Do you own a table saw?
If so, put a coarse sanding disc on it and make a plywood jig with a V-groove cut at 11 degrees to the sanding disc. Clamp it to the table saw and feed your shaft into the sanding disc while it's laying in the V-groove. Rotate the shaft as you go. It helps also to make some sort of adjustable stop at the end of the groove so all your tapers will be the same length. The V-groove will keep the shaft aligned and you will get a perfect taper and the points will fit perfect. IF YOUR SHAFTS ARE STRAIGHT, every one should spin perfect. Make a note though, a crooked shaft will never spin perfect even with a perfect point taper.
Lastly, a little tip for fine tuning the jig. Since cutting a perfect 11 degree V-groove is not always easy, just get it close and once clamped in place use a piece of spare shafting and grind a test taper. Slip a point on with no glue and without pressing hard, gently wiggle the point side to side. If you feel the point fits solidly and doesn't wiggle, do nothing to the jig and just start grinding your tapers. However, if you feel the tip wobble at the opening, you taper is to gradual so (while the jig is still clamped down) tap the jig to increase the angle a tad and regrind and wiggle test. If the point wobbled loose up inside but fit ok at the opening, the taper was too sharp so tap the jig the other way until a regrind fits perfectly.
Also, NEVER overheat your points. Especially with cedar shafts. Any point that is heated real hot usually needs to be put on with pliers and that's ok but you have to be careful to press and rotate the point straight onto the shaft. I've watched guys who build LOTS of arrows use a propane torch to heat the open end of the points while holding the tip bare handed. This works well and you won't likely overhead any that way but you have to not mess around. Get them in the flame, keep them rotating for a second or two and as soon as you feel heat, get a dab of hot glue on the shaft taper and slide the point home with a couple spins. A small bead of hot glue should push out around the opening. Quickly put the tip against a table or bench top and press down with the shaft for a few seconds till the hot glue sets a bit. While still worm but cool enough to touch, peel off the bead of glue that pushed out. Points that are overheated can actually deform the shaft taper as you twist the point to spread the glue. You can have a point that feels like it fits perfect after it's installed but it will spin badly because while you spun the overheated point onto the shaft with pliers, it distorted the taper off to one side. It's weird. Almost like the wood tries to melt (it actually just bends) and resets crooked if you have any misalignment while glueing it up. Moderate heat of the point and then a melted dab of hot glue onto the taper, a quick spin to spread the glue and all should go well.
Topic: wood arrow question (Read 315 times)
