What's the best subforum to post a question about woodcrafting?

[anticlimatic]

I have a basic schematic in my head for a simple DIY knock-off version of this:

Basically, I'm just going to shape a 2x12x18" piece of lumber into the tapered shape of an airplane wing, and fit a couple handles on either side towards the top with a hole drilled through the middle to attach. Lift principals should make it work just fine, but I'm trying to figure out the best way to taper a piece of lumber into a wing-shape. I have a belt sander that I'm going to try first, but I feel like it might take forever. I doubt anyone on this forum is woodworking savvy, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

 

[Forever]

Home, Garden, and Nature.

 

[Qlip]

I'm an amateur woodworker, I like to mess around with all kinds of projects with various levels of success. It looks like there's just as much engineering as there is woodworking there. One very important thing to consider is whether it should be floating, heavy or neutrally buoyant, that will inform your selection of species of wood, and whether you may want to insert weights or something like it. Not sure if something that would float would work well in this usecase, but I dunno.

Shaping wood by hand is not impossible, but would be a really tough job to do by eye when you need something that's symmetrical and has complex curves that aren't just for looks. But, there's another problem there, the wing is pretty thin, especially at the tips, and they curve up. I'd by highly suspicious if carving chunk of wood could provide the strength for that shape, the wings would have cross grain which is really weak. But it's possible putting fiberglass on it might reinforce it, which is what you'd want to do. It's what they do with surfboards, I'm sure there's a lot of information on that, in fact I'd recommend you take a look at surfboard construction as a place to start. They use foam which is easier to shape and build up into complex forms.

A 2" (nominally 1.5") wouldn't really work for that straight up, there's nearly a 1 foot curve up on the tips. You'd have to work with a giant beam to carve that shape if you don't plan to do some gluing.

[MENTION=71]JAVO[/MENTION] what do you think?

 

[JAVO]

I do a little amateur woodworking too, but nothing wet. I'm missing the context of this beyond the single photo, but for towing a person at a reasonable speed underwater, the simplest solution is probably a piece of 6" wide 3/4" thick marine grade plywood coated with a boat varnish. Maybe shape it a little with a bandsaw or jigsaw, then hit the edges with a 1/4" roundover bit in a router. Drill rope holes 1/2 way back with a Forstner bit, hole saw, or spade bit, in order of best to worst cut.

If it needs to look like the photo, maybe shape 2x6 or 2x8 cedar with a random orbital sander. Cedar is light and not very strong, but it should be fine at that stock size.

Edit: missed that you have a belt sander. Those are tricky to shape with, but you might be able to make it work with some practice. I'd skip the upward taper. The complexity probably isn't worth the effort and likely strength compromises.

 

[anticlimatic]

Thanks for all the responses!!! Sounds like there's some people here who know their way around a wood shop! (Also if a moderator would move this into the appropriate subforum I would appreciate that, apologies for the inconvenience).

I drew up a diagram to better explain what I'm trying to do:

Someone suggested that I use an electric hand planer to get it tapered down, but I've never used one and I'm not sure if it would do the trick. I think any material would suffice. I'd like to work with a softer wood just so it would carve up easier, but I wouldn't want it to get water logged, so I'd need to seal it with something.

[MENTION=71]JAVO[/MENTION] [MENTION=10714]Qlip[/MENTION]

 

[Lexicon]

(Also if a moderator would move this into the appropriate subforum I would appreciate that, apologies for the inconvenience).

Done!