I only put together a couple dozen arrows a year at most.  I've always masked off the area I want as a crown and used spray paint.  Then I used paint markers to do a simple cresting.  In the past I just used a drill and a piece of tubing as a chuck.  Worked fine until the drill died.  Other than one of the nice set ups like the Spin Rite, what do you guys use to crest your arrows?

I don't have a crester yet, but a lot of guys seem to use sewing maching motors with the pedal switch. That''s what I'll use once I'm ready to put that project together.

Phillips, available thru Bob Burton at Whispering Winds Arrows. 3Rivers and Kustom King sell different models. The low end models will work, used one for years.  Wood shafts need to be straight, and I added a dampener to quiet the oscillation of the shafts.  

the drill method works just make u some type of cradel for the other end of the arrow a search should come up with some results for you

what karrow said works just fine  

Buy another drill. You'll surely need it again before you crest again.  ????IMO

Here's what I whipped up from bits and pieces I had on hand (except for the $9 battery powered screwdriver.)





Kind of cheesy, but it works. A screw driver is easier to control than a drill, and it naturally runs at about the right speed. I tapped a couple of metal tabs so I could add a thumb screw for the power, and a screw on the other side to fine-tune the horizontal position. I just need to add a spring loaded roller to hold the arrow in place and dampen any wobbles.

That set up look very similar to what I was using.

Old mix masters work great also and can be purchased from Goodwill for almost nothing.

I used a motor from an old copy machine for awhile. The motor setup is pretty standard whether the motor be from a sewing machine , drill or ?. The part I fought with my homemade crester was the chuck to hold the shaft. I tried the tube method but it never turned true. Couple that with an arrow shaft that is not perfectly straight and you get some odd looking creasting. Buy yourself the chuck for the Pro Crester from 3Rivers if you want too save some grief.