Milling Down Brass Inserts

[mikebiz]

For those of you shooting smaller diameter carbons like the Carbon Express Heritage 75 & 90 or the CE Predator II 20/40 there are no brass inserts currently manufactured that fit those shafts.  However it is very easy to mill down standard size brass inserts with tools you probably have laying around.  

Get yourself a drill (with a trigger lock), some bar or C-clamps, a single cut mill bastard file, a triangular file and some safety glasses.  Clamp the drill on its side to a stable surface like a workbench or table.  I used two bar clamps to hold the drill down to the tabletop.  The drill should be spinning towards you.  Screw a field point into an insert.  Place the field point into the drill chuck and torque it down.  Fire up the drill and lock the trigger.  Now all you need to do is apply medium pressure to the file on the brass and work the file back and forth until the proper diameter is achieved. I checked for fit with one of my arrow shafts.  Once proper diameter is reached I used the triangular file to cut three grooves around the insert that give the glue something to bite into.

I was able to take a dozen 100 grain brass inserts down in about 30 minutes.  I ended up with 85 grain inserts that perfectly fit my shafts.  Love my homemade metal lathe.

For the record I didn't come up with this method.  I read about it on this cool forum called TradGang.  I was nervous about trying it out, but it is really simple and allows us skinny lightweights to add some nice mass up front.  Good luck.

[wtpops]

I dont know the inside diameter of the shafts you use but you might check them and see if they are the same as the Axis ot MFX shafts, if they are the same then the HIT insert system would fit. Just a thought.

Cool idea with the drill and file, i will keep that in mind if i need to turn down something. Im always tinkering with something.

[SlowBowinMO]

Originally posted by wtpops:
I dont know the inside diameter of the shafts you use but you might check them and see if they are the same as the Axis ot MFX shafts, if they are the same then the HIT insert system would fit. Just a thought.
 

Good idea but no, they are not the same.

[BWD]

Its easy to do by chucking a straight sided field point in a drill press, then screwing the insert on it. Turn the drill press on a lay a file against it, using a draw file motion. About the time you get the diameter down to where the grooves are disappearing, you are getting close. Best I recall, 100gr. weights wind up being around 82-84grs. when sized to fit a heritage 90.

[JRY309]

It works great I've done that for my CE Heritage 90 since they came out a few years ago.