Dakota Iv Suitable

It can be done. Not optimal, but will work.

 

I have been using one for twenty years now even a couple bears. Slow but it does do the job. It was all I could afford at the time and I didn't feel like going into debt for a better one at the time. I have been thinking of getting a bigger machine but no more than I do, is it worth it? I am only a hobbyist.

 

If you have allot of patients. They are under powered

 

I know pro taxidermists hate them but I like my mini flesher. Like Pir^2h Im just a hobbyist myself so it suits me fine. It fit better in my budget than an expensive fleshing machine.

 

A Dakota IV is all I have as well. But will hopefully be upgrading before too long. Mine has been fine for deer so far and worked on elk too, was just a lot of work. My biggest complaint would have to be shavings getting caught in between the bottom pulley and the belt. Trying to clear them once stuck in there can be a pain in the butt!

 

There was once a video on here on how to fix that by putting in a shield inside the belt column thereby stopping the vast majority of the shaving from getting caught on the pulley. I put that in mine and it fixed that problem for the most part. Occasionally their might be a piece that gets behind the shield, however, not often.

 

A toy it may be but better than doing it by hand (in my opinion).

 

Thanks! I need to do that for sure. Let me search and see if I can find what you are talking about. Is there any way you can take a picture of what you did to yours?

 

The upside of one is when you shave a finger it’s not as big.

 

I bought a Dakota Pro when I was only doing 3 to 5 capes a year and never regretted it. My reasoning was, if I'm going to get a machine and I spend the $500 on the lower Dakotas and then spend more money on one later and end up with over $2,000 in machines or just by the one I would eventually get anyway and that saved me the $500 on the lesser machine. So, in the long run, I came out ahead by not going cheap.

 

We all wish that wouldn't happen but it will no matter what size machine you have one day.

 

I looked for the post and couldn't find it. I think it may have been on the old forums even. All it really amounted to was a piece of sheet metal installed into the belt channel so the shavings would be guided into the bucket and not onto the pulley. It required some trimming of the sheet metal to get it to do this. I will see if there is a way to get a photo later. The flesher is mounted onto the bench right now.

 

occasionally I have had to pop the belt off my V and run a screwdriver in the turning bottom pulley to keep it clean. It fills up completely if I dont.