Hello All, I got bored over Christmas break from work so decided to try to make my own shaft jig....learned a lot along the way so I thought I would share it with you guys.

I attached some photos of the finished jig as well as some simple plans. It actualy works great!

This great journey of traditional archery has many facets above and beyond shooting and hunting. Making your own equipment is part of the fun and unique to our form of archery....just ask how many wheelie guys make their own stuff!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and feel free to ask any questions or clarifications. I am finishing up the first run of Aspen shafts (ya, we got a bunch of this stuff up here in MI!) and will post some pics of them after they are finished.

Stu, need some more pictures. What you have looks very good to me though. Flint

Nice Stu, can you post a video?

Here is a simple diagram of the main body of the jig with dimensions on the hole diameters and such.

LESSON LEARNED: The input shaft square must fit snuggly into the 9/16" inlet to get a good smooth consistant diameter shaft. Also, it helps that there is good support all the way up to the cutter.

Here is a view through the dust discharge hole. One with and without the router bit.

The nice thing is that when you keep the chip passage small like this there is absolutely no dust or chips that escape when running it.

I used a normal router that is simply mounted upside down under a piece of plywood. The bit shown here is a 1/2" straight cutter.

Here is a pic of the jig mounted using a 1/4 bolt to the router table. The adjustment of the output shaft diameter is made by simply rotating the jig and then clamping in the desired position. I found that 0.350" is about perfect for getting a 11/32" final samded shaft.

Lesson Learned: Since the starting square ripped piece is 7/16" square the four edges will interfere with the round 9/16" inlet. I used a piece of brass tubing that I sharpened and filed a few teeth on the OD. This helps cut off the square edges as you feed the stock in.

Here is a pick of the jig in place and a shaft being turned. I used a cordless drill with the square end of the shaft in a normal socked drive. The jig is held in place by the 1/4" bolt on the clamp at the far end. The black tube is my shop vac hose to keep thing nice and clean as you cut (kkeps the wife happy since I'm doing this in the basement!)

Note: there are two small pieces that keep the shaft stable as it rotates and exits the main body. I simply used a couple grommets (used on tarps, etc.) that are pressed into holes inthe oak. They have a 3/8" ID which works well.

Here is a pic that shows the finish of the as cut shafts (top) and the shafts after a quick sanding in a simple jig (next post.

The finish is really pretty good and requires only minor sanding to complete. The diameter varies only about 0.005" over the entire shaft length.

Here is a view of a simple sanding jig I made to finish the shafts. It is a scrap piece of 2" x 2" hickory that I drilled a 3/8" thru hole. I then mounted a piano hinge on one side and cut it down the middle as shown. It makes a pefectly alligned clam shell.

Simply lay a piece of sandpaper into the open fixture, set a shaft in place and close. You can spin the shaft in a drill as you run the fixture down the entire length. I actually found that the sanding needed in minimal and it is easier to simply used the sandinf jig in one hand and the shaft in the other. You can control the pressure on the paper by tightening your grip but it doesn't take much. Final shaft dimension is 11/32 on the nose! Simple and works good.

Stu, very nice indeed. I may need to build one now. Flint

Way Cool!!! Thanx for sharing

Nice work and a little more than necessary. 8-)

If you make a bushing for the output that is .001-.002 smaller than the router-cut shaft, it will burnish the shaft so smooth it will look like you already varnished it.

My input bushing slightly crushes the corners of a 3/8ths square dowel and the arm that carries the bushings pivots and the dial indicator is directly opposite the cutter. I can change the cut diameter by any amount by watching the indicator while moving the arm.

I also chuck the end of the finished shaft in the drill and pull it on through, so no square end is left to be wasted.

please more pics, Jim

Outstanding guys!...Van

Stu, Now thats a Great Looking jig.

Wow! tlm

sorry, hadn't been back for a while. Here are more pictures, The aluminum angle piece is just because I didn't have a long enough piece of steel angle.

The black wheel at the left has been removed as being unnecessary with the dial indicator.

Here's a bigger version of the labeled picture.

I use a similar jig with the exception that I have suspended a 3/8 socket as a bearing for my infeed, so that eliminates having to waste wood, I also found that using a spiral router bit can improve the finish. One peculiarity Ive noticed is that my jig will mysteriously produce a full taper shaft +/- 1/64th end to end. By the way Jim numbered dits vs imperial to get the few thousandths difference?

archergreg, could you explain about not wasting wood and your use of a socket. I use a socket to drive the shaft and a bolt in the drill to drive the socket.

I get no wasted wood because when I run out of room for the socket, I chuck the drill on the finished end of the arrow shaft and pull it on through the setup.

Then, pardon my ignorance, what's a "dit?" I turned and bored my bushings to fit a line-bored hole in the aluminum block that holds them. I set the block so that the cutter leaves the shaft a couple of thousands of an inch larger than the output bushing. We're working in fractional sizes of an inch: 11/32 = .344 in round numbers--actually, .34375 5/16 = .3125 33/64 = .39375

By the way, I get no taper in the shafts I make.

Curious about the reference to "imperial" too. I know "Imperial" measure for Canadian volumes, British standard for threads and bolt sizes, ASME for American threads and bolt sizes but the sizes I'm working with are just the inch system.

