Your pride is well deserved Greg ! Thanks a bunch again!

For those wondering about building a cresting machine, here was my breakdown for parts/cost:

Platform: Old shelf taken down during renovation: $0
Sewing machine motor at repair shop: $10
(mine actually had an intact mounting bracket that I just bent straight and used drywall screws to mount it.)
Surgical tubing, 1 foot @ 1.99/foot: $1.99
Vblock made from scrap knotty pine: $0
Testors model paints: $3.99
Fine brush: $1.99
Spray paint: $0.95
2 sheets of sandpaper $ 0.59 ea: $1.18
Rubber furniture feet: $2.99
Foam strip for vibration dampening from A/C $0
Rheostat for speed control $6.00

Total cost to get started: $29.09
Total time to build mine 45 minutes (including getting the vice out of the garage and bringing it downstairs, straightening out the bracket, ensuring that the motor worked before mounting and re-reading the rheostat wiring instructions so that I didn't smoke anything.)

Other tools you will need:
Pliers for pulling nocks (needlenose)
Blade for stripping (boxcutter)
Joint compound bucket to sit on.
Something to stick the arrows into to dry, I'm using a triangular cardboard shipping box I got my superslams in.

I hope I can get really good at arrow building. I can definitely see myself doing this for a living! DARE TO DREAM!

Okay, first snag:

Testing out my fletched arrows I have found that Duco may not be the ideal adhesive, perhaps at least not for sub-freezing temps.

Three shots each had most of my vanes popping off and taking a bit of paint with some of them.

Perhaps I need to seal with something hard and use an adhesive that's a little more temp tolerant?

Hmmm... sorry to hear that. I've never had adhesion problems with Duco. I know it's sub-freezing where you're shooting them at, but did they at least have a chance to dry overnight inside a warm house somewhere? Like I said, I've literally re-used and re-used the same arrow after pass-through after pass-through, and the feathers are stuck on as good as when I took them out of my fletching jig.

If you indeed allowed the glue to dry inside, I'm not sure... Maybe experimentation time? You could spray a clear sealer of some kind over your artwork... Or use a different glue... And we can always turn to the guys in the Trad forum for help...

THe fletchings were added after about 3 days drying time. Now one interesting point is if you read the can of spray paint, it says to re-coat within four hours or after like two weeks or something to prevent lifting.

HOw long would you say you wait between capping and then cresting and then fletching?

After fletching, they all were allowed to dry indoors at about 65 - 68 degrees for at least a couple days each.

I'll have to try and come up with a good set of vectors for an experiment. I mean, if I'm going to try and do this for a living, I should try and get it right

Wow! Great job fellas and a nice thread Greg.....got me interested. I have one question and because I am lazy this morning I am asking it here. Why Duco and not something like Fletchtite Platinum? Is it because of the chemical base in the paint will not adhere using the fletching glue?

Golly, Trembow... sounds as if you did everything you could have!

I'd say I usually wait a day or so between capping and cresting. Everything else sounds like you waited at least as long as I do on the various steps; I don't see where you're incurring any problem at all.

Now I do do a couple coats on my capping like I said, and -- who knows -- maybe I have waited for the advertised four hours between those coats merely by getting busy and not even realizing it.

Coug, I have no idea. Like I stated way back on page one when I originally did the thread; that's what was suggested to me by the folks over in the trad forum. For some reason, it's not working as well for Trembow? Maybe the glue you suggested will solve Trembow's problems...

[][>:] Well, it's gotta be something I'm doing or not doing. I had two other arrows I fletched without capping or cresting and on both of them at least one vane pulled right off with very minor "flicking". Actually, I had two blazers pull off of the new set of PSE Xweave Predators I just bought too...Maybe it's the blazers? They were factory fletched!

So my question is, is there something I should do to either a Blazer or AAE Elite vane (acetone?) before fletching with them?

I gotta go search the tech and trad forums now...

Yep, you're fletching with a different material than I've ever used... I only fletch with feathers, so maybe that's why Duco was suggested to me.

UPDATE:
I picked up some Loc-Tite super glue 2. This is a "new" super glue which is supposed to be better on plastics including polyethelyene and polystyrene. Anyone know what Blazers are made out of? [&:]

Anyhow, as long as I get good coverage with both the "activator" and the glue, the vanes are on SOLID. Can't pull them off without serious effort and they all survived a midnight target session ast about 11 degrees F.

I did also wash each shaft with warm water and a spot of dishwahing liquid and then wiped down with clean warm water and then dried thoroughly before fletching.

I have a bottle of goat tuff on order en route as we speak.