dowel rod arrows

[$bowhunter$]

im going to the home depot and walmart tomarrow to pick up some dowel rods to make some "fire and forget" arrows for rabbits and fun. there going to be made into flu flus. my question.... should i get 5/16 or 3/8? i have a trucenter taper tool, and 11/32 nocks. i plan on picking up some 5/16 nocks if need be. what would you guys suggest to buy? and any tips in what i should select would be nice. i did read the how-to on the .92$ arrow but was still left with some questions.
also will 11/32 nocks work with them? and will my taper tool work
thanks,
steven

[Shedrock]

I wouldn't mess around with those dowels for arrows, you may get hurt. You can get good seconds from Surewood shafts for flu flu's at a good price.

[grayfeather]

I second that, you have an arrow break on release.

[Charlie Lamb]

Unless your bow is 35# or less you'll want the 3/8" dowels.Your nocks will work, but you'll probably have trouble with the taper tool.

To overcome the problem, scrape 6-8" and sand smooth both ends till they fit the tool... cut to length first.

[Shedrock]

By golly, I just went to Surewood's website, and they don't have the seconds listed anymore.  

[bucksbuouy]

I made some 7/16" dowels into arrows for my warbows. Had to taper the ends with my pocket knife to get them to fit into the 11/32 arrow taper tool. Lot of work but the turned out pretty nice. They do break easy though :-/ I would bring my taper tool to the store and see what fits into it. Better to go thicker than thinner 'cause its better to be over spined than under.

[huey]

Charlie is the man, birch dowels are tuff. Maple dowels are also tuff and are easier to keep straight.

[tecum-tha]

There is a reason why arrow shafting is arrow shafting and thus has its price.
If you read the surewood shaft strength description you will find that dowel rods from home improvement stores are not made to be shot out of bows. It is just stupid to use those dowel rods unless you're very experienced in reading wood grain. There are no fire and forget arrows. You're better off getting some hardwood shafts, which are way tougher, or buy some carbon arrows and foot them with aluminum shafting pieces.

[Duncan]

Hickory dowels are not a problem if you can find them. I agree the dowels sold at home improvement stores are questionable for arrow use. The poplar ones look so-so grain wise but the spine tends to be low. If you want to use dowels try to get hickory. I have 12 5/16" hickories I've shot for maybe 10 years. Indestructible.

[trad_bowhunter1965]

Try this
 http://surewoodshafts.com/bargins.html

[Larry m]

Unless your going to inspect for grain, spine, weigh and bunch, your wasting your money. You will never get consistency and will only suffer with flight issues. Spend a little more and be happier.

[ckanous]

I bought some 3/8 poplar and made some decent arrows out of them. As stated above you will have to work for them but to me that was the fun part. They aren't perfectly spined or weight matched but I have dozens of other arrows in my stash for that. I love the do-it-yourself projects. Only recommendation I would say is just like bucksbouy said, take your taper tool with you and see if you can get some to fit. Working them down to fit my tru-taper took the longest time.

[Eric Krewson]

I tend to agree with the nay sayers concerning making arrows from dowels if you are an inexperienced  arrow maker, but.....

If you know your stuff you can make some mighty fine arrows from dowels.

First you need to carefully select your dowels and pick only fairly straight ones with no grain runout in the section you want to use.

I have only used poplar and ramin so I don't have any knowledge about other dowel woods. I suspect oak would be a poor choice because of the open grain.

You need a spine tester to match your dowels. My last batch were made from 3/8" poplar dowels from Lowe's. Initially the spines ran from 85 to 100#. I barrel tapered them on a trad gang taper jig and sanded the middles to get the shafts down to a matched 55-60 spine. The weights varied about 50 grains but I find this is less of a problem than mis-matched spines.

My finished arrows are some of the best flying, most durable arrows in my arsenal. Very labor intensive to make as each one took about a hour start to finish.

[Austin Brown]

sent you a pm

[Troy Breeding]

Using dowels for shafts can be done. However, unless your willng to spend several dollars buying several hundred dowels and several hours working up a match of maybe a dozen or so , then your better off buying shafts from a dealer.

Some of you may remember I used to be a shaft manufacture. I'd have to run several thousand shafts to even make it worth my time to start matching. Thats why shafts cost so much.

When I had enough shaft to start matching the best I could hope for was matching approx. 60% of them. The rest had to be held over until I ran enough to start matching again.

I never sold seconds. If they weren't good enough for me to use as hunting shafts I threw them in the burn pile.

Troy

[Gordon Jabben]

I picked up some dowells from Hobby Lobby about a month ago and was surprised at the arrows I made from them.  I shot a really good (for me) score with them on the nfaa range.  I was lucky, most were close to the weight of the cedar arrows I am shooting.  A few were to heavy spined and I took them down on my wood lathe and will use them on small game with some that were off in weight.  A lot more trouble than cedar but less expensive.

[deaddoc4444]

I have been using Dowells for shafts  a long time  B U T      I use only  what I KNOW is the material  .  Right now I have been buying at LOWES   due to Lowes   using Poplar  Dowells  Poplar  makes good arrow shafting.    NOW that being said,   I take my time and pick only the straightest  ones I can find in the bin and check the grain  for run-off.   These are 3/8 dowells    SPine can run high  BUT I have a spine tester . I taper the shafts my self  and the reduction  reduces the spine some what .   I spine then RE-spine  after tapering .    I buy when ever im in Lowes and have some time to spend ( Usually when the wife is looking for something  LOL)    I will usualy  pick from  6 to 12   at a time    and  at .87 cents apiece  it is worth the work  IF YOU WANT TO SPEND THE TIME .
    IF you dont have a spine tester   or dont want to spend that kind of time and effort   then buy seconds or have some one make cheap arrows for you .

[Austin Brown]

Originally posted by Troy Breeding:
Using dowels for shafts can be done. However, unless your willng to spend several dollars buying several hundred dowels and several hours working up a match of maybe a dozen or so , then your better off buying shafts from a dealer.

Some of you may remember I used to be a shaft manufacture. I'd have to run several thousand shafts to even make it worth my time to start matching. Thats why shafts cost so much.

When I had enough shaft to start matching the best I could hope for was matching approx. 60% of them. The rest had to be held over until I ran enough to start matching again.

I never sold seconds. If they weren't good enough for me to use as hunting shafts I threw them in the burn pile.

Troy

I wish you still made shafts and arrows, they were great!  I killed my first trad deer with an arrow you made for me about 10-12 years ago.

[SCATTERSHOT]

I have made lots of arrows from dowels. I have found that the 5/16" dowels spine in the mid 40s, as a rule, and the 3/8' ones spine in the mid 80s on up. You can buy birch dowels from American Woodcrafters for around $25.00/100. Just make sure you look at them carefully and FLEX each one before you start working on it. They are dowels, after all, and not arrow shafts.

Good luck!

[JamesV]

Lowes has 5/16 poplar dowels 4 ft long for 67cents. And they make good arrows if you cull and get the straightest ones. Finished cost per arrow about $2.00 And 10 out of 12 will fly good. Figures less than $2.50 for the good ones, give the kids the culls.