Making a Wood Propeller

I have some small drawings of a beautiful old propellor and I know an expert prop maker. I could ask him if he has any full sized drawings or data.
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For what you are doing, you could just use titebond wood glue and stack up a bunch of boards with nice grain, say mahogany, walnut or curly maple. Just glue and clamp up in a stack with wide enough lumber to get the blade width you want.

With a straight edge from corner to opposite corner draw a line twice so that you have an X across the whole thing. This will mark the center. Now draw a straight line down the middle from one end to the other to make a center line. Drill a hole in the center of the board 1/4" dia to start.

Now take a piece of poster board and draw a center line down its length and draw a blade and hub on it, just one blade not both. Punch a hole in the pattern you just made where the center of the hub is and trace one blade on the board stack using that hole with a dowel (or just another pencil) to hold it in the right place. Just spin that pattern around 180 and trace the other blade, lining up the center line.

Now you have something you can cut out on the band saw, then once you have the outline cut, turn that to whatever angle you see fit to get the taper of the blade roughed in on the band saw. Now you can take a drawknife to it or rasps, belt sander or whatever you have.

The back side of the blades should be flat; not flat to the hub but flat to the desired pitch you put into it when you hogged the meat off at that angle you chose with the band saw. The taper from leading edge thickness to trailing edge is done on the front side and will show all those pretty laminations. Smooth it all out, stain it with medium brown Fiebings leather dye or other alcohol based stain like Solarlux (available at woodcraft stores) that won't raise the grain. Wipe it on with a rag till you get the desired color. If it's too dark, wipe with a rag wet with denatured alcohol, which is also good for blending splotchy dye application so it's all even.

Polyurethane it and you're done. Hang on wall above fireplace, open beer, drink responsibly.

This is just a readers digest version of how to do it for cosmetics only. I paid Ted Hendricks a visit years ago to learn the craft and that is "very basically" how he did it process wise.

He had a furniture pattern duplicator that he modified into making props and that thing ate that wood away in a hurry. He had patterns hanging all over the walls for tracing different designs. Lots of RV series homebuilts out there with his props pulling them through the air.

 

This is really funny because the guy that I said was a friend is indeed Ted Hendrickson . I have his phone number so I will see if he is still interested. I might add that a real wooden propellor was made up of alternating layers of soft wood/hard wood...spruce or maple and then a layer of walnut, then a layer of soft wood. Clear varnished after shaping gives you a beautiful pattern in the laminations. I'll dig up the drawings that I have of aDH-4 prop that has a lovely scimitar-like shape to it.
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That'll be a pretty one. Much classier than a straight looking thing but something like an old PT-22 prop ain't bad with the metal edges with that 70 year old patina.

There's a little, thin, blue colored book he gave me that you can buy that tells how to make a prop. I used to see them at the aviators store when I'd fly down to Boeing field but I don't know if that place even exists anymore. There used to be a little book store up to Arlington that may have it.

 

I have a WW-I book on the theory and practice of propeller making, but someone has to be really interested for me to dig it out of tons of WW-I stuff.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

There it is in all it's perfection! I might add that Ted Hendrickson used a clever press for gluing the laminations, the bottom and top press pieces were made of " U" girder beams in which the laminated prop all glued was placed. pressure was supplied by a fire hose under the lower beam and then pumped up to high pressure and the prop sat in there until the glue had set.

 

More than ten years ago my dad (who lived in a rural part of northern Wisconsin), was taking a walk near his place and found this lying in the ditch. It's 78 inches long and appears to be laminated mahogany. Pretty nicely done although there's a poorly done repair to the end that is touching the floor.

I can't imagine that this was ever anything but a wall hanger.

He used to joke about going back out to look for the rest of the plane.
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2NA, that appears to be the same prop for which I have drawings, same blade layout, et al. I would guess that it was a real prop used on something because sometimes they didn't have brass leading edges and tips. I saw an American Eagle with a walnut prop that didn't have brass on it. Look for stamps and markings on the hub.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/New-Antiqued-Vintage-WWI-Wood-Aviation-Propeller-73-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem43a08f01d9QQitemZ290456535513QQptZMotorsQ5fAviationQ5fPartsQ5fGear#ht_4526wt_877

 

Here are closeups of both sides of the hub. No stamped markings but an obvious "witness mark" from being bolted to something.

Funny you mentioned walnut, that's what I first thought it was.
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I would guess that that propellor was used on some kind of engine by virtue of the impressions of the hub plates. I think it is a real propellor but I have never seen one with only four bolt holes.

 

Try cabinet or furniture makers in your area. Sometimes you can collect some nice scraps, possibly for free. If you have access to a jointer and a planer you could make an interesting glue-up from a bunch of small pieces. If it's just for show it doesn't have to be a big solid piece first.

 

Go to Lowe's or Home Depot and check the pine and hemlock finished wood. They have 1 X 10 almost clear pine that doesn't cost a helluva lot and the hemlock is pretty good too.

 

Add some appropriate graphics and a little patina and it will be hard to tell from a real antique.

 

Man that's pretty! The engine is an original Mercedes from what I can see and the prop that is being constructed is beautifully done so far but don't spare the clamps and strong even clamping. Are you using a resorcinol glue? Great looking stuff.

 

I like it. Bob is right, don't skimp on clamps. Borrow or buy as many as you can. 20 clamps on the longer pieces would not be too many.