First step in duplicating a propeller is to get wood. I got cherry. Cherry is not cheap ($35 bucks for this one board) so I wanted it to go a long way.

The best way to conserve wood is to cut out the horizontal cross section of the propeller that is being duplicated. I took cross sections every 5/16" of an inch and printed them out on paper. Then I cut the cross sections out and traced them onto the wood. The wood was cut to approx. 5/16" thickness to match the drawing.

When all the pieces of wood were cut out I glued them together. You can see the resemblance of the actual propeller (left) to the roughed out propeller (right). Now the wood is ready for the duplicator, which will follow the shape of the actual propeller and cut away at the duplicated propeller using a router.

Video of Propeller Duplicator in Action!

More Photos of Duplicating a real Propeller

Propeller Design
Propeller Fabrication