Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Wood Plane

Sitka deer;
Good afternoon sir, it's been too long since we've conversed - I hope you and your fine family are still doing acceptably well.

Sometimes I'd use a sled and sometimes not - depending on what the surfaces on both sides looked like, the wood type and all the little details.

The trick I found was not putting it through the same way, or better said rotating the part 180° every time. Somehow no matter how careful one was, the leading edge would always get a tiny bit more taken off - maybe as little as a .25mm Sitka, but that piles up quick when you're doing 40 or 50 passes.

We'd usually save old course belts just for that sort of work, so if they'd get full of glue it wasn't the end of the world.

Funny I still haven't thought of the bigger Italian machine's name yet. It had a slightly deeper throat than the Sandingmaster - we could only do a bit less than 6" thick with it if memory serves.

The front head on both was a rubber coated drum, but hard, hard rubber so not much give at all. The diameter on the front drum would have been 10" or so?

The back head had a platen with a solid steel roller on either side of the platen. The platen was felt with graphite backed canvas material for the contact surface.

All the rollers were super heavy - as in when changing the bearings one needed to be careful even putting the roller down as it'd flatten one's fingers quite adeptly.

Hahaha - I was running that thing and the bearing went out on the extreme rear roller on the second head. It turned that big roller into a cam shaft and the machine vibrated so much it moved a couple inches forward!!!

Was quite noisy too when it let go Sitka - I recall that like it was happening in now!!! Salesman and the boss came running out of the office and show room... Ah good times..

All the best to you folks Sitka - do stay well.

Dwayne