A year or three back someone posted a link to an old photo of a real
big ship prop (12'? more?), on the shaft with matching huge hex nut,
and a few guys seemingly arguing about whether they were supposed to
have used anti-sieze or thread locking compound.

I don't seem to be able to track it down. Any body have that link
handy?

Thanks

Mickey

"Mickey Feldman" wrote in message
...

A year or three back someone posted a link to an old photo of a real
big ship prop (12'? more?), on the shaft with matching huge hex nut,
and a few guys seemingly arguing about whether they were supposed to
have used anti-sieze or thread locking compound.

I don't seem to be able to track it down. Any body have that link
handy?

Thanks

Mickey

I saw a picture from the Titanic during its construction with a couple of
guys standing there for perspective. Whoa! I would love to watch them
mount and secure such monsters. Guess you really have to have a big wrench.
Maybe like drilling tongs?

Props are awesome. I did some "prop jobs" when I was a commercial diver.
Makes you feel like a ****ant on an elephant. Lots of fun getting things
untangled from the wheels, shafts, and cutlass bearings. And in dark muddy
water, too. Using sharp knives, bolt cutters, hydraulic cutters, and
electric underwater cutting torches. An offshore clear water prop job was
easier, but with the wave action, it was a whole nuther set of
circumstances. Riding a bucking bronco, slamming onto barnacle clad steel,
foam and air bubbles making everything white out or blue in alternate
stages, and good old disorientation and seasickness.

Boy, those were the good old days.

Inland jobs were far easier. In the cold months, we would use dry suits.
Once under the vessel, we could inflate our suit a bit, and crawl around the
bottom on our hands and knees with up being down. The added buoyancy
glued you to the bottom like a housefly on the ceiling. Running around
under there doing everything by feel and memory and visualization. It was
so cold outside topside some times you had to be careful not to touch any
steel with your dry suit, or it would stick like a tongue to a frozen
flagpole. Then either get hot water or rip a chunk out of an $800 dry suit.

And I love seeing empty or partially laden tankers have the tips of their
screws break the water surface as they turn ever so slowly.

Steve