Making your own wooden propellers

Can anyone steer me to a site or does any one know how to make wooden propellers?

Hmmmm....
Unless you're talking about making them in large numbers for a commercial operation...
You need a pitch guage, some nice very straight grained maple (my preference)or poplar, a good sharp knife and whetstone to keep it that way and lots of sandpaper. The rest isn't magic just hard work and practice.
Start out by copying a commercial prop then go from there.
A dremel tool with a sanding drum can speed things up but makes it much more likely to scrap the whole thing also (don't ask how I know). It's real easy to make high pitch wide blade props into low pitch narrow blades if not careful....go slow.
Start out by laying the commercial prop onto the blank then tracing the important features onto the blank (including approximating the pitch angles).
Don't do this unless you just want to have fun and have lots of time to kill...It's hard to be competitive with commercial props either from a performance or time standpoint. You can be more careful in blank selection and choose wood that gives the same approximate density on both blades (important).
Once the basic shape is there, layout lines on the blades about every 1/4 inch and start taking measurements at each line to get the two blades the same. Incidentally this process makes a really good case for single blade props! Ha Ha Ha...
If you're still reading this you're a glutton for punishment and probably actually have the patience to make som props.

I've never had a good answer for why I was willing to do any of this, and you probably won't either.

Randy C

I used to hand carve balsa props for my rubber powered models, but that was back when I was young and foolish, and had lots of time to waste.

It was a labor of love, made tolerable only because balsa is relatively easy to carve, and sand to shape.

No way would I ever consider hand carving props from hardwood!

There is plenty of information on re-pitching composite props, and re-shaping wood props. That seems like an easier task, than making props from scratch!

Bill

I've probably made close to a hundred props just as I described. Used to make them for combat...yeah I know really stupid. I'd never do it again...it does get easier with practice however. I can make one in about an hour and a half now. Have spent over eight hours on one in the past.

Randy C

Assuming you are an AMA member, so to the site and log onto the Archives (members only). Then search on propellers (probably put it in the title of the search!). There are a couple of articles on how to carve your own propellers.

There's a real modeler.

Would it be possible to make a prop with a hobby-grade NC router?

Howard Rush
Bellevue, WA

if you look in the current stunt news centerfold there is a picture in the top left of my old time ignition model with one of my hand carved props.
i have made severall of them for my dad and myself and were done mostly with a hand held die grinder for the rough shape and lots of finsh sanding. it takes about 2 to three hours to get one ready for clear finsh.
mine were made from laminated maple and purple heart.
Dave jr.

I remember Francis Reynolds sometimes carved his own props...the few I saw were some exotic wood from who knows where. He needed a pusher prop for one of his Rc Masterpieces.

Howard,
It probably would, but that's cheating...why not just whittle.
You shouldn't have any problem. From looking at your airplanes I would say you know how to sand and polish!!!!

Randy C

The pylon racers are using CNC carved wood props. Just saw something in the latest AMA emergency proposals. They had to allow a new APC prop by special exemption since none of the approved plastic props would work on the current motors. So they were paying something like $35 a piece for a CNC carved prop that had to be reworked by hand.

Here is a machine that can be scaled down to copy model props,or anything else you want to copy, instead of using a trim router, the scaled down one uses a dremel tool
http://www.fishcarver.com/wood_carving_duplicator.htm
http://www.copycarver.com/
Bill Smith

check out my first posts . theres an 'easy ' way !
notgonnarepeatit

>check out my first posts . theres an 'easy ' way !
>notgonnarepeatit

What first posts? C'mon, give us a hint... Steve

Steve Helmick
Renton, Washington
USA

>>check out my first posts . theres an 'easy ' way !
>>notgonnarepeatit
>
>What first posts? C'mon, give us a hint... Steve
>
>Steve Helmick
>Renton, Washington
>USA

Gee, that was supposed to be on a P.M. .

Two vices , a 20 in. stick, grain down the middle . ECEN GRAINED .
for some reason.
Flat on the back . DEAD FLAT .
Drill a 1/4 hole in the middle.
Drill left in should be firm.
Measure off the shank on the back.
Get a few straight lines on along the grain.
Get the 'prop blank; shape on the back.
Cut, shave trimm.and CHECK its dead true side to side.

