Hi Rick and the rest of the list,
First of all I’d like to thank you for your huge contribution to human powered boating. I’ve followed your threads around the Internet and it’s been a great inspiration. I’m starting on my pedal-powered build, using a fiberglass surf ski as the foundation. I picked up a T-gearbox at 2:1, and plan to start with the APC 16x16 prop, a 5/16” steel flex shaft, and chain gearing. As has been mentioned, finding spring steel in the US is not easy. Doing some research on the Internet, this is what I’ve come up with and I’d appreciate your input: A search for spring steel yields several grades of steel, including 1095: http://www.tmtco.com/products/spring-steel.html Trying to find 1095 steel, I see that it is equivalent to W1 drill rod: http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php?showtopic=6783 Can’t find W1 drill rod in anything longer than 3’, but I see that A2 drill rod is similar: http://www.onlinemetals.com/toolsteelguide.cfm A2 drill rod is available in 6’ length and fairly cheap: http://www.mcmaster.com/#8888k416/ $26 shipped Alternatively, flexible sewer rod is available: http://www.flexmax.com/maxlife/cat1.html (MDA-72LC, powder coated) $41 shipped I’m not sure of the material properties of the sewer rod, but it is nice that it comes powder coated. Here is some data on A2 drill rod: http://cartech.ides.com/datasheet.aspx?i=103&e=262&c=techart Thanks, Dominic -- This message comes to you via the [email protected] mailing list. Visit http://hupi.org/mailman/listinfo/hpv-boats to manage your subscription.
