I know we got some skilled welders on here so I thought I'd ask if anyone has tried using stellite on the leading edge of a prop to cut down the wear yet? How about any other materials?

I tried a brushable ceramic product called Nordback by Loctite. Put it on an old prop and put it in some sand and dropped the hammer....10 minutes she was all gone.
This stuff is designed to protect impellers on huge water pumps. However the RPM's on those are a lot lower.
They have another product with larger ceramic beads and stronger epoxy, but it's like 300.00 for a quart.....it would have to last a long time to make it worthwhile.

Im sure your referring to sand mostly....biggest problem like mudgun and lot of other folks have said is the high rpms...but its not just the high rpms


What happens when you grind on anytype of metal? It creates heat

What weakens metal? Heating and then manually/physically cooling the metal at a fast rate

When havin to grind in sandy situations you have 3 evils against any type of metal...

sand meets with prop and just acts like a grinding stone...at high rpms the grinding creates heat in the prop and mized with water your constantly grinding and heating and cooling the prop all at the same time then if and when you finally get out to open water your spinning at 4000 rpms in water thats rapidly cooling the prop off the rest of the way

Pure or mostly pure stainless heats up and cools quickly on its own when working with it and can withstand the heating/cooling process much better then carbon steel which is one reason the pure stainless props some are running do last a little longer but it still gets to a point where its properties can only take so much heating and cooling

I do not know the exact percentages of different material in a stock prop but do know they are not pure stainless and you can tell that just by looking at one but since they arent pure stainless they are cheaper to make and cheaper to buy


What other metals are their? None that are cheap to obtain and form

Someone asked awhile back about putting a tungsten edge on the props and that wont work either. tungsten is very hard and can withstand grinding and heat better then most metals but its is very very brittle...one small hit of a stump would chip or even break the leading edge someone put on their.

I've been kind of researchin this topic off and on but nothing is economical that i have found

we used to run stellite (sp?) on tunnel props.... it works, it's just hard to get it to hold and hard to finish it out once it's der. Seen a few peel da stellite right off.

And ftr...... for those who claim der props are pure stainless and dat's whay dey last longer.... put a magnet to it, you'll be amazed.... really.

I am a welder for a centrifuge engineering company and 99% of what we deal with is 316 stainless, the same as my prop. We have SEVERAL types of hardfacing we use on a daily basis that include mig, stick, and flange spray. The stick and flange spray require so much heat to achieve full metallurgy that it would both deplete the nickel content in the stainless, causing it to corrode as if it's not stainless, and also warp it beyond repair. But I have found that a Rockwell 60 mig wire adheres with minimal affect and does a jam up job at protecting the metal. It just so happens that our machines run roughly the same rpms as my motor (3-5k) so I knew it would withstand fine. The monster is balancing. It is very tricky, but it can be done and the benefits are beyond worth the time invested.

Talk to a pump repair shop, one that services refinery/chemical plants. A smaller shop is more likely to do it than a big shop. There are also shops that specialize in flame spray coating. I've been retired for 10 years and am out of the loop. Stellite will be hard, I have had it welded in pump cases. It took a long time to machine the fits back to spec. Chrome dipping might work. I also used what we called Rockide, not sure what it really was. Around Houston maybe call FW Gartner and ask for references for small shops that might do a "retail" job.
OP: I doubt you have any of these shops in Wiscansin unless you have paper mills nearby.

Talk to a pump repair shop, one that services refinery/chemical plants. A smaller shop is more likely to do it than a big shop. There are also shops that specialize in flame spray coating. I've been retired for 10 years and am out of the loop. Stellite will be hard, I have had it welded in pump cases. It took a long time to machine the fits back to spec. Chrome dipping might work. I also used what we called Rockide, not sure what it really was. Around Houston maybe call FW Gartner and ask for references for small shops that might do a "retail" job.
OP: I doubt you have any of these shops in Wiscansin unless you have paper mills nearby.
edit add: many process pumps run 3750 RPM so that wasn't an issue.

Precision Prop in Lake Charles will put stellite in your prop edges. I've had one done. It lasts a bit longer but it's still going to wear.

Even the 300 series stainless castings will be magnetic....it's from the ferrite needed to keep it from cracking when cooling after it's been poured.

These props are pretty much all 15-5 PH stainless steel....castings. I've PMI'd enough of them to know....there's not much difference between them, metallurgical wise.


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This thread is 8 years old.

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Not anymore

Yeah that was a big jump, June 2009 to May 2017!
Maybe it was a well thought out response?