Use a vernieer to get the le and te HEIGHTS identical ,
useing the trued flat back face as the datum.
Leave the le dep ,so first , with 'the big sharp file',
your creating a triangle cros section,
leave imediate to hub till finishing stage .

Ive got it stuck in the vises,
if your lucky there on a (short) fence,of the like.
Otherwise you unvice and flip round.
Same cut 6 or 12 (COUNT EM )
Then the OTHER SIDE ( other end actually.)

Now if this sounds like work. With the springs gone , so two turns out to free em, flip round (end for end ) Vices up ,
Same strokes per side . COUNT THEM.

It will help develop your patiance .

true the cr. depth @ front face ,with (using) the vernier.

You mark it half way back, and 1/2 in @ F . again .

Trim.

then 1/4 back and in agin @ front.

V. quick block with paper on stick.,across the blades .

ACROSS . ! ? .

MOST cuts are at about 45 Deg. 'across ' actually.

THEN , Cut the ENDS off.

Done em in 2 hrs or less, like that, One in TEAK.
If the ancient ? ex. salvage ( read SEASONED ) timber is , selected and drillede with regard to the grain, They ran smoother than comercial nylon props. Unbalanced.

Now That Was Quick . WASNT IT ! .

P.S., square tips are noisier,
so if you want a noisy prop,
youve GOT to have square tips ! ?
though they arnt nessesarilly noisy .
It can help to hear the prop working,.
as to wether its brake-ing idling,or pulling, through the manouvres.

Anyway,it beats watching television, ordinarilly .

Matt.

When I was in high school there was no hobby shop in town and I had no money to buy a propeller anyway. I use to carve propellers from pine boards with a pocket knife. I did it by eye. Some propellers had too much pitch some had too little but they all worked....sorta. Not as good as a factory made propeller. I would never do it again.


http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=560_1188108128

>When I was in high school there was no hobby shop in town and
>I had no money to buy a propeller anyway. I use to carve
>propellers from pine boards with a pocket knife. I did it by
>eye. Some propellers had too much pitch some had too little
>but they all worked....sorta. Not as good as a factory made
>propeller. I would never do it again.
>
>
>http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=560_1188108128


Pessimist . shame on you .

Land of the free and the brave ?

Anyway, the virtue of having say a twenty inch stick, and
for say a 12 in. prop. Carving it to say 15 in, then cutting the tips at 12 in. so ,here the vises would be about 16 in between on the bench,is that its easier to mark up,and eyball to lines while shapeing.

I just throw the datum lines on at 'that looks about right.
This way one gets a sense of accomplishment
(hopefully ) .thats if it works good.

One could copy an existing prop , the hights of the back face ,
by sitting the hub hard against a flat surface and measureing with the viernier.
Even a tupenny vernieer would do ,if it locks.As 'the same' is 'the same'.
even if you dont exactly know what it is.

As suggested by Alan Hahn in his Post #4 above, you might be able to find some material in the AMA archives. If you have access to back issues of model aviation magazines, you might look for or might find some of these in the AMA library. The AMA will locate and copy articles for you from thier library. (There is a fee.)

For information about carving props and excluding articles on carving props for rubber models (molding props is another subject), look for (these are in no particular order):

1. Let's take a Look at Propellers by Don Monson. American Modeler Annual 1964

2. Laminating and Carving Propellers by Chuck Gill, Model Airplane News, Sep 1969

3. How to Carve Giant Scale Props by Wendel Hostetler, Model Aviation, Jun 1984

4. The Super Prop by Jerry Wagner, Model Airplane News, April 1972

5. How to make High Performance Props, Parts 1 and 2 by Harold deBolt, Model Aviation, June and July 1978

Keith

I don't know if you looked on the AMA Archive, but the reference to at least one of the prop articles is the June 1993 MA, page 27-30, "How to Carve Your Own Prop", by John Van't-Haaff.