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CAD - Engineering - Technical > Steels used for spindles and masts

JCadwell
Key Veteran
Location: Richland WA/ Morro Bay, CA

I'm looking at making a few custom mainshafts to put a MinAir head on my sceadu, and was curious as to the type of steel used. I'm looking at using ground drill rod. Mcmaster has A-2 and O-1 drill rod.

They also have hardened 440C stainless ground rod, though I don't have much experience with hardened materials.

I've got a lathe and mill, and am hoping to make a few spindles as well.

Any reccomendations as to suppliers, materials, and machining techniques would be most appreciated.

Thanks, John Cadwell

08-21-2004 Over year old.

Bushy
Veteran
Location: Tucson, AZ

For a start pick up an edition of Machinery's Handbook. It's a machinist's bible with material and technique info.

I recently bought some .195" and .40" 6-4 titanium rod on Ebay for shafts and spindles. The .195 is 5mm and the .40 will be 10mm after being ground in the lathe. For work with the hardened stuff a tool post grinder is a must. I'm making a mount for a commercial die grinder. I also added a geared motor to the carriage drive so I can run very slow passes away from the chuck. I'm still collecting carbide drills for the holes.

The handbook has techniques for threading the titanium also.

Dave

08-21-2004 Over year old.

TMoore
rrProfessor
Location: Cookeville, TN

Bushy,

Good luck with the Titanium. I've machined this stuff for years and toy machines can't cut it. I hope you have a real machine in your shop.

JCadwell,

W-1 is cheaper and since you aren't going to need to harden anythng it works fine. I have made Raptor feathering spindles from this stuff and it is pretty woof proof. Metric sized drill rod is available and you will have to sand the stuff with some emory cloth to get the OD's down to where they fit the bearings. Unless you like the pain, stay away from the 440 CRES. It isn't needed for helis.

Like I said to Bushy, it helps to have real machines and tools to work with.

Terry

08-21-2004 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

Bushy
Veteran
Location: Tucson, AZ

"Good luck with the Titanium. I've machined this stuff for years and toy machines can't cut it. I hope you have a real machine in your shop."

I hear you. I am extremely space limited and bought a 9" asian lathe. It now has a 2.5 hp variable speed DC direct timing belt drive, Timkens in the headstock, 5" Buck with 0" runout, gear bushings replaced with bearings, Aloris style post, machined steel post base, reversible variable speed DC carriage drive, iron guides replaced with adjustable brass, and all carbide tooling. Sheesh. I was originally doing small stuff for my r/c oval cars and now this challenge of titanium arrives.

Nice to see others here with more experience we can learn from.

Dave

08-21-2004 Over year old.

wsteve
Senior Heliman
Location: Pasadena, Texas

I would suggest 8620 for you main shaft. The problem with the tool steels, you can make them to hard. With the amount of vibration in this helicopters you can get substaintial cracking. If you plan on not heat treating them then in most cases they would be to soft. I would stay away from the 440C as well, but it would be a better choice than most tool steels the problem is it may be diffcult to machine and the mechanical properties are only slightly better than 8620. If your planning on doing just a few you may find the material trough McMaster Carr or if you can talk some other people in to sharing the cost you can probably by a 12' length of the next size larger material (10mm shaft maybe 7/16 stock) and take it to a grind shop with centerless grinders in your area and have them grind it. A 12' piece of stock will probably cost you $50- $60 depending on any minimum order the steel company may have. To have it ground would most likely be in the $75-$100 dollar range. They may do it cheaper if your willing to wait a couple weeks to have it ground. This is an farely easy alloy to work with and 12' will make a butt-load of main shafts. The problem with titanium its really strong and really light but it doesn't have very good wear resistance. For most people this wouldn't be a problem they will most likely bend it before they wear it out.

If God meant man to fly, He'd have given him more money

08-21-2004 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

JCadwell
Key Veteran
Location: Richland WA/ Morro Bay, CA

I've got an Acer vertical mill, a Taig CNC mill, a 7X14 import lathe and an Enco 12X36 bench lathe. Hopefully that will be sufficient.

I'm not trying to do anything exotic, just make sure I choose metals that are workable and strong enough.

Thank you all for the reccomendations.

I do have a copy of the machineries handbook, it is just at home a thousand miles away right now.

Thanks, John Cadwell

08-21-2004 Over year old.

TMoore
rrProfessor
Location: Cookeville, TN

W-1, O-1 and A-2 don't have to be hardened and they usually come ground to size. These steels in the annealed state are only 30Rc, plenty hard enough for the task and still machinable. You will have to polish them to fit the bearings as they are size for size on the bearing ID's.

If you don't have to grind bar stock at a centerless shop why bother? We're only talking about making a few shafts, not a production run.

Terry

08-21-2004 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

jerrythercpilot
Veteran
Location: --South Florida --

15-5 PH for Both. Tuff stuff, stainless, heat treatable after you machine it.

Light travels faster than sound, thats why some people appear so bright UNTIL you hear them speak.

08-24-2004 Over year old.

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CAD - Engineering - Technical > Steels used for spindles and masts

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