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To Build an Arrow

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arrow build
12K views 8 replies 8 participants last post by  tlsjr 
#1 · (Edited)
I just wanted to start out by saying that I'm writing this because I was actually asked to do so. Normally I don't make a big deal about it. Fair warning here, it will be long and tedious reading. I'm not making any claims that I am somehow building the best wood arrow in the world. I go through this process simply because it enables me to build the best batch of arrows I can. It enables me to build arrows that are better than anything I can buy at any price. I want to point out that this process is for building arrows for competition. For hunting I do shoot aluminum arrows. Some of the content here is stuff that I have mentioned before, so you may notice that I have done a simple copy and paste of previous material. I also want to apologize for not having any photos. I wanted to get this written, and I have near zero free time due to work. I just don't have the time to be setting up a bunch of photos and editing them to fit.

I prefer to work with a large starting batch, say like a hundred. When working with a large lot like that, you will only be able to buy it in the standard 5# spine range that you normally see, for example 40-45#. In a large lot like that you should be able to find them "weight matched" but only to +/- 10 grains. That's a 20 grain spread.

I number all the shafts. I weigh them all, write the weight on one end and sort into groups of +/- 5 grains, for a 10 grain spread.

I straighten them, first by hand, then with an arrow straightener. I use the AAE model. It has rollers, a dial indicator, and a press bar. Careful use of a heat gun makes it go faster, and helps the shaft stay straight without springing back. I don't ever use a straightening method that relies on compressing the wood. These methods start to give the shaft an oval cross section, making it impossible to further check and adjust straightness through the process. I often find shafts that just won't get straight and stay that way. Those get culled out.

I now have at least one batch of fairly straight, weight matched shafts

I now cut the nock taper in that matched batch. I use a Woodchuck taper tool. It's proven to be the best I've found so far since I don't own a bench top disc sander. Also once you get one of the two angles set, nock and point, the other angle is automatically set.

I have a process for setting my angles because having them correct is very important later in the process. I use the point taper for setting up the angles on the Woodchuck. Naturally I degrease all my points as soon as I get them. (I use only PDP points. Still mulling over the move to Top Hat.) Given that I have to set up the Woodchuck from scratch, first I take an old shaft, remove the point and rough set the Woodchuck by using that old point taper as a gauge. Using a section of an old broken shaft I cut a point taper. I get a candle and light it, then hold a point, open end down in the flame so it fills with soot. Then I twist that point down onto the test taper. I always keep trash shafts to cut up and test taper fit. The soot will smear out onto the taper showing contact, or lack thereof. I adjust and retest accordingly. Taper fit is very important regardless of what glue you use. Anyway if anybody is familiar with it, think of the soot as being a poor man's Prussian Blue.

I have found that getting the very ends of a shaft straight is difficult. No matter what method is used. Before cutting the nock taper I inspect for which end of the shaft is the straightest. It is possible to see even the smallest deviation simply by rolling the shaft while it lays in the guide slot of the Woodchuck and using its sanding disc as a straight edge. I cut the nock taper into the straightest end. I want to cut the nock taper and back taper into the straightest end.

I now back taper that batch. I use 2 10" lengths of angle iron bolted on to an aluminum plate. One "leg" is bolted into slots that I cut into the plate. This allows me to back taper any diameter shaft. The angle iron legs are lined with 100 grit emery cloth. Setting the taper is easy. Say I'm tapering 5/16" to 9/32". At the feed end I stick a section of an old 2016 shaft, and at the nock end I stick a section of an old 1816 shaft.. Slide the moveable leg along the slots in the aluminum plate, snug up to those shaft sections, they're like gauges, and tighten down the bolts.

I spin the shaft using a 1/2" chuck, variable speed drill. Using the higher power available in 1/2" chuck drills just seems to work better than a 3/8" chuck drill. I wear safety glasses and heavy leather gloves because a shaft can shatter when feeding a shaft into the back taper jig. Trigger control and a slow feed is important but the speed at which the shaft is spun needs to stay high. I use one hand to run the drill, and the other to guide the shaft into the taper jig, and to keep the spinning shaft from starting to badly vibrate.I have found that it doesn't work to just feed the shaft in. It needs to be fed in a bit at a time. Let the shaft cool between strokes. I use a brass bore brush to clear the sandpaper between shafts.

Because I back taper, I purchase my shafts in the next higher spine group than what I actually need from the finished arrows. So for example, if I figure that I should be using shooting finished arrows in the neighborhood of 43#, instead of starting with 40-45#, I start with 45-50#. This is kind of up to the builders discretion. I only lose one or two pounds of spine to the back taper, but I also seem to just require a stiffer spine than what might be normally expected.

After the back taper it's back to the straightener, and weighing them again, just to double check.

