, Shreveport, Louisiana 71106.

How's that for memory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SeaBat]

The first props I used for my 20H conversion were reworked Michigan Wheels by Smith. They were fantastic, I could not get over the increase in speed and acceleration. It put me up in the front pack with my Hal Kelly Jupiter and My Foo Ling (If I could keep it right side up in the turns). I had no idea how well known he was when I contacted him (I think I got his name from a Boat Sport Issue). Lucky Me!

[ZUL8TR]

Can't read that letter. Long shot - any of those props still with you?

[SeaBat]

The letter was a from note R. Allen Smith dated 3-11-60. I am not sure how to properly add material to my message. No they went away back in about 1965-6 when I left racing.

[Smitty]

I have a few of Papa's old round-blade 2-blades. Why? Are they still good for anything other than as part of an antique racemotor display? As good as they were, I supposed they had long-since become obsolete.

[ZUL8TR]

You never know about props when you run them. I have old Pinner 2 blade tulips I used on Merc 25ss hydro in the 70's. Recently a fellow AOMCI club member had a DeWald 3 blade cleaver made for his pickle 25ss late 90's vintage hydro (early Merc 25ss deflector engine) he couldn't get it to work well compared to 2 blade tulips he had. I tried it on my Kelly hydro and could not get it to work well compared to the ones I raced with (maybe 3 blade cleaver not a good choice for a round nose?). If it was convenient I would like to try those Smiths if they were similar to the three I used on my 25ssh rig which are in the range: 7 to7.3 Dia x 13 to 13.5 average pitch at 2 radius of lead edge, middle and trail edge not including cup.

[DeanFHobart]

I have a few of Papa's old round-blade 2-blades. Why? Are they still good for anything other than as part of an antique racemotor display? As good as they were, I supposed they had long-since become obsolete.

Obsolete...? Not necessarily. If they were cut and welded into 3 blades, they could work. But obviously don't do that because they are history.

[1100-one]

I will add I too ran a Papa Smith wheel at Yelm one year. Set the record for a short bit and will leave that one there. But I did run that same wheel here years later and did very well. If I had one other than the history of it like mentioned I would still run it. Another good one we had/have was a Broom prop. Don't want to side track the post. Show pictures when you work this out on the metal. Very interesting thread

[Smitty]

I'm hearing, "Well, they MIGHT still work pretty good . . . ." Let's put it this way, are any of the top guys at the PRO or Stock Nationals using their old Papa Smith wheels? Or 3- or 4-blade round-blade props?

I think it would be interesting to carefully cut up some old 2-blade Kamincs (what he often used), fit them into a special jig, and TIG yourself up some 3- or 4-blade Kamincs and then try to duplicate your favorite old Pop Smith wheel. Well, If I've thought of this, someone has surely already tried it, maybe one of the current prop-men. So . . . ???

Here's a little story: My novice year of racing was in Region 10 in 1965, where I got into the very popular and highly competitive B Stock Hydro class, which, along with Deano's A Stock Hydros, featured elimination heats at nearly every local race. To put it mildly, I was NOT highly competitive!! That year a competitive local B Stock rig needed to hit a quick 57-58mph (as read on a Keller speedo in testing, therefore a few mph faster than that during the race with the pitot tube no longer dragging). A typical 9' 10" Karelsen, Marchetti, or Sid-Craft of the day would weigh in the neighborhood of 105-115 lbs. My beautiful (to my eyes) homebuilt Hal Kelly Jupiter, with a layer of fiberglass cloth on the bottom from bow to transom because I imagined that it would make for a glass-like, slippery surface, weighed over 130 pounds, took all weekend to reach 53mph on the speedo with a box-stock $35 Michigan wheel, and was a rotten handling brute as well, throwing me out in each of my first two heats of racing at Idlewood Park. Two other fellows and I fought it out for tenth place every weekend that summer, and we ate a whole lot of water in every corner from the pack ahead of us.

So, carefully husbanding my money from a job smashing baggage at the airport, I went for an upgrade that winter, starting with a new Karelsen. All year I had been hearing how important props were, so I took my one prop down to our local prop man in Tacoma and asked if he could do anything for it. He thought maybe he could, but carefully warned me that occasionally a Michigan would crack, and if mine did it would be my bad luck. I gave him the go ahead. Got a phone call, very apologetic: ". . . the second hit with the hammer . . ." So now I have a cracked and probably unweldable prop, i.e., I have NO prop.

I had been hearing about this supposed propeller genius on the other side of the country, so I wrote a letter which boiled down to, "What would it take for you to build me a short-to-medium course BSH 16:21 wheel for a light boat and driver?" A month later my answer arrived in a taped up old Michigan Wheel box, containing a piece of metal shaped and polished as if it were fine art (it WAS), along with a note: "Would you send a check for $52-something, we trust you because your name's Smith and we have had very few customers named Smith." signed, "Mama."

What NICE PEOPLE they were !!!!!

[dwhitford]

Speaking of Smiths: One winter in the early 1970s when I was feeling especially rich, I ordered two ''Pop'' Smith wheels at once. I asked Pop to make two round-blade props just alike, but about an inch different in pitch for my cast-iron Koenig. Neither prop was a world beater by itself, sadly, so I shelved them.

Then I began running my 250 Quincy in 1979. I pegged my 50-90 Keller on Syracuse's Onondaga Lake with an even bigger Smith 2-blader in summer 1979. Should've won that race, but my hand got tired holding my big twin-pipe setup up tight b4 I finished Lap 3.

In about 1980, I had Buddy Smith in Florida weld my two so-so 2-bladers for the Koenig into a 4-blader. That prop accelerates like a shot and can still run my ol' 1980-ish Buddy Smith hydro at 93, or about 3-4 mph faster than when I retired the boat from racing in OCT 1986.

I have the bigger Smith 2-blade props (what I used to name my ''Lakeland'' props) welded into a 4-blade config but have yet to try it. I think that prop might go into the high 90s, but only for a long course.

What I did not know in the 1970s and '80s about setups & props translates into several more mph nowadays.