Spinning a 65CA spinner and back plate.

[SFC Hiatt]

I think I saw a speck of dust in one of the corners in your shop. I'm sure by now you have sterilized your shop twice.

Just kidding of course however, I really enjoy looking at your incredible craftsmanship!

[seaheli]

Sometimes my craftsmanship does not work. My shop is a mess now. I am having trouble spinning the 11AC spinners from the 6061-0 that Bob Carr requires. I do not have the proper means to anneal the material through the spinning process. It can be annealed with a torch, but that leaves poor grain structure through the spinning. They need to be annealed in a controlled heat treat oven for proper grain structure. The ones in the photo are spun using 1100-0. Even with that material I am having chatter in some of the spinnings. Spinning to a metal mandrel like Bob provided can have its challenges. I apologize for letting you Aeronca Flyers down as well as Bob Carr with the spinners. The backplates spun very well to the specs the Bob provided on his drawings. Sorry, I wished that I could have done the whole job for Mr. Carr and you.

Charles

[joea]

Charles,

Keep plugging away at it and sure you will find a way to do it.

All of your work so far looks excellent and if anyone can do it, sure that you can.

Joe A

[Nathan K. Hammond]

Charles, no need to appologize to us! It's been an amazing watching and learning how to spin metal. Thanks for the contribution!

nkh

[joea]

If I ever get near North Carolina, will buy you lunch or dinner to watch you spin some things!

Joe A

[seaheli]

Joe,

You do not have to buy me lunch, I would just enjoy having you or anyone visit. I just enjoy these aircraft and the people and fabricating parts for them.

Charles

[seaheli]

Bob Carr came to the shop and picked up the backplates and we worked on the spinning of the spinners. He is a delightful person to work with, a gentleman.
We are not giving up on this project. Please have patience with us on the spinners. We both have the same goals, a quality part for the Aeronca aircraft.

Charles

[seaheli]

Spinner progress 65CA and 11AC.

65CA spinners, finishing the STC-PMA paper work and drawings for submitle for FAA review.

The 11AC spinners, I am working on the lathe tooling. The 11AC spinner shape is a mix of a hemisphere and parabolic, the material has to be held tight to the chuck (mandrel) and spun tight to the chuck in the first 1/3 of the spinning to not have chatter. My metal spinning lathe was built in the 1920's, the tail stock will loosen when pressure is applied to the material to set the spinning to the chuck. I am fabricating a new tail stock to have that holding power against the metal chuck.

Spinning different shapes like the 65CA spinner which is a cone shape and the 11AC spinner which is a mix of a hemisphere and parabolic requires different techniques and tooling.

Charles

[seaheli]

Making progress with spinning the 11AC spinners.

[David Johnson]

Dude, I am sitting here with my mouth hanging open. AWESOME!!!! David J.

[seaheli]

Finishing fabricating and machining the parts to fix the tailstock on the spinning lathe. Still have to fixture and weld the assembly. I am looking forward to finishing this so that I can get back to spinning.

[joea]

You know, if I ever get really, really afraid of the swine flu, am going to Charles shop. I know that its so clean that nothing out of the ordinary can exist there. Might even move in ....

Beautiful work!

Joe

[SFC Hiatt]

I think it cleaner than the place I had my last back surgery done.....

[joea]

And a lot more entertaining!

[seaheli]

This is the tooling it takes to spin, trim and install the nut plates for the 11AC spinner and bulkhead. Bob Carr invested a lot of time and money in the process of these spinners. Bob has taught me a lot about these spinners along with the trials he had with them. Out of all of my metal shaping and spinning this project has had several challenges, rewarding and learning.