Cheapest Blades

[airthumper]

I just ruined my second set of wooden blades. At $14 a pop from horizonhobby.com it is adding up. I have heard rumors of some pretty good deals online. Any suggestions for the cheapest blades. The most bang for your buck. Also what are the differences in carbon fiber blades vs wood blades. Besides the asthetics does it fly noticebly different. Any suggestions wood be much appreciated. Waiting to buy some til I find some good info. Thanks.

[Mikey2]

Originally Posted by airthumper

I just ruined my second set of wooden blades. At $14 a pop from horizonhobby.com it is adding up. I have heard rumors of some pretty good deals online. Any suggestions for the cheapest blades. The most bang for your buck. Also what are the differences in carbon fiber blades vs wood blades. Besides the asthetics does it fly noticebly different. Any suggestions wood be much appreciated. Waiting to buy some til I find some good info. Thanks.

Remember that the 400 / 450 O.E. blades were redesigned to include a brass insert at the blade root for "strength"...........must have learned something from the MCPx fiasco. In fact on Wow Hobbies web site (not Horizon's), they specifically advise "not" to use old 400 blades on the 450s cuz the old 400 design just isn't up to job when used on the 450.

Personally, I suspect the wooden variations will be far easier on the power train in a crash. In the Walkera part of the forum, there was a big discussion about using everything from concrete to paper mache' for blades and most decided to continue using the stock foam blades as the most cost effective and reliable way to stay in the air. The stock blades also had the best results for "balance" overall right outa the package but then these were "foam".

[m.hunter]

Originally Posted by Mikey2

Remember that the 400 / 450 O.E. blades were redesigned to include a brass insert at the blade root for "strength"...........must have learned something from the MCPx fiasco.

The mCP X shedding blades had NOTHING to do with the blade strength or them coming off by themselves. It was a bearing issue inside the grip. The bearing would fail and separate, then the entire grip with blade would depart the aircraft. Still sucks, but completely different than an actual rotor blade failure.

[nick779]

Originally Posted by airthumper

I just ruined my second set of wooden blades. At $14 a pop from horizonhobby.com it is adding up. I have heard rumors of some pretty good deals online. Any suggestions for the cheapest blades. The most bang for your buck. Also what are the differences in carbon fiber blades vs wood blades. Besides the asthetics does it fly noticebly different. Any suggestions wood be much appreciated. Waiting to buy some til I find some good info. Thanks.

ive been flying with exi 325mm fiberglass blades recommended by thalios from the blade 450 bible

they come pretty well balanced, and fly pretty good, all for $3.50 a set
hobby partz carries them, but their shipping is expensive
http://www.hobbypartz.com/60p-pro-3252.html

just remember they require 4 1mm shims (2 for each blade) because they are thinner then the stock 450 blades helidirect has the shims $.99 for 10
http://helidirect.com/m3-nylon-blade...ess-p-3024.hdx

[Being]

Originally Posted by nick779

ive been flying with exi 325mm fiberglass blades recommended by thalios from the blade 450 bible

they come pretty well balanced, and fly pretty good, all for $3.50 a set
hobby partz carries them, but their shipping is expensive
http://www.hobbypartz.com/60p-pro-3252.html

just remember they require 4 1mm shims (2 for each blade) because they are thinner then the stock 450 blades helidirect has the shims $.99 for 10
http://helidirect.com/m3-nylon-blade...ess-p-3024.hdx

They ship free if you spend $50. I bought a staypro vid cam to get above the limit. Can't wait to see what my crashes look like on video.

[jackate11]

http://www.xheli.com/60p-pro-3251.html


I just ordered the carbon fiber one's that say 3d on them, and the $3.00 dollar fiberglass one's. Looking forward to trying them out. I have to get some 1mm shims, maybe Lowe's has something in their hardware section.

.

[qcman]

Originally Posted by jackate11

http://www.xheli.com/60p-pro-3251.html


I just ordered the carbon fiber one's that say 3d on them, and the $3.00 dollar fiberglass one's. Looking forward to trying them out. I have to get some 1mm shims, maybe Lowe's has something in their hardware section.