Reparrow man

Here is a photo of the first Apen wood arrows. The three longer ones (29.5)are set up for 40# and the two shorter ones(28.5") are 50#. The deflection on the Aspen I used at a 11/32" diameter fell within a range of 0.510" and 0.620"

The grain of the wood isn't the most attractive but for lighter spine weight arrows I think they will work well. Next step is to shoot the heck out them to see how durable they will be.

My next set will be 11/32 douglas fir shafts which will probably spine higher and be more appropriate to hunting arrows.

Jim

Hey sorry for the mis spells, I meant bits. I know most bits are fractional then there are ones that are not, they are assigned a # since the decimal equivalent is not easily reduced to a fraction of 8,16,32,or 64. the waste I was refering to is on Stus jig that uses a 7/16 blank vs 3/8. Good arrow wood is good arrow wood so why waste it by cutting it larger than need be or using a full kerf blade to cut it.

I chuck a bolt and socket to drive the blank into the cutter. My jig itself I used a 7/8 bit and drilled bookmatched holes 1/2 the depth of a 3/8 drive socket that fits with a minimum of play, drill a 1/2" hole through on the center of the of the 7/8 holes screw the 2 halves together with the bearing sandwiched in between. Im left with a "bearing" that has a 3/8 square hole on center.

Most of the arrows I make are out of clean 2x4s I come across usually 8' s cut into 3-32" peices. I just chop off the 2 inches that are still square.

Nice arrows Stu

Hey archergreg, you had me puzzled for a while there. But everyone has a byslexic moment now and then. 8-)

I run my squares all the way through partly because the output bushing is pretty snug on the newly cut round shaft. I'd have to back it all the way out with the drill. The other reason is that I don't want to waste any wood. You're not wasting any. Using 8' wood there would be that much unusable anyway.

Stu, that's a beautiful cresting job on those shafts. I don't even try to get fancy. Just a red band about a half inch wide with fine black line at each end and one in the middle.

Reparrow man

Thank you for the kind comments on the arrows. My homemade crester is made out of scrap pieces of oak trim also! Seems like every time I make arrows I start out by saying that I'm just going to make some plain basic shoot'n stick and by the time I get to finishing them I can't keep my self from prettying them up a bit. Those five in the phot only took about a hour to crest including setup and clean-up so I guess it is only a fraction of the time to make the whole arrow.

I just tonight ripped a couple dozen beautiful straight grained Douglas Fir. The grain alone is going to make these look ten times better!

Tomorrow, I plan to start on a four wing footing jig....any tips or suggestions?

Any tips or suggestions for cutting arrow blanks. Selecting wood.

I haven't been doing this too long but from what I have learned so far I would suggest starting with the douglas fir. It is readily available and inexpensive. It will make you a nice durable arrow suitable for 50# plus bows.

Find the straightest wood first, pine go for the tightest grain, hardwoods wide rings. a few knots are not terrible as you will need some wasters to tune up your jig. dont over look S-P-F 2x4s nice arrows lurk inside. When sawing blanks Joint 2 edges of your stock to get the straightest blank. I know wood moves but the straightest blank you can make will vibrate less for a more perfect dowel. Use a thin kerf blade (3/32" kerf) and you will squeak a couple extra blanks. Experiment! I have made great arrows from wood that just" looked good"

I band saw the first cut following the general angle of the grain. That way, there is almost no runout on my shafts. Can joint the band sawn edge and then rip the squares on the table saw.

reparrow man

Thanks for this tutorial...exactly what i was looking for!

Thanx for sharing.

When feeding stock in with socket and reach the end do you just stop and turn off router or pull shaft back out?

Yes, that is what I typically do.

Sometimes when I am in a hurry I simply snap the square end off by hand and then pull the round shaft out from the finished end.

If the starting stock is short then you could re-chuck on the opposite end and finish turning the remaining stock.

You guys are great I can tell that I need some more toys!

I like it, Stu. I also like Jim's version. I often thought of taking the time to set something up. I cut my shafts by hand with a plane. I can make a barrel chested pine shaft- grained and spined in about 20 minutes-30 tops if you added in ripping time on the table saw. How does that compare with a machine made shaft or total time? Jawge

Crafty - Finished arrows are very impressive. nice going

Outstanding! Thanks for posting Stu & Jim. -bb

Jawge, It takes me less than a minute to run a square shaft through my setup. The result is a perfectly round burnished shaft that needs no sanding.

I'd think it wasn't even traditional (grin) if I hadn't seen some of the machines that were available (at a stiff price) back in the '30s.

I have always wondered who invented this, I posted my version on line about 1999 and started seeing them a few years later. I had never seen one when I built mine. Mine was a simple block of hardwood with a feed hole exit hole and hole for the router bit. Steve

Somebody wrote an article about this kind of setup for Primitive Archer way back when. I had that in mind when I went "Web Crawler" ing for ways to make dowels.

I came across this: http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/dowelmakingjig.aspx

The author of this article says he saw it in Woodsmith Magazine "about twenty years ago"--That is twenty years before the highlandwoodworking article...

I'm certain of this: I didn't invent it!

Jim

I was in the garage one day and wanted to make some arrows and just through one together without much thought. A few years later an arrow thread came up and I posted my jig. I imagine probably quite a few guys did the same thing I did. The only difference from making molding is that the shaft is spinning. I use my table saw instead of the router now. The one I posted around 1990 looks more like Stus but shorter. Steve

I meant 2000 not 1990 Steve

Thanks, Jim. Jawge

If you have already registered, please

sign in now

For new registrations

Click Here