Making a wooden propeller....

[CGCINC]

I posted this in the chat lounge but I wanted people to be able to find it in a search engine if they want to try it themselves so Im posting it here as well.

I wanted a wood propeller but didn't want to pay for one so I decided to build one myself.
I started out with 5 pieces of 1x8 @ 6' long and glued and clamped them overnight.



Then I made a mount to hold the propeller while working on it.
I used 1" tubing with a bolt welded to it and a nut with handles welded to it. The mount was welded to an adjustable small welding table I made to slide in the rails of my welding table.



Then I drew out the propeller on the wood and put it on the mount to cut the bulk of the wood off to get the shape.
I used a sawzall with a 12" blade to cut the rough shape.






Once I got it close with the sawzall.... I switched to a 4 1/2" grinder with some 60grit flap discs......you can't just tear into it, you need to "stroke" the wood so you don't gouge out huge valleys.





After the flap disc, I went over it with 100 grit then 220 grit sandpaper.
Then it is time to stain to color...



Next I made a 3" nose cap. This looks nice but it is also how I hold the propeller to the wall mount.

[CGCINC]

After the stain was dry, I spent a few days coating it with 5 coats of clear. Then after the clear was dry, I wet sanded with 600, then 1000, then 2000 and finished up with a buffer and 3M Finesse it and a final coat of Carnuba wax.



This is the wall mount I made....The welds running the length of the pipe are to center it in the center hole of the propeller.









And the final product!!

[ShaneJackson]

This really did turn out awesome. You should put this in the decorative metal art category for the contest. I know it is not all metal but you did do some welding for it and it is a beautiful piece of art!

[youngnstudly]

That's awesome! When I first read your other topic, I couldn't help but picture the (very old) Donald Duck cartoon where he builds the plane that keeps falling apart on him! I could see a homemade 5 pc. propeller doing the same thing under the right conditions.

So how slow was the flap disc for sanding wood? Did you have to replace the discs a million of times? I never thought of using an angle grinder for shaping wood! I like the out of the box thinking on that one!

[CGCINC]

So how slow was the flap disc for sanding wood? Did you have to replace the discs a million of times? I never thought of using an angle grinder for shaping wood! I like the out of the box thinking on that one!

A flap disc will eat through wood like crazy! I only used two discs. Yeah, the grinder was my best idea because it didn't take long to get the shape I wanted but it was tricky to make it smooth and not gouge the wood.

[youngnstudly]

I'll have to remember that trick. I had no idea that a flap disc would work so well for that type of project. I guess my initial thought was that the high speed of the grinder would cause the disc to load up too quickly (which would make the process much slower!).

It's easy to see that getting a smooth even surface would be tougher though. Of course wood in general is less tolerant to uneven motions and pressure while "hand sanding", than say for example, a chunk of aluminum. Those grinders remove material quickly by nature.