Hello,
I design and handcarve propellers for ultralight, vintage, homebuilt aircraft in wood. 24 years later, 300 propeller designs, 2574 propellers later my lowerback has given me notice. I explored the web for 15 months looking and slowly learning about CNC routers. I have questioned all the major cnc companie - flexicam, techno, shopbot, multicam, quintax, larken shopsabre and many more. Because a propeller is not a constant object but is always changing I compiled a list of questions related to propeller carving and how a cnc router can handle the cutting of a non linear, non constant true helical blade. I eventually was contacted by ShopSabre with the most reasonable and helpfull suggestions to solve the problem of holding a propeller, digitizing one, generating a cut file etc.However, there are problems that seem fairly difficult so I sent them a TIGER MOTH vintage aircraft propeller. The help I recieved from Mike Seegar was instantaneous and reasonable and what he could not help me with he found out and called from the USA to South Africa to have a word to word discussion.
Question: Does anybody in the CNC zone know of or have cut propellerd on a CNC router system? Any practicall advice is most welcome, as well as suggestions regarding probing difficulties. I have ordered a ShopSabre and expect to recieve the machine by the end of September. I would really like to be prepared for some-but not all-surprises as I live in Africa and any relevant knowledge on cutting propellers automatically, may well be on the moon.
Thanks in advance,Piet propeller