My first attempt at footing arrows. PICS

[jonsimoneau]

Guys, I did a few more tonight.  Here is what I have learned.  Make sure your billets are cut right.  You need it to be cut right down the center, and do not forget the width of the sawblade.  If it's a little off, you may end up with a kink at the end.  But it's no big deal.  A little heat and you can get it straight.  It's acctually not that hard to do.  Each one I do keeps getting a little better.

[jonsimoneau]

Tonight I took too 2x4's and sqeezed them together in a vice.  I then drilled a 3/8 inch hole through it right where the two pieces of wood meet.  Line it with sandpaper and you have a great sanding jig.  The arrows I did tonight turned out even better.  Straighter and plus the purple heart wood looks really good when you get it polished down good with really fine grit sandpaper.

[Kevin Bahr]

The arrow looks great, Jon.  Course that beer ain't looking too bad right now either...

[jonsimoneau]

Kevin, after a couple of beers the arrows look even better!

[DRR324]

Jon,
You and I'd hit it off real well, any project at my house starts and ends with a busch light...I usually leave a trail of dead soldiers in my wake, but I almost always finish the project...
great looking shafts btw.
Any word yet from Gene or Barry on the adoption process we discussed this fall???? As you can see from my avatar- my Michigan bucks are a tad on the small size, but they are harder to hit....

[buckster]

Very nice job indeed.  We just need to upgrade your beer choices John. ; )

[Aram]

The straightening can also be done while the glue is wet. The thinner side of the split wants to bent more but you can clamp, then sight down the shaft, align the footing with the arrow, and tighten the clamps a bit more so that the new alignment holds till the glue dries.
Looking great!          

[Stick_N_String]

Jon,
Nice looking arrow! that's something I eventually want to try as well.
Most projects around my house start and end with a little/lot of Wild Turkey.  
Daren

[unclewhit]

Good morning gang.
I'm bringing this thread back up top cuz I too used this method to foot a broken shaft. Sorry no pics yet, wife's on vacation and she's got the camera.

Well, when I saw Jon's,I said to my self "I can do that".  Being a woodworker, well, let's just say that I have an abundance of scrap wood just collecting dust in my garage that I can't seem to part with. After about 10 min. of rummaging through my stock pile, I found a piece of Kingwood that was just begging me to become an arrow footing. Well, I would say that the intire process took a whopping 4 hours, I'm sure the more I do the quicker I'll get.  Sanded down and finished with watco danish oil and 4 coats of wax, buffed and polished, my old beat up cedar arrow has a new life, as a piece of furniture.
I'm afraid to shoot it, cuz I know that silky smooth finish is going to zip right through my target bag and end up in the broken arrow bin again (my back stop is a cinder block wall).

Do you guys think that a highly polihsed shaft improves penetration a little or a lot?

[jonsimoneau]

Unclewhit, I bet that looks really nice. Kingwood would be great footing material. Yes, you get faster at it as you go along. Each arrow is taking me about 2 hours but that is doing everything by hand. My first dozen will be done shortly.

I think that the highly polished shaft will for sure help with penetration.  The purple heart on mine feels almost like marble! I ended up lightly sanding the rest of the shaft so that it would match.

[unclewhit]

Jon, doing it by hand just feels right don't it?
It was a lot of fun, I love working wood.
I think I'll do some new shafts next time.
I'll get some pics for ya when my wife gets back (God I hope she comes back).

[Pig Sticker]

Wonderful work!

[Pack]

Did you use the pre-cut footings from 3Rivers?  I used them and my footings were always crooked because the cut in the middle was not straight.  When I would insert the arrow, one wing (always the thinner one) would bend out farther making the arrow crooked.  I am going to get a band saw and make my own footings.

[Pack]

Did you

[jonsimoneau]

Oops. Sorry Pack.  I responded once but it did not take for some reason.  Yes, for my first attmept I bought the purple heart billets from 3 rivers.  I too noticed what you are talking about but they will still come out straight.  All you do is favor one side when you start planing until they are even.  Then once I get them close, I put them in a little tool I made. Take 2 pices of 2x4 and clamp them toghether. Drill a hole longways where the two pices meet.  Make the hole just a shade bigger than what your shaft size should be.  Open it up, and line the hole with sandpaper.  Put the shaft in there, and clamp it back closed.  Now just sand away until it slides easily through the hole.  When you are done it will be straight.

[CO_Redneck]

Great idea on the jig!
I'll have to get creative with other woods for footing.
Out of curiosity, how well did the purple heart taper and how hard was it?

Also, really nice lookin shafts!

[unclewhit]

I dug this thread out, and brought it back up to the top, because I blame Jonsimoneau for my new addiction. I just love how much harder my footed shafts hit the target.  I used up all of my king wood (which wasn't much to begin with), I did some with cocobola, and the rest have been in bubinga. I spent a few hours yesterday just cutting blanks. Iv'e got enough to foot about 3or 4 doz.
Pics will follow when the wife gets home from work tonight.

[unclewhit]

This is how it begins. This piece yeilded 48 blanks.

 

The tablesaw made quick work of that piece of babinga, then I moved over to the band saw. My blanks are 10" long, so I splice 5".

 

About an hour and a half to get a pretty pile.

 

Gluing and clamping.

 

Some glued up blanks with some finished products. The ones on the left are kingwood, the middle ones are cocabola, and the one on the right are babinga.

[straitera]

Time spent was well worth it. Very nice. What kind of glue?

[gregg dudley]

Unclewhit, Are you using the busch light approach like jon or have you upgraded?

Arrows look good BTW!