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Setting Up a QAD.. or other Drop Away Rest

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Setting Up a QAD.. or other Drop Away Rest

Old 11-14-2008, 11:32 AM
  #1  
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Default Setting Up a QAD.. or other Drop Away Rest

There are lots of ways to get to the hole in golf. Some folks drive to the green off the tee, some go down the fairway, some use the cart path, some take a drop after slicing into the woods. Others find themselves in the sand or the water. I'm usually by the cart path with a $10 bill waiting for the beer cart girl to make it back around again. But no matter how you play it, the hole is in the same place for everyone.

This is the way I get to the hole... I think its about as straight a shot down the fairway, and as solid a way to set up a drop away rest as I have ever seen, and I've been doing it this way for a couple of years. You don't need a bow press or any special tools other than a set of allen wrenches, and perhaps a bow square if you don't have a calibrated eyeball.

So without further ado... here we go.

I used a 2009 Bowtech Admiral and a QAD Ultra Pro-Series HD for this demo. I set up every drop away in this manner. Only difference is a QAD locks in the up position. Doesn't matter what it is, this is a solid no slip no fuss way of doing it and making sure its right.

Step 1: Obviously opening the package. There are a lot of small parts involved. I've seen lots of creative ways of applying the adhesive silencers. I think I've got a good system (I use a filet knife), its complicated and the topic of another thread. But first and foremost, take the two sides of the clamp, the two nuts and four bolts/screws and securely place them here....




Step 2: Attach the rest to the bow itself. Almost every new bow these days is going to require the additional spacer in order to achieve proper center shot, so go ahead and put it in now. I like to set them up initially so that the rest, when laying flat, is just off the shelf. It all depends on exactly how/where your bow's berger holes are located as to how high/low your arrow will be sitting in relationship to the shelf. I always use the set screw also, but I take a small piece of rubber, usually from the spacers that come on Kwickee Kwivers and slide it in front of the set screw. That will protect your bow's finish from having those nasty set screw rings.











Step 3: Now that we have the rest on the bow, its time to start attaching the cord to the down-stroking cable. You can do this before or after establishing initial nock point and installing a loop. Since my focus was on the rest itself, I did this one before hand. Either way, doesn't matter. I leave the cord from the rest at full length to begin with, and I trim off just enough to make a melted ball. I leave mine in a real ball.. I don't flatten the end or anything like that. Of course, you have way more cord than you need at this point, but you can always trim more off... putting it back on is a much harder situation....







Step 4: Next, I tie a hitch knotjust exactly like you would for half of a D-loop for your release. Doesn't matter really which way it faces, I usually have mine facing the hand side of the cables. I wax (bowstring wax)about the last 4 inches of so of the cord so that it will seat good and tight. Pull it good and snug at the end, you'll still be able to slide it up and down the cables.












Step 5: Now you want to establish/determine exactly where you want the knot to sit. I use a grease pencil in either yellow or red color (heck a twist tie or rubber band will work in a pinch), and I like to position mine to stop about even with the bottom of the grip on the riser. You don't need much string or much travel, the length of the bow, the cam system and your draw will determine how much cord you'll actually need. But we are getting to that.



Step 6: Next, take about a yard of serving string. BCY nylon, or whatever will work. Doesn't really matter. We use 30# black braided fishing line at the shop. Nice and heavy, very very very fray and nick resistant, and its a lot less expensive at wholesale than serving material is. A spool of this stuff will last us a couple years.

I take the knot and mark with the grease pencil directly above the knot, and then slide it down the cable just to get it out of the way. That marking will dictate the BOTTOM of your topside serving, which is the most important side of it as this is where all the pressure is going to be. That clamp will slide over time, and loosen and its just a pain. What I do is tie overhand/half-hitch knots from that mark, about an inch to an inch and a half up the cable. I tie one on the right side, then take the strands around opposite sides of the cable and tie another, and go back and forth and back and forth. These are not those crappy doubled up loop knots that a lot of shops use that will give you that spiraled look!!! If you get that... you are tying them wrong.... think about the first step of typing your shoe laces... thats theknot you want to tie... don't overcomplicate it!!!!Those hitches pull againest each other, and they will not slide. It also looks much much cleaner in addition to functioning better and not putting any stress on your cable by sliding something between them (which as Vabowman found out the hard way... your cord end can and will pull through your cable when you need it the most... right Landon???)







Back and forth, back and forth... until your total knot is about an inch to an inch and a quarter in length.



Your finished product should look something like this below. This is the top half of the cord setting knot.



Got a reply post forthcoming for the rest of the set-up. I'm going to eat some lunch first.


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Old 11-14-2008, 12:08 PM
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Default RE: Setting Up a QAD.. or other Drop Away Rest

I hate to admit it, but i am too lazy to tie in. I use the clamp football. I keep planning on tieing in, because the clamp gets loose all the time.

Good thread.
 
Old 11-14-2008, 12:13 PM
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Default RE: Setting Up a QAD.. or other Drop Away Rest

Great thread.....I needed it two days ago before i clamped on my rest and cut it..... Maybe i will go get new string and retry. But I can't see the pics! They are not showing up for some reason.
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Old 11-14-2008, 01:24 PM
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Default RE: Setting Up a QAD.. or other Drop Away Rest

Funny, there are 8 guys across this country that are going to keep checking this thread until the rest of the explanation comes up, and Swamp Collie is sitting in a treestand right now giggling about it!!!
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Old 11-14-2008, 01:29 PM
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Default RE: Setting Up a QAD.. or other Drop Away Rest

Either that or he gets a really really long lunch break.....
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Old 11-14-2008, 02:12 PM
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Default RE: Setting Up a QAD.. or other Drop Away Rest

PART II

Step 7: Take the cord you have tied in a half hitch and slide it to butt up againest the bottom of the serving. Then take a screwdriver or something stout, wrap the cord around it and tighten the snot out it... get all the stretch out.