Now it's time to refine spine matching. I check the spine of each shaft at multiple points around its circumference. I record those values. Then once recorded I look at mean, median, and mode averages. Based upon what I see I then select what should be a good value to use, normally mode, in order to generate the largest number of spine matched shafts. So given a specific number to look for I then go back and recheck each shaft around its circumference, looking for that orientation that gives me the closest match to that target number. I mark that orientation on the shaft. I then continue on with the build, constructing the arrow such that that marked target value will be oriented against the riser when the arrow is nocked on the string.

Doing this spine matching I have managed to take batches of arrows that started out with a 5# spine spread, and get them down to +/- ½# for a 1# spread. That doesn't always happen though, and +/- 1# is more common.

As an aside when shooting a bow with a shelf, I shoot cock feather in. Given a good state of tune, that gets the bottom hen feather off the shelf but the cock feather is clearing the riser. When shooting a self bow with a broom handle, shoot around riser with no shelf or cut towards center, shooting off the hand, I shoot cock feather out. I can't count on being able to get the bottom hen feather to completely clear my hand no matter what. Plus its hard enough to begin with to get a state of tune on such a bow that will get the nock end to clear the riser, regardless of which way the cock feather is pointing. End result is that I have arrows purpose built that match the bow that they go to. I just don't screw around with trying to shoot the same arrow out of multiple bows.

I now straighten the shafts. Again. By now I should be getting them down to +/- .003" or better. I may cull out a few more.

I now apply the finish. Since these are competition arrows, I go light on the finish. I use a dip tube with a rubber "gasket" with holes in it attached to the top of the dip tube. Push the shaft down through a gasket hole, into the tube full of finish, and then pull it back up. The gasket sheets off excess finish. I like this system because it helps make light coats, and is very neat and clean. No drip, no mess. I even do this upstairs while hanging out with my wife Annette sometimes. I use lacquer and with the thin coats I get it flashes dry very quickly. No need for special drying racks. I only do 2 coats. If a set of arrows develops wear in the finish I periodically apply hard paste floor wax.

When I apply the finish I also work on tightening up the weight matching. I find the lightest shafts and by letting them sit in the dip tube for several minutes I can add two or three grains as the shaft soaks up some lacquer. This is kind of tricky in that how long to let them sit is dependent on temperature and how thick the lacquer is. Thick and cold requires a longer soak of course. If you're concerned and want to give this a shot, take an unfinished scrap shaft and check it. Weigh it, soak it for 10 minutes and reweigh it.

It's time to stick on the nocks now. Finally, something simple, fast and easy, right? Ha! I glue them on paying attention to the previously marked spine orientation. I also make sure that my nocks are stuck on square to the shaft. I use an old Dixon Broadhead aligner, which is basically a set of rollers and a floating disc on a magnet that by spinning the point of a broadhead on it, helps true it up to alignment with the long axis of the shaft. Well, just so happens that the basic principle also works with other stuff like field points and nocks.

I'll usually recheck straightness now, just because I feel like it.

Tuning is also part of the building process for me. I basically follow O.L. Adcock's bare shaft tuning process. For those not familiar with it copies of it can be found here:
http://veraxservice.net/arch/tuning.htm
or here:
http://www.acsbows.com/bowtuning.html

Since these are competition arrows and I want them light, it kind of simplifies things for me. I already know to start with full length shafts using the lightest point. That would be 70 grains for 5/16" shafts and 100 grains for 11/32" shafts.

I cut point tapers on all the shafts that I'm keeping in the batch. Remember I have already checked for good taper contact. Having a good contact patch is very important to having points that sit true and stay stuck on. I attach the points using hot melt because it is easily reversible with heat. Lately I have been having good results using commercial grade high temperature hot melt. I prefer the high temp because on a hot sunny day, if a shaft sits stuck in a target for very long the low temp stuff can soften and you'll lose a point. I true the points to the shafts using the Dixon alignment tool. What is interesting here is that by using that tool I have actually found points that were mismanufactured. Sometimes you find a point that just won't true up. You might think it's the taper cut, but set that wobbly point aside, and try another one. Usually you'll find that the second one you try comes out fine, and its actually a problem with that wobbly point.

So now I have some matched shafts with points and nocks. I actually don't do any fletching just yet. Standing close, like 10 yards, I'll shoot all of them bare shaft, nocking them according to the marked spine orientation. They had better all come out showing weak. I'll cull out some more at this point, the ones that just don't want to hang in there with their buddies.

Having finally gotten to shoot some, the shafts are becoming arrows, and they start to speak to me and tell me about themselves. I start naming them and assign them their employee numbers, writing this information on the shaft. It helps me keep track of them.

Having a bunch of bare shaft arrows that all show weak, and even kind of group at 10 yards, I then go back, and depending upon how severely weak they show, cut off ½" or 1" and remount the points.

