Trad Gang

Just about have all the stuff to try and make up some wood arrows after the holiday madness.  My initial plan was to make them up plain with just a couple coats of wipe on poly, fletch and shoot.  I have a couple questions though.  I use fletch tape and I've been told it will work fine with the poly.  I usually use fletch tite platinum for the feather ends, will it work with the poly?  Duco is always recommended but I haven't seen it locally.  Was also curious if there was any kind of commonly available paint I could use to do a crown dip after sealing?  If there isn't anything cheap and easy I'll happily run them plain, but I would like a white cap if it's easy to accomplish.

Killz spray paint for the crown. Tape it off and spray.

Family Dollar stores carry Duco.

Build a dip tube out of PVC. Search the web .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjK-Mw7EK-Q

I have several of these dip tubes.

I was thinking empty water bottle instead of dip tube to start.  I've not had the best luck spraying caps in the past, but never tried to do wood.

Brad- fletch tite platinum will work fine on your feather ends. Ive never had a problem. If thats what you have go for it.

My attempts at spraying have failed but there are so many guys who do it I assume my issues are operator error

Good luck its fun to make arrows

I wouldn't get into dipping unless I was doing production for an arrow business.It's a messy pain in the rear.

Cheap flat white spray paint,then poly over it.Works great.

Fletch tape will work excellent over poly.

I have used rustolum spray paint with good results.

I wipe on a couple coats of poly and use superglue for the fletch

X2 the Rustoleum.  Tape the shafts off and spray two light coats.  Make sure to let them dry thoroughly before you fletch them.  Works great!

Rustoleum from a can works well for a dip over oil base poly.  Duco or platinum will work for the fletching.  As Bud mentioned, Duco is cheap at Family Dollar altho the big tip can make a mess.  I use mine in a separate glue bottle.  The Platinum comes with a pretty good tip.

If you use waterbase paint and poly it is not messsy at all. I use 1/2" PVC instead of 3/4". Less volume. And, I use a cheap turkey baster to draw paint or poly from the can, because pouring it IS a messy task, put it in the dip tube, and then pour the unused portions back into their original containers. With the 1/2" pipe and 11/32 shafts, you can let the fluid get pretty low before having to add more. As you drop the shaft into the tube it forces the liquid up the tube and into the reducer as overflow occurs.

Oh, clean the tube with warm water after pouring the leftover back into their containers.

I made up a 1.5" X 12" long dip tube out of scrap PVC for my cap dipping. Buy the Krylon Acrylic Enamel in qt cans from Wally World for about $8 a can and thin the crap out of it with water. You want the paint so thin that it runs back off the shaft into the dip tube like water. Two coats, a day in between coats. I tape off a 10" crown and dip the first coat about 1/8" shy of the tape. Second coat right too the tape and then start my cresting at this transistion point between my cap and stain. That way you do not get a bump at the transistion point with two coats of paint right at that point. 3 coats of Dalys Profin for my topcoats after my cresting has dried for a day. Testors Acrylics for my cresting from Hobby Lobby.

Fletch tite will work on wipe on poly and any spray paint will do the crown,just use steel wool to ruff up the surface before the paint. and do very light coats while rotating the shaft as you spray, dont try and get it all in one spraying it will just run.. Good luck

If you have one close by, Ace hardware carries Duco.

These guys pretty well covered it.No need for over complication,etc.Highly recomend the wipe on poly v.s. spray can ,gas you out finish.Less mess,runs and a good solid finish.

Things are coming along well.  I do have another question.  I acquired a bears paw taper tool.  Which wood types does this tool work on and which would require a poor sophisticated taper tool?

Spruce and POC will work well in a hand held taper tool. For Doug Fir I use a sander, it tends to splinter with a hand taper tool.

Ok just came up with another question.  After point tapering 160gr. Point fit fine but I had to trim the taper for a 125gr. Point.  Is that normal?

Yeah that's not a big deal.

Figured, just wanted to make sure.

QuoteOriginally posted by Bjorn:
Spruce and POC will work well in a hand held taper tool. For Doug Fir I use a sander, it tends to splinter with a hand taper tool.

True, fir does tend to tear with a hand taper tool, but I use one anyway and haven't had any problems.  Once you get the hot-melt glue in there and the point on everything works just fine.

QuoteOriginally posted by Biathlonman:
Ok just came up with another question.  After point tapering 160gr. Point fit fine but I had to trim the taper for a 125gr. Point.  Is that normal?

There are a few manufacturers of field pts in the USA. One makes a shallow taper that is about 3/4" deep. The other one has a full taper of about 1 1/8" deep.  I prefer the longer taper. Kustom King sells these. I just dislike having to take the time to cut off the extra in order to fit them to the shallow taper. Or adjust my taper machine to the shallow taper and then having to reset it.