On Thu, 15 Sep 2005 22:11:16 GMT, "Toller" wrote:

My mahogany dagger board was damaged when I bought the boat used. I glued
it with epoxy and put some fiberglass around it and it has held up for a few
years, but I don't think it will last.

I bought some 8/4 white oak on ebay for almost nothing (100bf for $1.25),
and figured I will build a new daggerboard while I had something intact to
copy.

The blank is 44" long, 2" thick, and 15" wide. It weights 35 pounds.
I originally intended to cut the corners off on my table saw, but it is so
heavy that it doesn't seem particularly safe.
So, I have been going at it with my 3" belt sander and my 2" power planer.
Both would work, but they would take hours and hours of work.

Any suggestions for a good way to shape my blank into an airfoil shape?
I am thinking of buying a better planer, but hope someone here will be
resourceful.

I congratulate you on eliciting a wonderfully practical, innovative,
and helpful thread. Even the most radical contributions ("Don't use
oak!") were well-meant. Notice that suggestion of using a wood carve
blade in a circular saw? Wow! Wood propeller carvers use a router in
a kind of copier frame, profiling an existing fair copy of the blade.
I notice the respect given to mahogany on the traditional end, but
also the foam core glass or carbon approach at the leading edge end.

Iobserve in passing that the center board on the SouthCoast 22 I am
preparing, is a hefty chunk of iron - its weight so low down is of
course desirable - but that has a wind up hoist.

Brian Whatcott Altus OK