Carving the propeller

Uh 18 propeller 

Building the prop for my uh 18. 

I was lucky enough to be able to borrow the prop from team hover members Chris and Ollie’s hoverwing ( their craft is almost ready) timing was good and I got a loan of it for a couple of weeks to take some measurements from and carve my own 😊

Firstly I made a router copier, using a frame I had from an old treadmill. I have to say, with all the cutting and grinding discs I used it wasn’t worth the bother using second hand material, I’d have been better off buying new steel and starting from scratch.

Anyway I made up the copier and it works a treat 😊 I set about trying to find a suitable lump of wood to practice on, timber merchants round these parts are not helpful, they don’t seem to able to think beyond stock levels on their computers 😂 I purchased a sleeper to practice on - wrong 😳 this was green timber, treated and soaking wet, not good.

Eventually I was able to purchase some suitable planks, I laminated them using epoxy resin and made up some clamps from 10mm screwed rod and 40x 20 box section. Again, like the copier, this worked a treat. 

I waited two days before nervously removing the clamps ... success! - everything held nicely.

Next job was to make the jig to take the template prop and the blank.

My first attempt at carving the prop wasn’t good and had to chuck that one away. I realised that I needed to take measurements from  the original prop and mark out grid references on the blank, then to make some saw cuts along the lines I had drawn for reference. 

A hammer and chisel was then used to rough out the basic shape, then to finish it off with the carver copier. I have to say I was fairly chuffed with the result.

Next I used a belt sander, an orbital sander, a sanding block and a fair amount of patience 😂

Finally a spray with some guide coat and a last rub down with the machine and the prop is done. All it needs now is to be glassed and balanced.