Loving this digital manufacturing for bowhunting
 

The brown truck dropped off a 3D printer for archery and bowhunting related prototyping. (and for generally playing around)



As well as a variety of ridged and flexible filament to proto design concepts.



First up is prototyping a broadhead for an upcoming bear hunt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENFQUgQgb9g

We are playing around with the 3D printer making prototypes of things we have been wanting to make or improve upon.

First up is a vision of an improved version of an existing product to replace fletching. FOB's are a good product that can be made better. Not necessarily for sale but for personal use, education and enjoyment. I made the ring a bit smaller but the fins a bit bigger.



It weighs slightly less than the FOB brand



clearance from a drop away will be a bit better with this version.



They have a 4 degree offset but I want 7 but may increase that further. FOB's fins are flat. I made this with a curve or radius like an airplane wing to see if that will improve flight. (Again, experimenting)


Time to make a few more and test shoot them.

After test firing them they still hit my face. We are getting closer but time to improve further.

1. Improved rest clearance.
2. Reduced face contact.
3. Reduced weight. (less than existing FOB and closer to 3 Blazers/glue)
4. Increased spin rate.
5. Increase total surface area of fins.
6. Airfoil fins rather than flat.

By making the annular ring smaller and pushing it forward 3/4", the facial contact issue improves as does rest clearance. I prototyped an early version yesterday but went back to the drawing board today.



Next up is a call for the stupid, smelly field carp.

I printed the pot for the call. One in black and another in Black and red and designed in some text just for giggles.



Then made aluminum sound boards



Aluminum and cooper



and a sliding top for the striker to change the tone.





Just waiting for the epoxy to cure to test them for sound.



A 3D printed shelf with hooks we made for hub style blinds.



Adding some hooks and shrink tube.





To quiet the shelf an old mouse pad and double sided tape was used.





Perfect fit.



Plenty of room on the shelf and to hang things.

I could use that shelf for my ice shanty.
Good stuff keep it coming.

Back to the drawing board.

Existing FOB's weigh 24.5 grains. Our early prototype of a modified annular airfoil fletch was 23 grains but like everybody else we dislike weight on the rear end of the arrow so we took out weight in no-stress areas and got the weight down to a (calculated) 20 grains (the weight of 3 blazers with glue). We won't know for certain until we make a few and throw them on the scale. Here is what they will look like now.

3D Printing
 

As an amateur looking at the future, I see a remanufacture of parts for old, discontinued manufactured items. Not so much new competitive parts, but the 3D manufacture of old , discontinued parts, no longer manufactured.

I see just the opposite. With digital manufacturing we can now create new parts and designs that could not otherwise be made using casting, molding machining, or other conventional methods. Making hollow parts with material only where you need it and parts without draft because they dont have to come out of a mold or parts where you pause the digital manufacturing to embed parts of different materials and resume printing to encapsulate those parts. On top of that, the time from concept to "in your hands" is very short.

I printed the latest version. I dont know that my scale is sensitive enough to capture the weight reduction. The calculated weight should have had this thing at 20 grains.







Before any more design changes are made test shooting needs to be completed.

But................... Not today.

Nice projects. Thanks for sharing. All the best.

I like that shelf, great idea

We have a family friend that has a degenerative disorder that has resulted in her having to spend the bulk of her time in a motorized wheel chair. She is able to get out of it only to use the restroom. She can use the chair to get upright and then use a walker to transfer herself to the toilet. Sadly she is unable to bend over to reach the foot pads to swing them up and out of the way. She asked if we could design her an aid to allow her to reach the foot pads to lift them out of the way. Right now she must have a family member at home with her to lift the foot pads for her.

The criteria were that the aid has to have a large handle so she could grip it, it has to reach 24” but be able to be compressed into a smaller footprint to allow it to be stored in a bag attached to the chair and it had to be light weight. We began the project Friday night and completed it on Sunday morning so we were able to turn it around in less than 48 hours.

We were happy to help and to find another use for the 3D printer and to allow her to regain more independence. The final product weighed only 13 Oz.

A little long distance testing of the AAF (annular Airfoil Fletching)