Making arrow shafts using the Veritas Dowel Maker

[fish n chicks]

I was able to buy the dowel maker this past Christmas as a gift to myself. Yes, I bought myself a Christmas present. It was about $40 if I remember correctly. I figured worst case scenario, I can make my own 3/8" dowels. But, best case scenario, I can start cutting my own shafts for $40! I also bought the bit that holds the square stock you'll be making with a drill. I suggest getting the bit that connects that to your drill, if you don't have a bit already.

Fast forward about 6 months, and I come across a gorgeous piece of sitka spruce at woodcraft, and it was so not within my estimated, pre-taxed budget of $0. But, for $40, I estimated I can probably get about 3 dozen shafts out of the board. It made sense in my mind so home it went.

     

I finally get some time to spend in the shop (i'll be updating the "shop shots" thread I started over a year ago with my own pics soon I hope) with the trad bow(s) I tried making. And while gluing up 5 board bows, I had some time to try to make some shafts.

This thread is here because it went pretty well. So here goes how it went.

First, I cross cut my board to 32". That's my 28" arrow length, + 3" for the drill bit's end, plus 1" for just in case. Now, the board I picked up was only so long so that I would get 3 lengths of 32" stock. If I tried for 36" stock, I would not have enough for that 3rd set. Under normal circumstances, I'd like a 36" piece of stock I think. I cut these on my table saw to about 7/16" x 7/16". I got 10 pieces of stock out of that end.

     

Next, the jig. I had some cherry scrap I used for a base, and also the supports for the outfeed side. I cut grooves into the supports, and rounded off the infeed side of the supports to help guide the shaft. I then clamped it to the bench, and set a bucket under the dowel maker for the ridiculous amount of shavings you'll get.It's pretty awesome actually. I use some 150 grit sand paper to hold the shaft in place and it sands the shaft down at the same time. Otherwise, it comes out pretty rough. Nothing you can't clean up by just running sandpaper up and down the shaft. afterwards too so it's up to you which way to go.

     


Then I got to work. This is easier to show with a video. I don't know how to put the actual video on the site yet. If anyone does, please feel free to let me know. TIA!

     


This is what I got:

     
 


Then, I put together the knock down spine tester, and brought out the scale, and marked my shafts accordingly.  

     


I mark weight in grains, and spine in #'s. I ended up with 5 good shafts after all the experimenting, learning, and breaking. 2 shafts were 50#'s at around 307 grains and 320 grains, one was 53#'s at 310 grains, one at 54#'s at 312 grains, and one at 58#'s at 344 grains. All came to 23/64" diameter. I dialed down a bit on the blade to take it from 3/8" to 23/64". Glad I did since I shoot mostly 45-50# bows.

     

[fish n chicks]

And after you clean this up (I filled a 5 gallon bucket 6" dp with 10 shafts), you can start making arrows from your new, home designed shafts.

   


Hope this helps some folks that were wondering if this tool would actually work. It did for me!

[red hill]

Nice job, fish. Very informative and useful.
Stan

[Jake Fr]

i have one of these dowle makers looks i need to get it set up and start using it thanks thats pretty cool

[jonathan creason]

I just got a dowel maker yesterday.  Set mine up much like you did, but about halfway through my first shaft my drill battery died.  Gonna give it another shot tomorrow.

[Jeff Smith]

Been using mine for a couple years now, really like it. You can make a tapered hole in a piece of hardwood( I use ipe) and spin the shafts through it to reduce diameter/spine. I drilled 3 holes all 3/8 on infeed then one each for 11/32 23/64 and 5/16. Comes out pretty well sanded too.
Jeff

[KellyG]

That is awesome fish. Hope you update this with your finished arrows.

[Roy from Pa]

Very cool Fish, thanks.

[Eric Krewson]

I have read that the more RPM you use on your drill, the smoother the shafts come out. I made a few shafts with my dowel maker but didn't make an out feed holder so they came out pretty rough.

