Feather sanding jig

[ksnow]

Spent some time over the holiday weekend making a jig to sand the bases of fletchings.  Feather grinding/sanding/scraping has always been a job I loathed to do.  So, with some scrap lumber and a few aluminum strips, I made a block that I can sand the bases down to a uniform thickness in much less time.  Plus, I wreck far fewer feathers in the process.

[Ardent]

I like it! I assume you have a wood block with a strip of sandpaper wrapped around it that rides between the side rails? It look like the sandpaper scrapes on the aluminum. Are you concerned about it wearing out prematurely? One last question, how thick are the aluminum strips?

[ksnow]

Ardent, I will take a few more pics tonight of the process.  I had to make a sanding block that rides on the aluminum pieces, and I put a narrow strip of sandpaper on the block.  The aluminum is 1/8" stock.

[Ardent]

Thanks. I'm about to have to start grinding feathers for the first time , and I definitely want to make some kind of jig to help make things uniform and reduce the chance of me messing up my precious goose feathers. There are some rediculously-priced jigs out there, as I'm sure you know, so I am highly interested in cheap DIY solutions.

[ksnow]

Here are a few more pictures.  The aluminum strips were too thick in the beginning, so I had to cut a bit off the thickness of the sanding block.  If I went too far, I would have put thin shim stock under the aluminum strips to space them higher.  It definitely takes some tweaking, but once it is set up, it works really nice.  The sandpaper is 80 grit self adhesive auto body stuff that comes in long strips.  I cut 1/2" wide pieces.

[DC]

I like it. Maybe use wingnuts to speed it up a bit.

[Knoll]

Nice jig!

[Scottski]

I like this jig!