Finally. . .it has arrived!
 

Finally. After waiting what seemed like years for the local Gander Mountain to get them in stock. . .I bought my firstBitzenburger today. Now I need to learn how to use it.

Days of shooting ripped and torn vanes are no more. :D

Next on my list, building the cresting machine Greg/MO so kindly shared with the members here on HNI.

Did anyone ever figure out what to do with Trembow's fletching dilemma? I am a bit concerned. When I start cresting my own arrows I want to know the fletchings will stayonafter I glue then just like thefletchings on bare carbon shafts do.

Any comments or suggestions on either using the Bitz or finding a glue that will work on crested arrows?

Thanks for the help,

Bols

RE: Finally. . .it has arrived!
 

Bitzen who?!?

RE: Finally. . .it has arrived!
 

That is exactly what I want to do.:D Greg inspired me to do the same. So what clamp did you get w/ your bitzenburger?

I am going to start the cresting machine this weekend probably. Let me know how it goes.

RE: Finally. . .it has arrived!
 

Ducsauce, I just got the straight clamp. They had the right helical in stock as well, but I figured I would use the straight clamp more right now. Let me know how that cresting machine comes along. I am hopefully going to pick up the parts for the machine sometime this week.

I picked the paint and the brushes today. Found some really neat fluorescent enamels (yellow, blue, green, red, orange) along with your standard gloss red, gloss black, gold, white, silver, gloss yellow, gloss green, gloss blue. I got some really thin tipped brushes and some of your standard size brushes as well.

I am really excited to get practicing on some of my older arrows. Can’t wait to see what they look like. I will try and post some pictures when I get them done.

Turtleshell, the Bitzenburger is probably one of the best fletching jigs on the market. What impressed me the mostwas a comment I saw on one of the forums I visit (I believe I saw it here on HNI, but don't quote me).

A guy mentioned he still had his first Bitz that his parents bought him over 50 years ago.Once Isaw that message, I was sold on the Bitz. Then add on the other 100's of positive commentsI have seenabout the Bitzenburger and basically it was a no brainer at what jig I should buy.

Sure, other fletching jigs will fletch arrows, but once you go Bitz, ya never go back. Or so I am told. ;)

RE: Finally. . .it has arrived!
 

Dave, congrats on the Bitz! You're right; they are the Cadillac of fletching tools. I tried a couple others, but was never happy with the "slop" in the adjustments... You'll never need another fletching jig the rest of your life now. I too started with a straight clamp, but am about to buy a helical clamp and start using that -- especially since I'm using a drop away this year.

As far as Trembow's dilemma, the one difference we've noticed so far is that I have only ever fletched with feathers, and he's using vanes... don't exactly know what difference that would make, but it's the only variable in the equation.

I may go throw up a thread in the Trad forum in the next couple days and ask their advice; after all, they're the masters! ;)

RE: Finally. . .it has arrived!
 

if you want some cresting paints vanes will really stick to,you can get them from www.lancasterarchery.com they are lacquer. however, to get them as thin as you want them, you can't use spray paint as a base. you have to use a white lacquer dip. the thinner will pick the spraypaint right off the arrow. if you want to try lacquer i'd advise getting the instructional cd bohning puts out. it gets very specific how long you want your white dip to stream off the arrow before starting to drip. you have a 5 second window that gets a little tricky to attain using thinner. by now you've saved $100 with greg's directions for the spinner, so why not spend some of it. :D

RE: Finally. . .it has arrived!
 

happy fletching! [8D]

RE: Finally. . .it has arrived!
 

Thanks for the help so far guys. . .

Greg, I guess I could quickly solve that problem by using feathers, but I have close to 150 vanes I would like to use up first. :D Boy, that picture looks great!! Very professional. ;) (Interest is racking up my friend. . .)

Gibblet, I was actually looking around the Bohningwebsite thiseveningtrying to findthearrow shaft holderthat goes on the output shaft of the sewing machine motor. I found tons of stuff that I would love to have, but I think you might have a point. I didsave some dough on the machineso I may look into a dip tank and some lacquer paints.

As soon as I saw their website list lacquer paints I thought of yet another question. Enamel vs. Lacquer?!? Pros and cons of either?

This questions wouldhave been helpful prior to me buying the enamel paint but I can always put the enamel to use in other hobbies.

I will probablyhave totake a list of questions to the Trad. guys but I thought I would reply here first just in case someonemight have some answers.

Thanks!

P.S. JLmoore, it seems like it will be a satisfying reward once I get my cresting and fletching operation up and running. Can't wait to see how things turn out.

RE: Finally. . .it has arrived!
 

Bols, I bought the Bohning coupler from a traditonal archery catalog... Something like King Archery, but I can't remember... LIke I said, it was around $7 or so. If you can't buy it direct from Bohning, you may want to try something like that.

RE: Finally. . .it has arrived!
 

the pros of lacquerare the colors are phenomenal, and the vanes stick to it like crazy, i mean like crazy.

the cons - good gosh does it smell.

again, get the cd, or i can send you mine. you really want to thin everything out. saves paint, saves grains, and you can get your lines finer. check out the metallic colors, like silver and gold, but also jade, plum, blue. they're sweet.

if you noticed in the spray cresting video, if you saw it, he said to stick the vanes to the lacquered area. i did this wrong, and stuck them to the enamel area. some vanes stuck ok, but none stuck well. they stick much better if they have lacquer - even if its white spray pt. i don't know why.

i really wish you could spray pt white lacquer and then crest with lacquer, but the thinner used to thin the paints melts the spray paint. it turns into a mess.