Help on footing arrows

[tamure]

Hi guys, I've got a bunch of arrows that are broken either just behind the point, or are split 3-5" at the nock. I'd like to be able to splice them or foot them or something, because I'm running out of arrows!

I saw the how-to on making the footing jig, but I don't know enough about footing for it to make any sense. Does anyone have a pictoral of the various stages of footing a shaft, or a "foot along?"

I'm limited in the tools I have: cordless drill and dremel. I've been saving my bucks for either a drill press or a bandsaw, but have not purchased either yet.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Traxx]

Did i show you,the footings,that i bought from Asharrow?The ones that just slip over a point taper.

[tamure]

No, Skip was saying something about that. Are they decently strong?

[tamure]

OK, just took a long hot shower and I think the lightbulb finally came on.

So the jig is to hold the arrow at the proper angle so that if you ran a router or a drill press along the edge of the jig, it would make a 90-degree groove in the arrow that would taper up the shaft to nothing. Four such grooves would make the end of the arrow look like an X or a cross. Two would make it look like a pie with the two opposite quarters missing. The former would be a "four point" footed arrow, and the latter would be "two point" right?

Then if you were making a two point, you'd do the same on the foot blank, and also cut a slot down the middle. Is that right? For a four.... you'd have to center drill it somehow at the same angle as the jig... and cut two perpendicular slots. That sounds much harder to do.

I assume you would cut the slots in the hardwood foot, rather than the cedar arrow?

Is it ok to foot with cedar to cedar? How about those oak dowels they sell at Home Depot?

I'm envisioning a jig like in the how-to, a 90-degree v groove router bit and the router dremel attachment. Does that sound reasonable? Not sure how I would cut the slot without a bandsaw though. Hmmm.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I am really interested in those reparrows that asharrow makes. anybody have any pros and cons?

[JStark]

I haven't tried it yet, but I found a website that does a decent job of explaining the process here:

 http://www.africanarcher.com/footed.html

Again, I've zero experience, but maybe this'll help?

[Van/TX]

The Reparrows work great.  These are some I've done.

   

However, you can make a simple single splice footing pretty easy and they work great.  I've done a bunch of these like below

 
 

[Van/TX]

Just a fairly simple jig on your disc belt sander is all you need.  The angle is about 5 degrees for a 3 1/2 to 4" length splice.  It's stronger than the original shaft..  

 
 
You'll need some wood glue and rubber bands.

Or you can do aluminum footings.  They will work but I like wood footings the best.  More traditional          

   

[42WLA]

Now that is thrifty!

[tamure]

Thanks Van, King of Thrift!

I'll have to give that a try. Right now priority is function. Later on maybe I'll try the fancy ones.

[the Ferret]

Van, my question is how in the devil do you manage to break so many arrows? LOL You need to shoot at something a little softer!

[Traxx]

T,
The footings,work well.The weakest point of em,are where the thinnest part of em connect to the shaft.Skip came up with a solution,that is gonna make these things darn near indestructable.
It involves a tool he has,a drill,and some bamboo skewers.We did one up at his place.Its pretty cool.

[bjk]

The reparrows are the best thing to come along since...anything for wood arrows.  I've done some Van's way which is very cool, but you can't beat the reparrows for ease of use.

Buy some, well worth the cost.

[tamure]

I've heard about this infamous bamboo skewer jig.  What size drill do you use?

Who sells the Reparrows?

[NativeArcher]

please explain this skewer jig please thanks...matt

[Van/TX]

 Van, my question is how in the devil do you manage to break so many arrows? LOL You need to shoot at something a little softer!  

I do manage to break a few but I mostly repair those discarded on the range by others.  I got a couple of folks who save them for me also.  You can never have too many broken arrows.  Come in handy for all sorts of suff    ...Van

[Roadkill]

NEVADA breaks arrows-lots of them.
Skip here.
My jig is a simple iron round stock (3.5 by 1.5 inches) with a  11/32+ hole to about 2 inches deep drilled in the center bottom. From the top 1.5 inches I put an 1/8 hole.  I simply insert teh arrow shaft on the bottom end and drill a 1/8 inch shaft from the top.  it centers itself.  then I taper the point and place a bamboo screwer n.  the bamboo takes up a lot of the flex without breaking, and I do not glue the bamboo, only the point tot he taper.  It seems to work pretty well.  I have access to a multitude of milling , lathing and welding ops as they build airpanes from the ground up.  Make things up and go build them to see it it works.

Kerry, I have everything you need to repair arrows-including a jig to foot my shafts using 1/16 hard wood pieces-these work rreally well and weights the shaft so your FOC can be adjusted as you go!  I'll post some pics when I get a camera compatible with internet.

[Tom Leemans]

I knew it! I was gonna say that I bet Van has a quiver full of a great variety of types of fletching and cresting.
 

[ChrisS]

Alright, you guys are going to laugh at this.. it looks crude but it works.

I came up with 2 methods, the first was just a couple of hardwood 2x2's. First I routed the groove, then took a jack plane to the top to angle it. My dremel with router attachment just rides on top and the fence follows one of the sides.  I use a diamond shaped bit. The bit wasn't really meant to cut with the tip, but it still works.

The second method is similar, but it uses the side of the bit instead of the tip, so it cuts better.  I couldn't find my sled for this method, so just imagine a similar one to the one in the picture, but tapered on the bottom. I mount the router attachment fence to a saw horse so that the fence adjusts the height. Then I just set the depth and run the sled through, rotate the arrow, rinse and repeat.