make your own

its easy

for 15 bucks you can pick up a simple woodplane.

go to a construction site and pick through the trash pile until you find a couple 2X10s with no knots for about 3 feet.

Glue them together to make a 4X10
Spend the extra $2 to get the best wood glue. Its worth the $2.

Once the glue is on and you put them face to face, put them on the shop floor and press them together with 5 gallon buckets full of water staked on them. Stack the buckets like a pyramid to add as much weight as possible.

Then use a band saw,or skill saw to rough out the shape and finish with the plane. When I started mine I had NEVER used a plane before... never even held one. I had it figgured out WAY before the strokes I was taking were going to make any difference on the finished surface. They are actually VERY easy to get good with. I even learned how to take it apart and resharpen the blade... actaully easier than a knife because its flat.


Total cost:
$15 woodplane
$6 wood glue
about 4 man hours in front of the tv with the wood plane (saw dust is not indoor-friendly, but big giant wood shavings scoop up with your hands).

Cost to buy the same beam... what? $75 plus shipping?

For rats, make a form, from plywood, a little smaller than a rat stretcher and a little longer. Screw it to the work bench so it will swing out and you can stand beside it. Use a soup can to flesh rats, the edge is rounded and will not cut the rat hide, fat collects in can. Takes me about 40 seconds to flesh a rat and I always get top money for them. Hope this is of some help.

I bought a 8" wide 60" long hardwood fleshing beam for about $36 from Montgomery fur. This is their largest and therefore most expensive beam...They have smaller and less expensive ones

wow that is cheap.
did you get it retail or was there shipping on top of the $36?

Sorry, I should have specified. 8x60 fleshing beam was 36.95 and shipping was 7.95

Craig Todaro makes a fine beam and is a great guy to deal with.

I believe he does business as Jacks Mountain Basswood Stretchers. I do not believe he signs on this Forum any more ! Fantastic products just the same !

Take a look at the ones Muskrat sells. He's on here very often and you could probably pm him.

They are the nicest muskrat and mink beams I've seen in a long time!

Moosetrot

So add in Tax and its still under $50 for the biggie?


I'll have to rescind my recomendation to hand make them then. Except for the romance factor of making it from scratch. And for me anyway, the romance factor is why I trap in the first place.

Here's the beam Moosetrot was talking about:


The shopclass here at the high school put these together. They're red oak, with a strong steel plate bracket bolted on:


Backside of beam and bracket:


Closeup of key plate. Two bolts go into the slots and then are bolted onto the bent piece:


Closeup of bolted beam on table:


The mink beam fits the same bracket.

Susan and I sell these under Riverine Traders. Beams are $15 apiece and the bracket is $5. PM me if you're interested.

And apologies to Paul if I've broken any rules here with advertising.

What is the standard thickness of an all purpose beam?

can you make them longer? I don't have the bench space for that type of beam, I wouldn't need the bracket either.

Mydog: This was a specialty order for 100 'rat & mink table beams only. It was a special project through the local high school.

You're probably thinking of a regular fleshing beam, and those can be ordered from most any trapping supply business.

i also have one of craigs beams , he does real good work!
well worth the money!