Making a wooden propeller

[old man emu]

Ever wondered how a wooden propeller is made? Watch the machinery, not the eye candy.

 

 

[Marty_d]

I watched both. But yes that copying setup is amazing.

[kgwilson]

A friend of mine who is a very skilled Mechanical Engineer made his own propellor copier. Simpler than that one but basically the exact same principle.

[old man emu]

As a kid I saw a demonstration of a wood turning machine that had a template follower, which is what that copier basically is. Same as the key-cutting machine at Bunnings. 

 

I wonder how the templates were made. It's a chicken and the egg question. 

 

I was interested in the use of the press to clamp the individual plies together while the glue set. And I wonder what the glue was. It didn't look like Resorcinol, which from my experience is purplish in colour.

 

And I don't think the reporter did much more than pose for a photo-op sanding down that prop. I reckon that would take a lot of experience to prevent going too far.

[sfGnome]

48 minutes ago, old man emu said:

And I don't think the reporter did much more than pose for a photo-op sanding down that prop. I reckon that would take a lot of experience to prevent going too far.

Particularly when she spent most of the time looking at the camera and not at the work. I did wonder whether they fitted 500 grit sandpaper while she was doing it so that she couldn’t mess it up. Very impressed by the owner/craftswoman though. 

[onetrack]

Quite a fascinating video, and one of the few I've watched right through to the end. But yes, the younger woman is typical of the younger generation, playing up to the camera.

I never saw any curve templates being used to check the profile anywhere when sanding, which is what I would have expected.

[old man emu]

4 hours ago, onetrack said:

I never saw any curve templates being used to check the profile anywhere when sanding, which is what I would have expected.

My point exactly.

[Marty_d]

These types of videos are usually cut and dumbed down, so it's likely the actual craftsperson checked the curvature out of shot. 

Mind you with the accuracy of that duplication process,  that check may not be necessary.  As long as the sanding is even over the whole blade it's fine.