I love how you can save a pile of money buying secondhand equipment, but the problem is that you rarely get an owners manual…

So, two questions… First is where do I buy replacement sanding discs?

Second is, how do you decide how deep to set that brass pin to control the length of the taper? I did two chefs today, and noticed I was getting a less than flat profile on the taper, so I didn’t go any further.

But twice the sanding disc parted company with the plate on which it was mounted, and if I had had my face over that thing when it happened I could be speaking to you now as a cyclops. So I suspect the correct course of action here is to clean all of the old glue off of the plate and get some thing fresh on there ASAP.

Fortunately, I have a pencil sharpener tool to use while I work the rest of this out…

"where do I buy replacement sanding discs?" You will likely have to cut some from sticky-back 6" sanding discs.

"how do you decide how deep to set that brass pin to control the length of the taper?" At first, trial and error, with some inexpensive dowels. ATA standards (old AMO) www.outlab.it/doc/amostd.pdf ATA Archery Standards, PAGE 10, has drawings and dimensions of wood arrow point tapers.

All righty then, get cracking. Winter's long. Beau-coup time to experiment and learn. BTW, if you taper any more chefs, they're likely to brain you with pots and pans.

I would suspect you could buy any size stick on sanding discs and use the original one as a pattern to cut one out. For the cost of a few bucks for a pack of them it's worth a try.

LOL, JD - gotta love voice-to-text!

Maybe next weekend I’ll have time to hit the hardware store....

Any recommendations on goop remover? I guess acetone or energine should work....

The adhesive is available in spray cans or you can convert to Velcro attachment. The Velcro disks are a little more expensive but clean and fast. All are available at lumber yards, or big box stores like Lowes, Home Depot Or what ever is in your area. I use both on much larger stationery sanders as well as a 5" palm sander. Never had one come off working them hard on bows. >>>>------> Ken

Wipe the glue residue on the plate off with goof off or acetone and then heat the plate up with a lighter before your stick the adhesive disc on. When done this way disc will stay on until you peel it off. I leave my two woodchucks out in the garage all year long and I still taper shafts in the freezing cold of winter without issue.

I just buy coarse heavy duty paper and cut them out and use contact cement to glue them on ruins tour scissiors though

Use the nock end of an aluminum shaft to set the pin to the swaged taper like a 2117 size

want the shaft as straight as you can get it before tapering and dont force it rotate and slowly insert

I cut my own disc from adhesive backed sand paper.

Setting to for nock and point length? You'll find what works for you after a couple shafts. Also, not all nocks taper exactly the same. The screw clamp on the back of the motor loosens so that you can rotate the motor to get the exact nock fit. The is also a set screw on the bottom of the casting that you'll need to loosen to rotate motor.

Rocky Mountain Specialty Gear stocks the disks, with the adhesive back, that fit the Woodchuck. I also think 3 Rivers and maybe Kustom King or other trad suppliers stock the disks. They are about $2.00 but it beats cutting and gluing on a custom disk.

As for the taper length, start short and back the stop off until you reach the length you want. The previous owner of my machine used a sharpie to mark a line on the metal plate where the end of the pin should be for the proper taper. You may find you need different stops for different diameter shafts. If you make a taper that is too long and pointed, you can grind it shorter with the perpendicular slot on the plate. Have fun!

Mike

I just watched a YouTube video made by 3Rivers on how to setup the tool. He explains pretty much what you need to know. If your pencil sharpener tool makes a taper you like I would take a scrap shaft and make the taper then use it as a guide to setup the Woodchuck.

You may also find the video on 3Rivers site as well.

I had exactly that thought come to mind this afternoon. Nothing like standing on the shoulders of giants!

Even in small things.

RMSGear https://rmsgear.com/collections/arrows-accessories-tapering- tools/products/woodchuck-sanding-disks

I used to get mine from Three Rivers Archery. Now I just go out on Amazon and get 5" or 6" self-sadhesive 60 or 80 grit pads and cut them to shape with HD garden shears.

I don't know what size the discs are, I have a similar taper tool that had white plastic tubes as an arrow guide. It worked poorly because the guides would shift. This tool came out before a woodchuck.

Somewhere I have the motor and a bag of sanding disc but I don't remember what dark corner it ended up in.

The disc are a standard stock item, if you look up adhesive disc on eBay you could probably find them in mass at a cheap price. I think that is where I got mine 20 years ago.

I made a homemade woodchuck out of my old motor, it worked OK but when I got a belt sander I made a jig for the sanding disc that cuts flawless tapers every time.

Another thing, you don't need an arrow stop to cut perfect tapers. I had one on the above jig but took it off and eyeball the tapers, even it they are off 1/16" it isn't going to matter.

