MikeSell,
You are right. I just mentioned the down and dirty way to solve the problem and if care is took you can get it next to perfect or right at it. Yes, a tapered drill bit or even better a tapered reamer in a drill press is the absolute best way. Of course if you want to go whole hog you can use a mill or lathe, but 99.9% of modelers do not have one. Shoot, my Sears drill press even has some runout. Hey it cost $99 what do you expect. With your tenure in machine works you know as well as anyone the machine is no better than the person operating it. I just tried to give someguys a easy, cost effective way of doing it and be very accurate if they take their time. Not the absolute best way to do it.

Try taking a hand reamer and reaming out a 24x8 prop. It will take nigh on forever and is WAY too hard to do. Now a 12x7 ain't too bad.

Norman Ross Jr.