Anyway to make a homemade boat prop

[10571z]

Hey me and a friend are trying to make a cheap boat motor as a fun project. Anyway to make a prop? Or anything cheap we can use as one?

[alan white]

This may sound funny but the cheapest way to build an outboard is to find a discarded outboard and fix it up. It will have everything---- an engine, gears (reverse!), a prop, a starter, and so forth.
You could build your own from scratch, but it would take a long time and cost a lot of money.
No matter what you do, you'll learn something. But making your own boat prop out of anything but an old prop would be like making your own shoes (first find a cow...).
Sure you could do it, but...

[Frosty]

Yup done it tried everything under the sun . Had no money when I was 19 and had to make everything, even tried reducing dia from an old one , diastrous.

Worked a bit if you call the boat moving forwards slightly a success.

[masalai]

buy a used one....

[thudpucker]

C'mon you guys. It's winter, nothings happening on the Icy shores so he's looking for a dream. Your bashing the 'stuffins' out of his ego.

Yes, you can make a wooden prop.
When I was looking at building wooden oars, I ran across a thread on building a wooden prop. It was layers of hardwood, cut in the shape of a prop, and glued together in a staggerd pattern.
Then he faired it and the end result looked very nice. You've seen Hardwood Bowls and Air Plane props made the same way.

Search till you find that artical and see if its what you want or have the tools to make.

I saw some Fan's for Automobile engines made of GRP. The feature was that the blades flatten out at high speed, which lessend the HP needs of the engine. IE: More speed for less fuel.
So when you think of all the things you could make a prop out of, you want to remember that you still want a solid blade prop at high speed and you dont want something to flex until one of the blades come off.

I knew of a guy making a blade for a Snow blower out of old Car Hoods.
He cut the hoods up in pieces, welded them together and wound up with a pretty ugly piece that wouldnt fit into his platform. OK!!! He just modified the platform until it did fit.
It was so out of balance you really couldnt control it. There's an example of a good Idea that didnt work.

Think your idea out on paper before you ever start doing anything else. A sno blower you can walk away from. A boat you might have to swim away from.

[masalai]

Arrrrgh another septic who can't spell Whores not oars, but oars as in the wooden or other blade on a pole device for propelling a boat in a leisurely manner through the water by human of other means is a device related to boating forums - Oh yes this is a boating forum - sorry for the digression......

[Frosty]

[QUOTE=thudpucker;249191]


I saw some Fan's for Automobile engines made of GRP. The feature was that the blades flatten out at high speed, which lessend the HP needs of the engine. IE: More speed for less fuel.
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Errr I think you mean PVC and they have silicone fan hubs that reduces drive when the engine is cold,--but hey we know what you mean.
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(Thud said)
So when you think of all the things you could make a prop out of, you want to remember that you still want a solid blade prop at high speed and you dont want something to flex until one of the blades come off.
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- All the things you could make a prop out of ?--like what?

[rasorinc]

If you make a wood prop make it out of BLACK LOCUST.....................

[thudpucker]

[QUOTE=thudpucker;249191]


I saw some Fan's for Automobile engines made of GRP. The feature was that the blades flatten out at high speed, which lessend the HP needs of the engine. IE: More speed for less fuel.
------------------
Errr I think you mean PVC and they have silicone fan hubs that reduces drive when the engine is cold,--but hey we know what you mean.
------------------
(Thud said)
So when you think of all the things you could make a prop out of, you want to remember that you still want a solid blade prop at high speed and you dont want something to flex until one of the blades come off.
------------------
- All the things you could make a prop out of ?--like what?

"Like what?" e' says:D Could our imagination have slipped beneath the Suds for this evening?
Well one of the thoughts on 'what' was the Snow Blower made of Car hoods.
Then there's the plethora of old metal objects that might be hammerd into plow shears, such as old TV frames, Toy truck parts, just almost anything that could be fixed to the end of a shaft and hammerd into a shap to move water.
A two bladed prop can be hammerd out of a piece of flat steel off the back of an old washing machine.
Old Appliance parts that could be hammerd into an Archimedes screw.
Who's never thought of the original Jet boat that likely was a collection of outboard props on a single shaft inside an 8" sewer pipe.

Another though I've had, although its not new, is a two bladed prop out of whatever you can come up with, that will rotate from fwd to rev while in motion. I've seen that before and it looked so crude It could have been made in a back yard foundry.

See whatcha got in the back yard. Make a prop outta that stuff.:p

[Frosty]

Im all ears ,--your making break throughs in prop technology.

Now you mention it,-- maybe I should open up my mind.

I was going to make a nuclear submarine from two old bath tubs but I was held back by the propeller, But now I know what to do ,--bang a bit of metal against an old washing machine.

I was using the tub from the washing machine anyway as the nuclear turbine case.

[thudpucker]

"..breakthrough's in Prop technology...." [^]

Of course I never put any details in those suggestions saying anything about the finished product being as usable as a Prop from OMC.

There was another note up there from rasorinc who said to use Black Locust.

iZ is in Austrailia, and I think they have something down there called "Iron Wood" that might be better.

I'm off for the night.

[masalai]

Nah Ironwood is no good you need to be able to work it on a forge and temperature is critical, too much and it burns, and too little and it splinters....

Or you can put it in a lathe and shape it with diamond cutters - need quite a few, as the nots/granules in the Ironwood tend to shatter the diamonds

[thudpucker]

Unbelievable! I've never seen Ironwood but I've heard all those things.

How about BaseBall bats? It ought to solve all those Broken bat put-outs!

[Frosty]

he he he I think he fell for that one Mas.

[masalai]

Too heavy, as you septics seem to be muscle bound but lacking strength, and Frosty being a Pom, does not know very much, but likes to be cheeky every so often..... but grace is with him as he bought a boat from Aussy - not a proper boat, but a "gin-palace"....

[thudpucker]

he he he I think he fell for that one Mas.
Yeah, he got me. I guess I should really read and heed. You guys are up for entertainment late in these evenings.
WhaddedIknow? I'm a Yank?:confused:

[Splint]

Making a prop wont be an easy thing regardless of which way you go. I personally would look into investment casting. Allthough there is some setup costs involved you should be able to produce a commercial quality item if you do it properly. You then have a ready supply of props as required.

[masalai]

Seriously look at some of Rick Willoughby's posts he has made a couple of very high efficiency props for (human) pedal and low power electric drive systems using very slow rotational speeds - seems to know his stuff in that area....

[icedout]

Best thing is to buy a used one on ebay. I bought a 8 inch diameter for 10$