I need to set it up again with an out feed stabilizer.

I made a router shaft machine years ago that worked really well but finding good, straight grain stock to run through it was a problem. the other problem was getting such a wide variety of spines and weights out of the same board.

[fujimo]

high rpm and a slower rate of in feed, does the trick.- and the burnisher after the cutter, with the hand held sandpaper after the cutter, before the burnisher.
i also have an infeed track that my hand drill runs on so that it is totally stable, stays straight and is perpendicular to the cutters.
i love sitka spruce, as it is so consistant within the board, slightly under spine, just increase the diam. marginally- the spine goes up( obviously) but once you have your perfect set up, then run the whole board through- and all your shafts are pretty well matched.
my d. fir could not do that.

[fish n chicks]

GREAT suggestions guys. I like the idea of the tapered holders. I will have to try that for sure. I am in the process of making a tepring jig using files and angled aluminum. That should be coming soon. I hope.

Eric K., you are right about the RPM's, that Rigid drill is no joke, and the faster i spin em with a slow feed rate, the better they come out.

Fujimo, the burnisher idea is what I need to implement. I like sanding them for sure, but to give the fibers less of a chance to splinter is a good idea.

Glad you guys thought it was useful!

[Ken75]

ive built around four hundred doweled shafts . you can sand and finsh them or run through a heated compression block . either way works well, but my compression block brings them down to 11/32 for factory heads and nocks. so far ive used black walnut , ipe , sycamore,poplar,cherry yellow pine , douglas fir , white pine, norway pine , hickory , red oak and black ash. by far my favorite is poplar and cherry , with black walnut next

[Pat B]

Ken sent me 6 BW shafts that I'm anxious to work with. Might make some good elk arrows.

[fujimo]

here is my veritas dowell jig and setup.

 

the outfeed guides, and the infeed track.
a friend of mine uses a 1/2" plastic pipe for his outfeed.
but i like to use the guides as a burnisher.
 

the infeed track
 

i find keeping the infeed stable, is as important as controlling the outfeed. as soon as i did that the quality of the shafts increased immediatly.

[fish n chicks]

Thank you for posting those pics fujimo! I can see how that infeed track would certainly help. I feel a version 2.0 coming on for my jig. I certainly need to update my outfeed supports as well.

Awesome advice. Thank you again.

[akgator]

Fujimo - I just set up the same jig you have and done some experimenting. I like your approach. One thing I found was the jig seems almost like a "screw" that pulls the dowel blank faster than I want to feed it. Does yours do that? What do you do to control feed rate? Thanks.

[fujimo]

yup, it does feel like that sometimes/often.
i just take the pressure off and it will slack off. i run the drill at absolute max speed and i feed at about 60 sec for a 32" shaft- but i will time that tomorrow and see for real.
when i am starting the blank- i sometimes hold the blank between the drill and the jig- lightly with my hand- that eliminates a lot of whip. and i can control the feed a bit- but i dont grip it- just a very light guiding hand.
next time i will make my base out of about 4 layers of 1/2" plywood- glued and screwed- so it is nice and stable- maybe on its own little steel bench- super stable- the 2x6 wants to warp with time and throw things out of kilter.

the jig takes a little figirin' but once you understand it- it is so sweet and easy and quick.

[snag]

Where are you guys buying this dowel maker? I do a search for Veritas dowel maker and come up with something totally different and I don't know if it would be as effective...?

[snag]

Never mind...found it!

[fish n chicks]

Glad you found it snag. Hope it works out for ya bro. In case some others were wondering about it, here's a link to Lee Valley, who sells the tool for Veritas:

  http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=52401&cat=1,180,42288,52401  

I would DEFINITELY get the bit, and the adapter when buying the cutter, if you don't already have one.


Some great ideas being thrown around here. Hopefully it helps more of us get into making our own shafts. I have a quarter sawn purpleheart board I was considering making a bow out of when I got it, it might be arrows now! I don't know though, that would make for a sick sick bow.