Now you are ready to tie a similar knot on the BOTTOM of the half hitch. You don't have to tie nearly as many half hitches as you did above. All you want this knot to do is hold the hitch in the cord in place. I usually tie about 8-10 knots. This knot you will be able to slide up and down the cable, so tie it low and slide it up to butt againest the bottom of the hitch.



When you slide that bottom knot up it should look like this. Your cord is now securely and neatly attached to your cable.




Step 8: Now its time to time the rest. If you haven't yet put a nock set and loop on your bow... check out Greg's sticky post at the top of the tech page. I do mine a little differently, but Greg's method is great and his post is very well laid out and easy to follow.

On most drop away rests, you'll have some type of set screw or other device that holds the cord to the rest. In some cases, its just a hole that the cord runs through. No matter, what you want to do is pull the cord almost totally tight while the bow is just sitting at brace. Obviously its going to be too short, but we are going to let the bow dictate the cord length. On this QAD, there is a set screw on the thumb wheel. Loosen that set screw and pull the cord through. On other drop aways such as Trophy takers, a brass nock set is useful (its about the only thing its useful for) just simply to serve as a reference point.

Now that you have the cord taught at brace, draw the bow back... the cord will feed itself through and be nice and tight at full draw. Let the bow back down and pull about another centemeter of cord through the rest. This will make it raise up faster.





Like Greg, I don't use (and frankly loath) brass nock sets. I tie in my own. There are lots of ways to do this. I think the way I do it is faster than Greg's, its certainly no less solid, but Greg's are cleaner looking. Make sure your D-Loops knots are on opposite sides!





Notice I switched arrows for drawing the bow back. I've never (touch wood) had a knot come out, but I don't take any precautions either. This Carbon Express measurement arrow is about as tough as they come, and it has a rubber bludgeon on the end. Its espeically useful here because you can see exactly how/where I have set the rest to come full upright.

This first picture is after I have drawn the bow with the set loose. Notice that a lot of the cord has pulled back through the rest leaving me with about a 4" tag end.



Now I get my grease pencil back out and mark the cord flush at the back side of the thumb wheel. That I use as a reference, because if the cord is at that position, it will be coming full taught right at the wall (which is too late). What I do is pull about a quarter inch or so (centermeter roughly) of cord back through the set. This will make the rest come up sooner. You want the rest to be coming full up set about an inch and a half to 2" before the wall. In the case of the admiral that is about an inch before the valley. Mark the cord, tighten the set screw, and now its time to check the timing.




You can see in picture one that the rest hasn't yet come up. For a point of reference, lets use the forward berger hole. On this graduated arrow, I'm at 26" and the rest is just getting ready to start coming taught.

In the second picture, I'm at full draw, pulled into the back wall and you can see that 28" is right at the forward berger hole. Thats about perfect.... 2" before the wall she rises up... she's taught at 1.5"... which gives us that much safety gap. The other thing I do is take a lighter and singe the cord to take all the play out of it. It will take a fair amount off the length. Don't over do it because you can melt through it. You'll notice the cord will move when you burn it tight.... almost like a worm out of the container. It will also make it much much stiffer... which is good because in extreme cases you can have your cord whip back toward the arrow and it can catch the fletchings, which will really foul up your performance... and its a hard thing to catch too.



Full draw.



Thats pretty much all there is to it. You may have to adjust a bit on cord length... you won't always nail it the first time. When you have the length right... cut off the excess... save it, because it might be enough to make a D-Loop from (you need exactly 4.5"), and its always good to have a spare.

I take a fray the end of the cord, and burn it back flush with the thumb wheel. Double check and make sure everything is good and tight.



Finished product.


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Old 11-14-2008, 03:24 PM
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Default RE: Setting Up a QAD.. or other Drop Away Rest

ORIGINAL: bcvd45

Either that or he gets a really really long lunch break.....
Hey... opening day of the deer season is tomorrow... and since license sales are done over the computer.. and I need the computer to write a post... priorities you know... that and I even sold a pair of bows today. I can spend idle time on here... but I can't exactly run off my customers... somebody has gotta drive the mule.
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Old 11-14-2008, 04:53 PM
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Default RE: Setting Up a QAD.. or other Drop Away Rest

That's a great post.

Just one question, how do you finish off the knot holding the timing cord in place?
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Old 11-14-2008, 08:53 PM
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Default RE: Setting Up a QAD.. or other Drop Away Rest


ORIGINAL: dogboy900

That's a great post.

Just one question, how do you finish off the knot holding the timing cord in place?


There are several ways to do this. Personally... I tie a double overhand (run the tag end through the loop twice) and I do this twice (once on each side) and then I pull it super tight.. and melt the ends down CAREFULLY!!!! Remember that heat rises, forget that simple physics fact and I'll sell you new cable too....

You don't have to do this.. but I do it because its really just a red badge of courage. That knot ain't coming out once you melt it down and mash it flat.. but doubling it up help me sleep at night.
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Old 11-14-2008, 08:58 PM
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Default RE: Setting Up a QAD.. or other Drop Away Rest

I gave up on a QAD...just wouldn't work with my PSE. Got a Trophy Taker and no more problems. Now, I'm gonna try the Starrflight FOBs, so, that'll bring up a whole new mess of problems, probably. I'm going to put my QAD Ultra HD on my Parker Wildfire so this'll be a great thread for that setup. Maybe it'll be a bit more accomodating. Now I need to find a bow to put my QAD Hunter on.
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