Ace roller straightener tips

[Barry Winner]

I'm just starting to get into building wood arrows and I'm having a difficult time getting them straight.  I am using the Ace roller straightener.  Can anyone provide some tips, tricks, techniques for this tool?  How much/little pressure should be used?  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks.

[Bud B.]

I use mine with as little pressure as possible to get them straight. Roll and check. If not straight, roll with more pressure and check, and so on...

The only thing I really don't like about pressure straighteners (roller or hook) is they compress the fibers and sometimes on real crooked arrows you may get flat(ter) spots on the arrow.

I'll bet heat straightening looks alot better.

You'll learn how much pressure with each arrow and each type of wood used.

I just used mine last night on some 1/4" kids shafts for some Christmas arrows for my nephew.

[Barry Winner]

Thanks.  I think I've been using way too much pressure.

[30coupe]

With cedar shafts, I tend to have the best luck just using my hands. For a really crooked spot, I rub the high spot with my palm until friction warms it up. Then I check it. If the heat alone didn't do it, I'll tweak it by bending while the shaft is still warm. I've gotten some pretty ugly ones straight this way.

My experience has been the same as Bud's with pressure...flat spots. I think cedar is especially susceptible to that. Hardwood shafts may be a different story, but I haven't tried any of those.

[NoCams]

It doesn't take much with POC. Just guessing I would say 10-15lbs of force on the roller ? I too tended to use too much pressure on rough areas and would wind up going too far. I would then have to roll the arrow 180 degrees and roll it back the other way. I got so tired of straightening my last dozen POC's that I ordered as, "Premiums", that I ditched POC for Doug Firs from Surewoods. Talk about a straight arrow that will STAY straight....  

[Bjorn]

The best tip I can give you with the roller is to sell it-that's what I did with mine. Fingers do a waay better job.

[monterey]

I was straightening some poc the other day and not having a roller, was using a small jelly jar.  Funny thing was they were not comming round very well so decided to heat them over the stove element and hand straighten.  Ran them over the heat and then  looked down the shaft prior to hand straigtening and lo and behold the shaft was straight.  :confused:

[Bud B.]

Originally posted by Bjorn:
The best tip I can give you with the roller is to sell it-that's what I did with mine. Fingers do a waay better job.

I have to respectfully disagree. I have broken more shafts by trying to hand bend them compared to none with the roller. I'd say he should try it first before jumping to selling it.

With each way there's a learning curve. The curve has been easier for me with the roller.

I had to straighten a corkscrewed Surewood. (the only one I've ever seen do this - Surewoods are unbelievably straight) and the roller had me good to go in about five minutes or less.