Cleaning propeller blades

[ian_]

Following Steve T's impressive citric acid steel cleaning, here is the start of a long overdue job to preserve a pair of propeller blades. The steel blade is P61 Black Widow, the aluminium from a Curtiss Mohawk. The 'before' photos show the rusted bases. I'm trying Deox C, a non toxic solution which has worked well in the past. It's only the bases for now, I don't have a big enough bucket for the blades.

[Steve T]

Good luck! Can't wait to see the results

[ian_]

I think I got too curious and didn't leave them long enough to pickle. The Mohawk is looking good but the P61 certainly needed a bit longer. Depressingly, both of these came out of the ground mint but were left outside in the elements. The P61 blade came out in 1986 and was given to the farmer, who lay it down in his yard so it wouldn't fall on his kids. The plane was re dug in 2006 and the farmer very kindly donated it. Twenty years of Cheshire weather hadn't helped it.