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thumb plan arrows???
Shooter_G22:
ok... i have read the post here on how to make baord arrows but still not sure on the thumb plan method... i think this is the easiest set up to get started.. right.. or at least the most inexpensive way to get started doing this correct???
i understand that you start out with 3/8" squar shafts and then plan the four corners until you have eight corners.. right and then repeat the process until you have a partially almost rond shaft and the either sand round or compress round useing a compression block like the one three rivers sells... or is there another way to compress mabe a way to make your own compressin block???
but here is my question or questions:
1. how do you plan the corners?? do you just hold the shaft straight and go to town or how do
make a jig to hold the arrow??? plans please... i dont have a roater so how do i make jig to
hold the arrow properly???
2. do i need to set the thumb plan blade a certian length or do i just use it the way it comes??
3. can i make my own compression block??? if so how??? and useing the compression block.. it needs to be heated correct??? can i build a jig that holds the compression block and a propane torch with the flam on the block to have a continouse heat on the block so i dont have to stop and heat the block???
4. on the 3 rivers catolog it says the compresion lock reduces the spine of an arrow?????? wouldnt compressing the wood make the wood more dense making the arrow stiffer and therefor incressing the spine??? can some on explain this to me???
5. i have another question that is a little of the wall.... ( what the heck is Footings)???? or foot blanks.. i have seen them also in the 3 rivers catalog and they leave me scratchin my noggin like what the hell ! lol... can some on explain and please post pics soo i can see these things and waht the are...
please post pics on all this stuff especaily the arrow shaft planing jigs to hold the arrows i'm thinking very seroiusly on starting to so this... and probably going to pick a thumb plane here in the next day or soo as soon as i make my way over to the lowes.. :)
oh also i was very interested in the dowel cutter that everybody talks of but i dont know where to buy one of these and also i have seen an add or two in my traditional achery and primitive archery mags but they are all in the couple of hundred bucks range and i read a post onhere that said something about a $30.00 rig... can sombeody post me that info as well..thanks
jape:
I just hold the shaft to be planed between the edges of my table vice, but it is easy enough to play with a couple of lengths of wood on your bench top to squeeze/hold the shaft between - you can clamp them, use grips or screw down depending on how you treat your bench. Most of it just commonsense that comes to you as you actually have the stuff in front of you. Naturally those boards are thinner than the shaft so it sticks up allowing a full run with the plane, and maybe you will want an 'end stop' so the shaft doesn't move forward as you work it. If the plane is sharp, then it will smoothly glide along the shaft without the shaft trying to lift. There really isn't a best way except what you work out on your bench, with your tools when you get playing at this. Don't vice/clamp up too hard or you will crush the corners, just enough to grip so it doesn't move when you plane. I am sure someone else will have other ideas but I think that with a sharp tool, finding that light touch is best in all woodwork using hand-tools, it is a sweet balance you will find and enjoy as a woodworker that enables the best work, then only with power tools do you need hard clamping and fixing.
If you want to be a bit fancier, then when you get a sharp plane in your hands, vice up a board and mark out 3/16 from each side of one edge. In other words beveling the corner off, down the length. Do this with two bits and when you put them down together you will have a 'v' shaped groove where the two boards meet which makes holding the shaft in between them a lot easier and presents the shaft corners up for you to plane. Hope you can see that easily enough from my description, that way you can bevel two long edges on thicker boards and they will make a straight shallow 'v' groove where they meet up to drop the shaft into without need for any router!
But you can't do a lot of damage doing it wrong with hand tools as long as you use commonsense, i.e. don't nail the shaft down and try and plane through the nail! (we all do stupid things at times!)
The plane blade should be sharp when purchased and sharpening is another skill, but I would wind it back to almost the sole (flat bottom) of the plane and get a fine shaving on a scrap to start with, then you can adjust as you wish depending on the wood type and how it peels off under the blade. Try and work out grain direction, watch out for splinters as you do this, you can always get a nasty one in the web of your thumb to make your eyes water. Wood will plane smoothly one way with the grain, but ruck up and even chip when you go the wrong way.
I find it simple enough to run the plane down a corner of a square shaft, just lightly, and that is easy enough to give you a starting bevel, do that on all four corners, as evenly by eye as you cna and all of a sudden by turning and planing gently you have the eight you want. Then plane each of the eight and you get sixteen and so on. The corner edge is a natural straight line to plane down, start lightly and try for an even depth and width. easy enough to take a little off, then some more, but impossible to replace once it is gone, so just start easy.
I will leave the compression block stuff to others, never tried one.
Footings are inserts of hardwood usually used to lengthen, strengthen or alter the front weight of a shaft. They look a bit like billiard cues, or pool sticks for you colonials, you know where you get the lighter shaft and a darker end? It is not something to start with until you get tools worked out but there are buildalongs for this about if you want to try it. You can also add a 'foot' at the nock end to repair a broken arrow, strengthen a nock etc. It is just a way of splicing.
ZanderPommo posted the dowel cutter for $30 information but hasn't replied to my request for details yet. I can't find one anywhere near that price but I will visit a few car boot ummm sorry, car 'trunk' sales to find one.
ZanderPommo:
what details do you want?
Zander
ZanderPommo:
the place I got mine was Lee Valley tools online
Zander
Pat B:
I made a jig to hold square stock while planing. It is a piece of 1" wood with a "V" groove down the center of its length and a stop(I used a glued in piece of wood) at one end. You place your square stock with one edge in the "V" groove and plane the opposite edge, rotate the stock and go to the next edge until all four and then all 8 corners are removed.
I have also just held the stock in my hand and with the plane in the other hand planed each corner. You will have more control with the first method.
You can also use a draw plate to reduce square stock. A draw plate is a plate of steel with graduating smaller holes that you "draw" the stock through. Some folks use an electric drill motor to spin the stock while working it through the draw plate.
Footings were originally used to repair broken arrows. Arrows and shafting were hard to come by so footings were used to repair broken arrows.Today they are used for that purpose but also for decoration and to add forward weight to your arrows.
Below are a few(not so good)pics of the jig I made. I don't use it much because I prefer cane or hardwood shoot arrows. Pat
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