Thread: Turbine Blades

I also used to work for P&W, it was a good place to work!
If I were to use any kind of blades from the engine, I would go with Low Pressure Turbine blades, they are not hollow and in the slightly older engines they are a lot straighter.
But I have a suspicion that there are cheaper and easier ways to make hood razors.

It might prove easier and faster to try an old leaf spring or something, but I wanted to see if the metal of the turbine blades was any good.

Now a leaf spring is a good idea, you could make a meat chopper out of one of those. You would have to anneal it though just like you would if you were using a file. Then you would have to heat treat after you are done.

That's one of the reasons I was asking about the temp tables.

This is some tough stuff. I went through two cutoff wheels to cut through about an inch of material. I've cut the end off of a razor before and it barely made a dent in a cutoff wheel. There was quite a bit of twist but I think I found a straight enough piece in the blade that I could use. It will be warped and fairly thick, but I might be able to get an edge on it. I also have to figure out how to attach a handle to the base as well.

Any luck yet? I bet you are having a heck of a time trying to drill a hole in that? Keep us informed.

Dan

I cut on it some more a couple of days ago. I'm almost done cutting it lengthwise and have gone through almost a dozen cut off disks. I might finish the cut next week and then try to shape it into something usable. I will say that even after the cuts I have made, there is no sign of oxidation. I've gotten my hands on a lot of different blades that have a handle on them already, but need a lot of the same work done on them, too. One of these days I will get my hands on a bench grinder or a belt sander and it will go a lot quicker. I'm taking some vacation pretty soon and should be able to make some decent headway on it.

I wouldn't want to put any metal that's come from an aircraft on my face.....YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE IT'S BEEN!

Might have better luck with silicon carbide bits that run 9-9.5 on the mohs hardness scale working with stuff that is that hard.

Widget supply (www.widgetsupply.com) has a bunch, are you using a dremel to do everything?

They also have diamond cut off wheels and drill bits as well as tungsten carbide bits. The diamond cut off wheels will probably lose their diamond bits on the edge pretty quick though.

It's been a while since I have posted, and I haven't made much headway with any turbine blades. The ones I found will take a bevel but I am having problems getting them sharp. For all the trouble it takes to get them into a useable shape and to put an edge on one, it is probably a better idea to just buy a nice piece of steel and work with that instead.