General How do you fix chipped main blades?
- Thread starter helicc16
- Start date
corsair_pilot
Member
2 questions, how good are you at fibreglassing?
If the answer is never tried it, I'd be replacing
If you are good, the 2nd question would be can you get your hands on carbon fibre weave?
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I think both answers lead to much easier and probably cheaper in the end to get new blades
If the answer is never tried it, I'd be replacing
If you are good, the 2nd question would be can you get your hands on carbon fibre weave?
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I think both answers lead to much easier and probably cheaper in the end to get new blades
Tony
Staff member
DO NOT TRY TO REPAIR BLADES!!!
My former admin on here, Paulster2, learned this lesson the hard way. He didn't try to fix the blade, but he did try to spin it up with a cracked blade. The blade broke and flew off, hitting him 2" from his junk. And this was with a 450. With a 600, you are dealing with much more weight! I'm talking hospital time. JUST DON'T DO IT!
I know it's hard to swallow the price of these blades, but put yours and others safety in front of the price of the blade. Don't try to reglass them, don't try to glue them, the best thing you can do is cut them off about 4" from the root and use these as a short pitch gauge only blade.
My former admin on here, Paulster2, learned this lesson the hard way. He didn't try to fix the blade, but he did try to spin it up with a cracked blade. The blade broke and flew off, hitting him 2" from his junk. And this was with a 450. With a 600, you are dealing with much more weight! I'm talking hospital time. JUST DON'T DO IT!
I know it's hard to swallow the price of these blades, but put yours and others safety in front of the price of the blade. Don't try to reglass them, don't try to glue them, the best thing you can do is cut them off about 4" from the root and use these as a short pitch gauge only blade.
Slobberdog
Well-Known Member
I have to agree Tony, I have seen a 700 Blade snap close to the root at 70% throttle, this was on the flight line and 30 yards away from the pits, it landed or should i say struck just in front of the pits where people were talking and managed to impale itself in the ground just over 12", if this had been a person it could have gone through.
cause was crack due to heavy landing and was un noticed until it went BANG!!!!!!
Tony
Staff member
I will put it this way. I'm thinking about buying new blades for my 600 because the tips of mine have touched the ground. No, I did not do it, it was the previous owner, but it makes me a little worried wondering if there are any cracks that I can't see. $80 is a lot of money, but when it comes to me keeping my "boys", I think it's worth it lmao.
I havent repaired the larger blades before. But as soon as I get a chip in mine I will soak the carbon threads in CA. The blades have held up on my 300, and 450. 300 was a tip over so that one got scraped up pretty good. The 450 a rock got kicked up into the blades. To each there own I guess I don't know that I would recommend doing it without saying you're taking a pretty big risk. The bigger the bird the bigger the risk.
Your second picture looks cracked and the others are right on that one. If something is cracked you just dont know how far that crack goes. Even if you fix what you see it may be worse underneath.
Now Tony's blades those are the kind of things I would just CA and fly. But that's just me.
Your second picture looks cracked and the others are right on that one. If something is cracked you just dont know how far that crack goes. Even if you fix what you see it may be worse underneath.
Now Tony's blades those are the kind of things I would just CA and fly. But that's just me.
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Tony, those blades look fine. Bit of edge scrape ain't gonna hurt nothing. Hell, the pros do that on purpose and still pull wicked 3D. 
Zuey, if it were jsut some chips, you can fill with epoxy or CA and then sand down to smooth. But you have some obvious cracking and scaling on that second pic. Not smart to try to repair. You can try, but I'd be very leary of it. Even if they track good and work for non-sport or light-sport flying, if you put any kind of serious pitch on those or any abrupt transitions you're likely going to stress it apart again and result in possible catastrophic failure.
Zuey, if it were jsut some chips, you can fill with epoxy or CA and then sand down to smooth. But you have some obvious cracking and scaling on that second pic. Not smart to try to repair. You can try, but I'd be very leary of it. Even if they track good and work for non-sport or light-sport flying, if you put any kind of serious pitch on those or any abrupt transitions you're likely going to stress it apart again and result in possible catastrophic failure.
Tony
Staff member
That is exactly why I did put this bird in the air with these blades. No root damage at all, no fear of them flying off giving me the vasectomy that my wife wants (no man wants that lmao). But, Just think of how good a brand new pair of Edge blades would look on this heli!!! yeah, I think these blades are crap that are on it, yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it hahahahaha.
danhampson
Member
I told my other half my align blades were knacked got her to drive me an hour to my LHS picked up some rail 326's. Beautful blades. CoG and balance perfect straight out of the box. Put them on did some hover practice, then bam my trex thought it would be a rotavator. Oh well the flew beautifully for the short time they were in one piece, might try some edge next.
