Damaged my prop, can I file it myself?

[Fordiesel69]

On my sea ray I ended up not consulting marine charts and struck a rock. The corners are dinged up and now are rough. Will it hurt to file it smooth? Good news is, all 3 blade are all hit the same so it is not too badly out of balance.

I know the best option is to replace, but I am sure I will hit again as I am new to a few areas.

 

[Knightgang]

Re: Damaged my prop, can I file it myself?

I would find Prop shop and let them straighten it out and re round the blades. They can weight it and rotate it to ensure it stays in balance. Should not cost much if the damage is not very bad...

 

[boat1010]

Re: Damaged my prop, can I file it myself?

Pictures would help a lot so we could give you a little better answer. If the "dings" are not too bad you should be able to clean it up a little with a file. But like knightgang said it is best to send it to a shop to fix. I have in the past filed some rough edges out on my props. Worked just fine. Is it a stainless steel prop? If so it is a little costly. If not it is pretty cheep to replace a aluminum prop.

 

[jeff_smith_0423]

Re: Damaged my prop, can I file it myself?

If you're running a small mercruiser with an aluminum prop, a proper refurbishment will only run you around $60. Go for it. No use thrashing L/u parts with an out of balance prop.

 

[steelespike]

Re: Damaged my prop, can I file it myself?

No doubt the contour of the blades is no longer uniform.Each blade could be out of whack a little causing all kinds of problems down the line.
You should really use a chart and be careful. You could be out thousands of dollars and no boat for a while from a bad run in with a shoal.

 

[Fordiesel69]

Re: Damaged my prop, can I file it myself?

I only have 1 prop shop locally and they are real high, the next one is 86 miles away. For the price of a new one, I can't see spending 60 to refurb it. I want to just run it the rest of this year (oct 31st) and be done with it until next year.

 

[Knightgang]

Re: Damaged my prop, can I file it myself?

Call you local machine shops. I will bet there are some machine shops that work on props, but it is not known to the masses...

 

[jeff_smith_0423]

Re: Damaged my prop, can I file it myself?

I only have 1 prop shop locally and they are real high, the next one is 86 miles away. For the price of a new one, I can't see spending 60 to refurb it. I want to just run it the rest of this year (oct 31st) and be done with it until next year.

Well, regardless, you need a spare.... Running a dinged prop can have catastrophic effects on your outdrive and lower unit. Don't do it. There are several that do refurbs through the mail and have excellent reputations.

 

[Fordiesel69]

Re: Damaged my prop, can I file it myself?

I am going to run it until oct 31st regardless if it is bad on it. I have no choice. They all look chipped the same way. However, if I take the prop off the boat for the winter, how do I identify its pitch, size, etc? What numbering system should I be looking for. I apoligize for the stupidity, but my stainless prop on my bayliner is marked with entirly different numbers that make no sense.