Realistic looking mounted prop

[Gary A.]

I wanted my vintage Sensenich Brothers PT-17 Stearman propeller to look realistic on my wall. I built a fake hub out of some piece of Lexan, because it's easy to cut and shape. I drilled a piece of 3" SCH 40 PVC pipe to look like the end of the crank shaft coming threw the prop. Then I put some pieces of thick felt pad around the pipe, to fit it tight to the center of the hub. I used 4 pieces of threaded rods that I drilled into a wooden support beam in my wall to mount the prop too. The other 4 studs in my hub are just cut off bolts. I had to make the castle nuts by cutting slots in to fiber lock nut, because threaded rod is course thread and castle nuts are only fine thread. I drilled holes for the cotter pins and painted my fake hub with Silver Rust-oleum hammered paint. I got everything at Home Depot for about $40. I wanted the propeller to look like it did years ago on a Stearman. If you look at the last photo you can be the Judge on how close I got to getting it right.

Sensenich PT-17 prop.jpg Fake Hub Close-up.jpg Prop on Stearman.jpg

[Dave]

That's great. Nicely done.

I wondered if maybe cutting the inner hole in the Lexan a little smaller would eliminate the gap between the plate and the crankshaft sleeve.

[Gary A.]

Dave, I'm glad you liked it. I did my best to make it look as close as the way it did when it was on a Stearman years ago, gap and all.