spine testers

[Rogue]

Hi all,
First I would like to thank all who have posted here, I've been lurking for quite some time and enjoy the wisdom in these posts.
I have been throwing the idea around about making some cheap stump shooting arrows with wooden dowels. I am in the process of building a spine tester and have a couple of questions.
First there seems to be some controversy if a spine tester should be set to 26 or 28 inches and will the 2 inches make a dramatic difference?
Secondly if the grain of the arrow runs perpendicular to the riser should the shafts be set that way in the tester? or will shafts read differently in the tester depending on how the grain of the arrow sits in the tester.

Hope my question makes some sense.
Thanks Bill

[the Razorhead]

well, I bought my spine tester...
I bought one of the cheapie ACE ones that hangs on a wall or cabinet because I figured by the time I had all the stuff found to make one, I would have been better off buying it anyway...

Dean Torges told me once that, "..a traditional archer will study a $20. product fifty different ways for two hours, then spend $200. at Home Depot for the tools to build it..."

so be that as it may...

you'll want to rotate your shafts in the tester to get your grain and spine oriented the right way... when you find the axis where the spine is highest, mark the arrow vertically for nock orientation

[the Razorhead]

oh yeah.. mine has the posts set at 26"

I suppose you could set yours at 28"... the only difference would be how your deflection correlates to actual spine (how your scale is calibrated)

[the Razorhead]

and if you REALLY wanted a cool shaft for stumping, find some "american bamboo" curtian rods... these used to be sold at K-Mart under the Martha Stweart brand...

American bamboo is river cane.

[Alpha Capo]

would the posts on the jig being further apart give a more accurate spine indication(because it allows the arrow to bend more...giving a better reading) for example maybe two different arrows bend the same amount with the posts at 26inches, but bend a different amount at 28inches...

[the Razorhead]

Not really.
The onlydifference between a 26" tester and a 28" tester is how the scale is graduated for deflection given the same amount of force (weight) applied to the shaft.

[Rogue]

Thanks Rh I appriciate the input.

Bill.