I am getting ready to start building arrows again. Several years ago I used Fletchtight for vanes and some kind of hot melt adhesive for inserts. As I said, it has been several years since I have built arrows and need some advice.

What is the best glue or gel for applying plastic vanes to carbon arrows and alums?

What is best for applying metal inserts into carbon arrows? And,can the inserts be removed once they are glued in?

For vanes, I' ve always used super glue gel from any walmart, quick-stop, etc. The glue works great with no prep required for AAE and I think fastfletch also. The vane will rip before the base lets go.
For inserts on alums and ACC' s, hot melt glue. For carbons, alot of folks use two part epoxy. But with that, you better be right on the length and point weight, because they are in for good. I' ve used household adhesive called " goop" and it will let go with minimal heat on cxl carbons. Just heat the point tip and let the heat transfer to the shank while pulling. That will minimize the heat to the shaft. Let that glue set for 24 hours. I can' t speak for Gold Tip and other all carbon shafts.

Steele Force glue works great on all carbon shafts for me.

Jetblast, how easy is it to get the old super glue off when it becomes time to replace the fletching.

Not that hard. Just a very very dull knife. Did I say dull? And the glue will scrape off. There may be a " texture" of glue remaining, but it doesn' t effect refletching. It' ll be very minimal in spots.

I use Krazy glue for inserts in gold tips. It holds great and it is cheap. IMO it holds better than the two part epoxy.

I crown/crest my shafts, especially carbons because the vanes/feathers bond better. For carbons, I sand the shafts a bit, clean with alcohol, dip in white enamel paint once or twice, coat with one or two dips of polyacrylic then Duco cement for the feathers/vanes. Its kinda fun, and they really show up well in flight.

You can use those EZE Crest things too - they work well, or buy some good quality bumper sticker paper and make your own. They wont be as durable, or waterprrof, but they will work.

The best glue I' ve used on carbons is the Fletch Tite II gel from Bohning. The thinner super glue is harder to use without it running. To put the inserts in I use the Bohning Powerbond. The most important thing is to rough up the inside of the shaft (I use a brass bore brush) and then clean it (I use acetone on a Q tip). Hope this helps.

For my inserts I use Powerbond. The glue I use for putting vanes on my Gold Tips is a super glue type of glue called Future Glue. It is an automotive type glue that is supposedly able to bond even on greasy parts. I know it works great for vanes and dries in about 15 seconds. I bought about 10 tubes of the AAE fast gel and didn' t really like it as well so now I have a buch of that sitting around that I won' t use. But I am happy with the Future glue. I get it from Gordon at High Mtn. Archery corp.

I really like goat tuff. It dries fast and adheres very well. It can be scraped off quite easily with a dull knife.