RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Trembow, is the activator included with the glue, as part of a two step process? I am assuming it is kinda like JB Weld, where ya have to use both tubes to make the stuff work. I have seen the stuff in a store before, just didn't take a close enough look at it.

Let us know how the Goat Tuff works as well. I might be in the same boat as you are once I get this crestor built.

Bols

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Yes, it's actually a magic-marker sort of thingy that comes with the tube of glue. It goes on clear so it's hard to know if you actually got anything out of it. I think at first I wasn't and the glue wasn't working. Once I got the tip of the marker stained with a little paint (it eats it away a bit) I could tell where it was going.

You rub the "activator" on both surfaces, wait 1 minute and then apply the glue to the vane and attach it. I waited 1 minute for the glue to set and then moved on to the next vane.

If the goat tuff works well, I'm definitely trashing the super glue 2. Too "complicated" getting the activator onto the shaft in just the right spot.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

I have some Quantum XT and Fletch Tite, bothby Bohning, how do you think that will compare to the Goat Tuff?

Is it worth picking up the Goat Tuff as well? I didn't want to try fletching arrows until I had the crest laid down then try fletching with the jig so I can practicedoing the complete process. . .but have you tried either of these glues and found any type of results?

I should probably just go ahead and get the crestor built, but family circumstances haven't been permitting me to do that at the moment. Just wanted to try and figure out the glue situation so when it comes to crunch time I had products that work!

Thanks for the input!

Bols

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Golly, guy... you're making this complicated! ;)

Just get you some feathers and some Duco... (Barred feathers look way cooler anyway!) :D

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

all that superglue is cyanoacrelate or something. how different can it be? pineridge archery has it cheaper.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Don't tempt me!:D I just got decided on and bought a whole bunch of Blazers. I had been thinking of going to feathers just for the aesthetic value alone! Now I find out they might be simpler!? [:@]:D:D:D

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Bump for all the new questions...

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Trembow, if you wanna part with all those blazers, pm me. Feathers are way cool though.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Ya'll wanna make me strip my Blazers off, build a cresting machine and start over...and I just fletched a dozen...darn it all...you can bet I will before I fletch another dozen.....just so I can post pictures to...;)

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Lookin' forward to them, Rob!

And just to let you know, I've watched about thirty minutes of your video so far... As my life settles down here just a bit, I'll get the whole thing watched soon.

My first thoughts: You guys stink! ;)How many deer got you guys' wind there at the beginning? I know, I know... early season, sweatin' on the way to the stand... :D Seriously, thanks so much for everything; I really mean it!! Hope you got my e-mail expressing my gratitude!

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

I have been wanting to ask this question for a long time. Not trying to be a smart A$$, just curious about something. I have several things yet to learn in archery, so I’m sure I will learn from this question.

Have you guys ever complied with any testing to see what adding all that paint to the back of your arrow does to long-range flight characteristics? I love the idea and yes it looks great, but I just can’t see taking a $110 set of arrows that are all within 1-2 grains of weight of each other and dumping a bunch of cheap model paint on the back of it. Sometimes I even wonder about arrow wraps that overlap each other by ½ inch and how that would affect the balance while arrow is spinning at high speeds.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

MilDot, I've read enough of your posts to know that you're not being a smart-a...; that you truly care about little stuff like that! ;)

To answer your question, no -- a grain scale is on the "will-buy-soon" list, but -- to be honest -- I'm not a world-class archer shooting 70 meters or anything like that. I would say at the most that it may change the variation from arrow to arrow less than a couple grains, and that's still giving me quarter-sized groups out to 30 yards, which is plenty good enough for my hunting requirements.

Here's proof: 32-yard shot this past season, and you'll notice which arrows I was using...



You can probably tell, but an autopsy revealed a perfect triangular cutout through the middle of his heart. ;)

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Now remember, that begining was back in 98 and I don't know how that ole skinhead winded us....I tried to edit the tape from 98 to current...it's close..and no problem..but I want results with the Deer Flute...

AND, nice picture above...great shot.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Just curious but why add all that weight to the arrow? What effect does it have on the balance?

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

To answer your question of "why?", I went back and pulled this explanation out of my original post...

