What to do with this prop?

[Eyes_R_Us]

First time boat owner here with a silly question. I was moving really slow in some shallow water tonight and I rolled the ends of the prob blades over (see pic). Can I just bend them back or do I need to take it to a prop shop? Thanks.
JB

[stinkycat]

Definitely prop shop. IMHO

I think if you try and bend them back you may weaken the metal and eventually pieces would come off. Also, you will need to get the all the fins perfectly back in place or you will have vibration. I just had my prop bent back. Mine had a barely visible, I mean I missed the first two times I looked at it, bend in one fin but as it turned out all three needed a little work. IMHO.

[propmann]

I see it alot people trying to bend their prop back themselves, trust me your going to do more damage to the prop then already done, most likely its going to crack. We are a nationally credified prop shop, If you want to find a credified prop shop in your area, go to www.nmpa.net

[REW]

Eyes,
In general, you can bend it back to match the original contour.
If you have one or more of the blades that are not bent, it is a good idea to make a pattern to be able to match the unbent blade.

If you try to straighten an aluminum or stainless prop - NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, use pliars or a wrench to try to straighten the prop.

Simply use two heavy hammers. Put one heavy hammer on one side of the blade, and hammer on the other side to straighten the prop. Generally speaking, you can straighten some pretty severely bent props using this method. Tap, or hammer soundly on the bent side of the prop, using another hammer or body dolly to back up the bent blade. Work it back to the shape of the unbent prop - using the pattern you made to check the angle of the blade.

If you do have the misfortune to snap off the blade- no harm done, since it will have to be taken to the prop shop for repair if you want to do that.
The prop shop would likely have cut off the severely bent blade anyway and welded in a new piece of aluminum during its repair.

When done, run the blade pattern over each of the blades, and check all blades for equality in both size, shape, as well as angle at each prop station.

----------
This is the part where a good prop shop has it over the home fix it upper.
The good prop shop will have a good set of prop - patterns and guides.
They can simply weld on a piece of aluminum, tweak it to a perfect match for the blade mold and finally trim, file and polish, and or paint for final delivery.

Take care
REW

p.s.
If it is an aluminum prop as it appears to be - it often makes more sense to simply purchase a new prop - rather than having it fixed.
With the increased price of prop work, one can often get a new prop for not much different than the price of the repair shop.

[Eyes_R_Us]

Thank you guys all the help and advice. I have a new prop that I bought as a spare so I will put it on. There aren't any nmpa registered prop shops in the area so I decided to try fixing it following REW's directions.

Thanks REW for mentioning the hamering method. I probably wouldn't have thought of that until after I ruined it by trying to bend it. I started out with a pipe slightly larger than the bend radius as a dolly. Then I remembered that I had an auto body hammer and dolly set. It worked well because the dolly had lots of nice cuvres to it and the hammer was light so it kept me from getting carried away. It took a long time but I eventually got all three blades hammered out and looking pretty close to the profile of the new prop. See the picture.

I will run the new prop now but this one will now work fine as a spare. I will keep it in the boat and use it to get home some day after I mangle the new one. Thanks again for the help. - JB

[ffishman]

The only time you would ever bend a prop back to use is if you damage it far from where you launch at. One time I knocked almost the full blade off a three blade prop. Anything over 1200 rpm's caused a super bad vibration. But, I had no choice. So, basically I idled back to the dock. Out of balance props will ruin you engine. Take it to the prop shop.

[2jranch]

That is the advantage in running S.S. props, a little sand ,mud, wood will generally not bother it and ruin your day. I'v hit rocks and dinged the edges some but an s.s. prop has never left me stranded. It don't take many repairs on an aluminum to make up the price difference.

[Hot Runr Guy]

First time boat owner here with a silly question. I was moving really slow in some shallow water tonight and I rolled the ends of the prob blades over (see pic). Can I just bend them back or do I need to take it to a prop shop? Thanks.
JB

No no no, you never fix a prop like that! You add a nail to your garage wall, label when/where, and display it like a badge of honor!:laugh:
Like this:

[Red Tail Chub]

This maybe should be a new thread, but someone told me that ss props can cause more damage when you hit something than an aluminum prop because the aluminum will give a little whereas the ss does not. Any input?

[big_crappie]

This maybe should be a new thread, but someone told me that ss props can cause more damage when you hit something than an aluminum prop because the aluminum will give a little whereas the ss does not. Any input?
True I see at least 12 lower units a year ruined by SS props. You need to determine if the performance advantage of the SS is worth the risk of severe damage. If you are going to run a SS prop make sure you have boat insurance. Either way-USE THE TRIM SWITCH WHEN APPROACHING ROCKY AREAS! I see people all the time that leave the motor all the way down going through the channels.