I completely agree with Eric Krewson. A jig for a small bench top sander is much less complicated to set up and get accurate tapers with in my experience.

You may take a look at Harbor Freight for the discs.

Horizon is the name of that other jig with the nylon bushing/guides. I still have a few of those jigs laying around. I used to tape the rail next to the guides to keep them from moving. That was an okay jig but much prefer the woodChuck.

Another problem I had with the Horizon was that wood arrow shafts may not be exactly the size you ordered. For instance; an 11/32 may be slightly larger shaft to shaft and some wouldn't go through the bushings.

Took a 5 degree taper broadhead adapter and set my point tapers. A little trial and error on the nock end but you should be fine

^ Now I’m happy that I bought both short & long adapters! Come to think of it, I also have some glue in adapters for aluminum, thanks to Mr. Stewart ;)

I thought this was a how-to on making woodchuck burger...:-)

Here's the 3river YouTube video https://youtu.be/8KxfNs87U_E

Sanding discs

2", which are plenty big for the Woodchuck.

Less than $9 for 50. Shipping doubles the price. So for less than $20 you get 50 discs to your door. 50 grit.

McMaster-Carr 404-346-7000 404-349-9091 (fax) [email protected]

The owner's manual probably tells you to wear safety glasses.

Well, I can’t tell if I’m there or not...

Got my discs sorted out; a 15-pack of the standard discs will yield 60 little ones, so probably a lifetime supply...

Now I’m just not sure if I am set up “too fat” with the disc too close to the motor, or if the taper angle is a little too gradual.... I’m reluctant to change the angle except as a last resort, though....

Just seems like the taper is either too long - leaving too much bare wood aft of the point - or too wide in diameter up front for the points to fit on there without a wobble...

I think you can adjust the woodchuck moter from underneath to fine tune the taper? been so long since I messed with mine- got it set up- and never messed with it anymore- just use it

Yeah, that’s exactly the thing… I don’t really wanna mess with the factory settings until I am convinced… And I mean ABSOLUTELY convinced… That it is not currently set up quite right.

It really does appear that everything is all parallel to the glue on Broadhead insert/adapter that I have on one of my other arrows, so I think I just need to move the disc in a little bit until the diameters are just right. So far I have figured out that if I do too much I get a little bit of a shoulder at the base of the taper, which might make it a little easier to get the “skirt” of the point faired into the shaft, but I just don’t have it quite dialed...

I think part of my problem must be that when I take the wood down to the same dimensions as the steel or aluminum adapter, it just doesn’t look like enough wood to be strong enough to do what I want it to be able to do…

Matt: leaving a shoulder on the taper creates a week spot on the shaft. Just use a scrap or broken shaft and adjust the disc depth until the taper blends nicely to the shaft then adjust the stop pin until you get the length of taper correct for the point you are using.

Bob

I just picked up a woodchuck, I took old broken shafts and experiment till they matched the factory cut points and nocks on my surewood shafts.

Lot other good ideas here as well, I have read both positive and negative reviews on the woodchuck. I think it will work ok but will take time to get a feel for it.

I just picked some up from rmsgear.

Thanks, Bob - that’s what I figured/was concerned about...

So do you need to make that lateral adjustment for each shaft diameter, or only the depth adjustment? (because Geometry)

That might just give a guy reason to stick with a single diameter shaft for Everything.....

Good news is, it’s really nice out today... It was starting to get unpleasant out there last night in the cold with failing light....

I don't know of too many guys that use multiple wood shaft sizes, so just make it for the size you shoot and using more than one dia shaft could effect your tune.

Bob

Nothing needs to change for a different size shaft. Point will be the same width and taper will simply extend farther up the shaft.

Kindergarten geometry here, being viewed as calculus.

Well, I have about 6 dozen kids’ shafts to mess with in 5/16” while I figure this stuff out a bit, and then I’ll have to standardize around 22 or 23 64ths, since most of my bows call for higher spine than you can generally get in 5/16”...

Maybe I’ll just spring for tapering on the heavies if they are >11/32.... probably won’t be going through those by the hundred anyway!

Although.... the adjustment for the difference between 11/32 and 23/64 is what, 1/128”? .008”?? Yeah, I’m not going there....

Thanks, Jim - looks like we cross-posted, but that’s what I thought.... I just never imagined that this would be so fussy to get set up....

Sounds like I’m doing the right thing but just not getting it quite right... Sooooo frustrating....

https://www.3riversarchery.com/extra-sanding-discs-for-woodchuck-power-taper-tool.html we have the replacement discs as well.

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