To explain further, it's amazing how different the woods that you've been studying, contemplating, and staring at for hours on end look once you climb down from your 20' perch. Before I started capping my arrows, I would sometimes walk over to where I knew my arrow was, and still spend a long time searching for it -- even though I had swore I had it marked with a landmark like an oddly shaped tree before I climbed down. Now, I never have that problem.

Now as far as the "all that weight" portion of your question... It's not that much weight. A couple coats of spray paint on the last eight inches and a few little stripings for decoration doesn't weigh much at all... I'm still easily able to obtain a FOC of at least 10% with 100-grain heads.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

I do this with my traditional arrows. Irig a power drill and and turn out these. These are rthe only ones I have done. Just played with it. Fun.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Thanks for posting this Greg, its awesome and i will be building one.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

bump for Rookie Bowhunter

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Yeah!! Thank you!!

Greg, this is awesome! Ohh...I can't wait to give it a try...

Thank you, again!

Isaac

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

A year and a half since I wrote this thread -- here's how I'm doing my arrows these days...

For some reason, I started having some adhesion challenges with Duco. I never did at all the first year, and like I said, even had several pass-throughs with the same arrow and never had a feather even appear it was inclined to start coming off.But... those were Gold Tips, and I'm shooting ACC's now; don't know if that makes any difference. It's the only thing that's changed about my setup.

So, in light of that... I started sanding off the back part of the cap where the fletching attaches. That allows me to glue straight to the carbon, and I'm using Bohning's Fletch-tite Platinum. The thing I like about this is I can re-fletch over and over again without having to redo my cresting or the top part of the cap.

When I need to refletch, I just strip off the old feathers, re-sand the shaft, and reglue. I then touch up the cap above the feathers with some quick sprays of more gloss white, stopping right at the top of the feathers. You'll see below a pic of what I'm talking about; this is before I started going back and re-touching up the bottom part of the white cap with new paint.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Excellant thread. To help with continuity (same pattern on multiple arrows), you can tape a peice of paper on the base of the crester. Put a fold in it so the paper comes up along the back of the arrow as close as you can get it without it touching. Use a pencil and mark lines and colors. Each shaft you put in the crester will line up and you get identical patterns. Keep the template in a file if it is an exceptionally good pattern.

A clear coat over the finished crest helps protect it longer. One can do some really cool stuff with colored permenant markers in lieu of paint, or in addition to it, though it will smear generally if you dip in clear coat afterwards--thoughthat creates a cool effect in of itself.

As stated above, thin the paint, and the higher quality the brush, the better the application. There is a reason why an artist might pay $15.00 for the higher grade thin camel hair brush. If you clean the brushes well after use, they last a long time.

The indians (native americans for the PC) used to often customize their arrows. It is relaxing to do and another activity to add to the hunting experience...

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

I have used Goat Tuff on both my aluminums for traditional and my carbons off my compounds for quite a while and never had a problem with it.

I sprayed just white paint on this AM. Let it dry, came back this PM, fletched up three vanes with Goat Tuff, shot it after supper and on the first shot it blew the index vain clean off.

I know Goat Tuff is good stuff...but I don't know about it sticking to cheap spray paint. Maybe try waiting longer? Seal it with something? Heck maybe I used too much glue and couldn't see it for the white paint?

Any thoughts?

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

I dunno, Swamp... you may want to try the Duco the guys in the Trad Forum suggested to me; it worked superbly on the spray paint when I was using the Gold Tips... I'm at a loss in trying to explain why it's not working as well on my ACC's.

Or, if you're like me, and all you truly care about is a little bit of personalized customization but more importantly that white cap to aid in recovering the arrow, you could always sand off the bottoms like I did in my last pic and glue 'em like normal.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Thanx for the bump Greg/mo. Will lookinto getting set-up soon. Sounds to me like its cheaper than wraps in the long run.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Greg,

This is the kind of stuff we are looking for when we come to this kind of sight and thanks for all your effort in putting this together. This should have a permanent link at the top of the page...hint hint.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

I tried again last night after following Greg's instructions this time. Much better results. I'll post some pics tonight after I get some fletching on the shafts.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Greg, is that a light dimmer switch you are using as the speed control? I tried one on my setup and it does not function, it keeps tripping the circuit when I adjust down the speed.What's the secret? Can you supply name and model number of the switch and where you purchased? I would prefer not to use the foot control that comes from the old sewing machine motor, to hard to control. BTW, did a couple arrows in white base with a flo. green fade, look nice!!