.

Did you ever try out these carbon fiber blades by chance? If so how did they fit & fly??

[Being]

I'm using them now and they fly great and are very durable. I paid $6.40 a pair at hobbypartz. I've used the Eflite $33 CF and the EXI give about the same amount of added stability. One thing I'll do different with my next purchase is get the EXI 335mm instead of the 325mm. The EXI 325mm are actually only 315mm when measured by Eflite standard which is center of mounting hole to tip. EXI bases their blade length on overall length. You'll need shims with EXI blades whether they are fiberglass or CF. Check Thalios's B450 Bible for those.

http://www.hobbypartz.com/60p-pro-3351.html

[jackate11]

Originally Posted by qcman

Did you ever try out these carbon fiber blades by chance? If so how did they fit & fly??

Yes, they are really good. I plan on using them for now on.

[Thalios]

If you guys still crash a lot, I recommend sticking to the FG blades until you crash less..

FG blades saves you a lot of damage....

[buddha2490]

I love the EXI fiberglass blades. I recently had a crash and decided to replace the blades with my last set of wooden blades. They are really a ripoff, very sluggish and poorly balanced. The EXI blades were only a few bucks and WAY better than the wooden blades.

I just ordered more of them yesterday to replenish my reserve.

[qcman]

Thanks guys the 325 mm Fiberglass ones are out of stock at Hobbypartz so I couldn't get any when I ordered some Lipos a couple of days ago. I just checked & they are still out but I wanted to know about the CF ones too as I figured I'd get a set of those with the FG ones when available for a little later on.

Don't know if I 'm still crashing or not as I haven't flown it yet. I haven't crashed my SR lately so that's a good sign I figure.

I notice the discussion about 335 vs 325 mm but it seems most are using the 325 mm (315 from the hole) so I figure I'll go that route too.

Cam

[Ken125]

I just ordered 8 sets pro 3251 from hobby partz $6.40 ea 51.20 free shipping. I was going through a lot of woodies. Crashed several times and blades surviived. I swapped to hitec metal gear servos at the same time and now I have been breaking the arms on blade grips, but haven't stripped a servo yet. The blades seem to do real good no balance or tracking problems.

[rstekeur]

How are you mounting your cam? I wish the lens pointed forward from the end

[Turkee]

I have to agree that the EXI fiberglass blades are pretty good. After going with the woodies and the subsequent fixes that came with crashing, the fiberglass blades are much better when gravity wins out. I think the added confidence that I am not going to totally hose everything on a crash actually made me less nervous and a better flyer.

[qcman]

They are still out of stock on these. Does anyone know another place to buy these EXI 325 mm Fiberglass blades???

[buddha2490]

I am running the 335mm EXI blades and work nicely. I've only been using them for the past couple weeks and I've been thinking about posting on them. I read a thread lately about how longer blades would have more lift but less responsiveness, the shorter blades would be a little less stable but have more performance. So this is more or less my experience, the longer blades make my B450 feel very stable in the air, less twitchy.

I guess 'twitchiness' is what is needed for more aggressive flying, but I'm definitely not flying that way and I benefit from a more steady flight. So they will work just fine, but there most definitely is a difference in the feel. So depending on how you fly, the longer ones will still work.

[Shafto]

Well now we are getting people saying that the 335mm are longer than stock and some are saying that 335mm are the stock size (when dealing with EXI)

Looks like Being actually measured them out to be the same? 335mm vs stock that is?

If so, this really does need to be addressed. Especially if it is in the bible, should need 335 not 325.

[buddha2490]

The EXI 335mm are closer to the same length as the stock blades. The 325mm are about 1cm shorter than the stock woodies. I don't know how people are measuring them, but I mean they are the same if you hold them next to each other. The 325mm are clearly shorter than the stock wood blades by about half an inch. I have not held up the 335mm up next to the stock blades, but they are 1cm longer than the 325, and that's about half an inch.

[MichiganFlyer]

I run the $3.85 fiberglass blade from xheli on my fbl 450 with no problems.