OK after following some of the suggestions & tips the #1 issue was my feathers weren't ground good enough but it's still a P.I.A. and I see a burner in my near future. Too much trouble for me. The rest of my feathers are headed to Magnus to have him grind and chop them for me. I can tell it would be a lot easier if I had a real belt sander but am using a drum sander on the end of a cordless drill...life's too short for this.

Thank you for all your help...much appreciated.

some random thoughts on arrow building ...

stripping, grinding and preparing feathers is a lotta work, for sure.  you either have the time for that stuff, or not.  and then you either enjoy it, or sorta endure the process.  for me, i do the strip and grind for special arrows, mostly only woodies.  granted, not for everyone, and that's why pre-prepared full length feathers are sold and bought by the tens of thousands.

to chop or burn, or do both?  both will absolutely require setup work and tweaking, more so with a burner - and the reason why i have three young burners, cause when you get a wire set up perfectly for both shape and arrow shaft diameter, you do NOT wanna change anything!  which is why you can go out and buy perfectly good prepared feather fletches.

it's all a labor of love, of sorts.  and i do like building arrows from the ground up!

Labor of love sums it up!  I like having fletch I ground and chopped on my arrows.   It gives every shot more meaning for me.

What Rob and RAggy said...like tying one's own flies...but dangit man, I don't go make the hooks!

I'll stick with Maggie's (Magnus) chopped ones or buy them... after what happened to Charlie's health grinding feathers, I'd never try that part for sure!

"Labor of love sums it up! I like having fletch I ground and chopped on my arrows. It gives every shot more meaning for me."

What Clay said......  

Yeah you recall the process and the steps involved as the nock goes on the string and gets you more focused for the shot.

Grinding feathers is safe so long as you remember to wear your respirator. No natural product of any kind belongs in you lungs!

I have always enjoyed the feeling I get from using something I made. Wether it be a fly I tied and caught a fish on, arrows I made, or a knife I forged.  The labor of love translates to a deep personal satisfaction and the feeling I am doing it the way my ancestors did.

Doesn't Rob have a video on here showing the burn process?

lotsa good stuff at the HOW TO - RESOURCES forum!

As Dave Mitchell said. I've done it this way for  years with several choppers and made thousands of feathers.

I tried splitting, trimming, and chopping my own turkey feathers ONCE. I'll never do it again. Pain in the butt. Plus, I can't see them in flight. I only use brightly colored full length feathers from Tru Flight or Gateway.

QuoteOriginally posted by Rob DiStefano:
if you have a vario, yer not using it correctly.  that chopper "locks in" the feather base so it won't move.  

there is a knack to using the li'l chopper, and IF the quill base is too wide you WILL have chopping issues - i stick any feathers with too wide a quill base 'tween a pair of 1/32" thin sheet metal slats and shave down only the wide side of the quill base with a single edge razor blade.  that WILL fix the chopping wiggles.  make sure to line up, lay down the chopping blade on the feather, while holding down the feather with a finger or two.  when lined up well, remove yer fingers, have the blade touch the feather, and give the block a smart whack.

^^This^^

I love my Little Chopper, however, I have never chopped anything but 'nanners. No problemo.

OK I finally figure this thing out and they are coming out nice but I just ran across this and it looks like the bees knees to me not too mention chump change compared to commercial choppers.
  DYI Fletching

Let us know how you do making that wooden gizmo...and then do a "build along" for us nummies.