Ive been saving turkey feathers for a long time with the idea of makeing my own fleatching. I tried differant ways of grinding the quills with not much success. I got some rite dye from the food lion and tried my hand at some dyeing. you can add diff colors to customize what you need. I got the GN system and it is fool proof. ground the dyed feathers and it cleans the quill up nice and white. 4" chopper and hear you go. Don
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c222/526don/100_0449.jpg)
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c222/526don/100_0450.jpg)
I like!!! Nice job :thumbsup:
What if you grind all the pulp off? Is there a reason to not remove all the white stuff?
Looks great.I'm building myself a grinding jig very soon.
Nice looking fletching your making :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
I use one as well, but find it still leaves the base of the feather a little thicker than I like.
After igrind them, I cut to length and but them in a jig clamp and sand them down a little further with my belt sander.
I typically use factory white feathers along with turkey feathers, and the factory ones have a much thinner base, which caused some difficulty when I burn them to shape.
But for doing the lions share of prepping the feathers, this jig is the way to go. Fast and easy.
Good looking feathers there! Where did you get them shafts?(LOL)
Did you ritz die the feathers? They look great.
With the rite dye did you just follow the package instructions or are there any secrets. Great looking feathers.
Mike
Mike, I kinda played around with the colors till I got something close to what I was shooting for.You'll have to sacrifice a few test feathers. I guess you could save the dye in a jar or something and use it over and over. Don
They look good Don. How long does it take to grind a feather with this system? I made a jig several years ago that worked fairly well if you could get by the smell. I was using a belt sander. Doesn't that system use a sanding drum on your drill press? Also do you remove the upper side of the feather before you start grinding?
Looking good. I have just started th same thing myself. I have been using my fletching jig to hold the feather while I sand it on my bench belt sander and drums on the drill press.
Don, It's real easy. takes longer to put the feather in the gig than to grind it. yes , it uses a drum sander in a drill press. The drum has a rubber stop on the bottom, kinda like a router bit. No way you can go too deep. you grind the bottom and them flip the gig 90 degress and grind the side. about 4 seconds per feather less the time to load and unload. The smell is still the same though.and yes you slit the quill with a razor knife before grinding. see ya soon . Don
Those have "10 ring" written all over them!!