Thanks, Gingus

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

gingus, that's exactly what it is... it's made by Leviton, which is a pretty common brand that can be found at Lowe's I think. The only thing that looks like it may constitute a model number is the NOM 057 stamped on the bottom, and it's also stampedin seperate ink on the label stuck to the side of it.

The motor is a YDK motor, and the model number is YM-40 if that helps. Like I wrote in the orginal post, it was just one the appliance store had laying around which he sold me for $5.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Greg, what is the Bohning part number for the arrow "chuck/holder"? I could not locate any seperate cresting parts on Bohnings website.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

gingus, I bought mine from 3Rivers Archery, and probably bought it six months prior to asssembling my cresting machine... so that puts it about two years ago, since I orginally wrote this thread a year and a half ago?

I ran a quick search for you and found that they offer this one now... looks like it's changed somewhat in shape and appearance. Hopefully, it will still work: http://www.3riversarchery.com/Product.asp?c=2&s=8&p=27&i=4139

You may also want to try to contact Bohning directly and tell them you need a replacement chuck for one of their older-style machines.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Thats the same chuck that I have and I ordered mine from King Archery (I believe). It works just as good as anything else I'd assume.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Thanks Greg, I'llget one onorder. I am still having a major pain trying to get the dimmer working. It keeps tripping the circuit when I try and slow the motor down. Wentback to the sewing repair shop andgot the sewing machine foot control.... Mistake!! Pain in the rear to work and can't get it to go slow enough. Any suggestions anyone? Are there different types of dimmer switches that are designed for this type of motor/application than the ones that are made for lights. I am not even remotely educated when it comes to electrical components, so bear with me. Doesthe amp capacity of the dimmer switchhave to match the amps of the motor? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.If need be, I can supply the info. printed on the motor if someone can tell me what I need to get.

Thanks, Gingus

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

TTT

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

For those who are having trouble getting your feathers to stick i have a suggestion. It matters what kind of white spray paint you use. I use Rust-oleum white Lacquer. It has to be Lacquer, no enamel or anything else. i HAve used fleetch-tite, goat tuff, and i have never, and i mean never had a feather come off. Not even after shooting through my target. Let me know if this helps. BTW you can get the paint at wally world for about 3 dollars.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

I am in the process of finishing up my FMJs.

I used Krylon Fusion. You can see the diamond plate pattern if you look hard on a couple. But they look pretty good thus far. I have three done, and shot them yesterday and did some minor retuning/sighting. Didn't have the first problem with vanes. Not one. Whatever the issue was with Goat Tuff and not bonding...it went away.

One other thing I did try...I took just a bit of 150grit sandpaper to the bottom of my Blazer vanes. Just enough to take that shiny crap off. I think that might have something to do with my success now.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Finally, my first completed arrows! I used a lot of the technics in these posts, and finally got around to making my own crresting machine using a sewing machine motor. As i said before, i use rustoleum lacquer for the white base, and then i just used testors model paint from wal-mart for the color bands. If you decide to make your own cresting machine, it is imperative that you use a rheostat to control the speed of the rotation. if it is to fast then your paint splatters and you are left with a less than smooth finish. The entire process is so fun and easy i am not sure why i didn't start this sooner!

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Very nice bowhunter 42, looks like you're getting the hang of it.


Here's a set I'm working on at the moment......

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Are you splicing your feathers yourself, and if so is it as difficult as it sounds?

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

Yes, I do splice the feathers myself. I have a small custom arrow shop.;)

There are a couple of ways to do it. You can either just cut the quills and "zip" the feathers together, then place them in the fletching clamp for gluing, or you can actually cut the feathers from the quills without cutting all the way through the quill, and glue the new feathers to the empty spot in the quill. Both ways are quite tedious though.

RE: instructional thread for capping and cresting your own arrows!
 

thats great , i like the idea ofcresting my own arrows eventually .

Nice thread .