One of the things about bareshaft tuning that is sometimes forgotten is that making tuning decisions is based upon comparing the point of impact between bare and fletched arrows. You don't look at just one or the other. So I begin fletching a few arrows.

For fletching I use True Flight full length feathers. I cut them myself and burn my own profiles using a Young Feather burner. I use AAE Fastset glue. It's a cyanoacrylate "super glue." Since it is acetone soluble and the lacquer finish is acetone soluble, the glue seriously "bites" into the shaft finish. Using this combination I have never lost a fletch due to a failed glue job in over 14 years.

I use Bitzenburger fletching jigs. I now have 3 of them. Yes, pretty darned pricey, but they have all been Christmas presents from my family over the years. With 3 of them, making sure they all fletch the same is a process in itself due to their range of adjustability. Starting from scratch I back taper and stick a nock on a section of scrap shaft of the same diameter as my arrows. I then set up one jig as a "master." I adjust the clamp for offset and good fletch contact, then go ahead and glue a fletch to it. After its set up I reexamine it for good fit. If it all comes out well, I then stick that scrap back in, with a blank side facing the installed clamp but no fletch in it. I draw a line on the scrap with a fine point marker, following the clamp. Using that marked scrap I am now able to carry the clamp adjustments over to the other jigs. Just stick it into a jig awaiting its set up, install an empty clamp, and twiddle the adjustments until the clamp matches up to the line. I have numbered both the jig bases and the clamps so that they stay matched to each other.

Now using a few fletched arrows and the as of yet unfletched bare shaft arrows, I continue with tuning. As part of tuning I also continue working my way back further and further away from the target. I'm a gap shooter with a conscious aiming system. I use a regular target face, and a marked aiming point below it. I don't want to guess if a particular arrow is hitting left or right because of state of tune or because I was just holding a little off.

I work back to 40 yards, striving to achieve a batch of arrows that group well enough that even bare shafts will group at least within the boundaries of a 50 cm. NFAA Field Target Face at 40 yards. That 50 cm face is the correct size for that distance. I figure that if I can group bare shafts such that they all score at that distance, then they are pretty well matched and things will only get better once they are all fletched. I guess that I could go out to longer distances, but 40 yards is the longest I can get at home.

OK, so there you have it, that's pretty much what I do to build an arrow.

11/29/17

Something was just recently brought to my attention. Thank you GreenCB!

When using the Woodchuck taper tool, yes the angles do end up both are set if one is set. BUT I found that I did have to go to 2 different settings for the little brass stop rod. Since I use the soot method I outlined to set up correct motor/wheel position I'm messing with point end first. So that is the depth I set first. Then I go on to finding nock taper depth. You can gather some soot on a Q-Tip, smear it inside the nock taper and check that fit in much the same manner as is done with the points.

You can mark your stop rod settings with a Sharpie or something. But don't do anything real permanent like scribing marks into the base.

1/14/17

I've been asked a couple times about pictures of the jig I built for back tapering shafts. Let's see if I can do this without totally jacking things up.

Wood Material property Gas Rectangle Door


Above you can see the 2 sections of angle iron and the short section I put at the end to act as a stop.

Rectangle Wood Tree Gas Composite material


Here you get a better idea of the slots I put into the base plate. I used carriage bolts which when loosened allow the one section of angle to move. That allows you to set the angle and shaft diameter of the taper. Stick a piece of old 20xx shaft in the feed end and 18xx at the stop end, tighten it down and the jig is set to taper 5/16" to 9/32". The slots are long enough to taper any imaginable shaft diameter you might run across. Heck you could even take a 1/2" war arrow and taper it to a diameter to nock taper it for a standard 23/64" nock if you ever wanted to.

Hand tool Wood Metalworking hand tool Tool Metal


This shows the emery cloth in place. Yes you could glue it to the angle iron but I have found that by the time I have tapered a couple dozen, the emery cloth is done for. The spring clamps hold the ends of the emery cloth. And a section of shaft of the same size as your small end jammed into the bottom depth lock in the paper. This also makes it possible to switch the emery cloth around to get some additional life out of it. An important added benefit is that the shaft section in the depth of the jig keeps the shaft being tapered from getting jammed down in the jig and possibly snapping.
 
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#2 ·
Absolutely superb Rednef. Thank yo so much for taking the time.
I'm already re-thinking my arrow building process ... thanks again
 
#5 ·
Just wanted to say thank you! I am flattered by the positive responses.

That, and Phil, and for anybody else, as for "rethinking" anything, if you'll notice what I do is nothing really new or innovative. Its really a bunch of stuff that can be found elsewhere, that I compiled over the years. Then applying much of that with a crazy level of attention to detail.
 
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