Looking to switch to wood and want ideas on homemade straighteners or videos
Thanks

a screwdriver, bone or other hard rounded implement will work.

ChuckC

A small rigging pulley with say a 3/8" groove.  $5 item at Lowes or Home Depot.  Lay arrow on a hard KNOWN to be straight surface like a stone tabletop etc and use the pulley and roll it up and down the shaft and rotate the shaft every so often.

Thanks
found a couple videos and the 3/8 groove pulley looks like the ticket (thanks nineworlds9)

I only shoot wood. If you buy the good shafting keeping them straight is not a problem. If I run into a crooked shaft it can be easily straightened with fingers alone. If necessary, I do use heat with hardwoods-but even there just buy quality shafting from a known supplier.

Here's a slick little device I got from Bill Matlock years ago. The whole unit screws down to a larger piece of wood. The little half moon cut out in the small upright piece of wood should have the lowest part of the cut out at the same level as the bottom of the eye on the bolt.  Pull the arrow through eye with upward pressure on the eye. Bill had all kinds of neat little inventions.
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Love that tool Mr. Matlock made Burnsie. Just had a guy in my shop last week that has a Bill Matlock bow.

Here are two I made from 1" dowel pieces.

 

 

 

 


The larger screw eye on the end works great if you hold the tip of the shaft on a table with the shaft slid through the eye and pull and burnish the high spit in the shaft. Looking down the shaft and twirling it repeatedly (or roll it across a table) to check for straightness.  The grooves work best for "kinked" shafts.  I fitted one th 23/64" and the other to 11/32".  The hole works, topo, but not one you need to get to the fletched section (rarely a problem if you straighte twice before fletching).

A round screwdriver shaft works well also.  This isn't rocket surgery.

huh   :cool:

You should be able to straighten most commercial shafts with your hands and on difficult crooks a little heat will help.

I agree with Pat B.  You should be able to straighten most wooden shafts with your hands and roll them on a flat surface to check them.  If you have a difficult one, heat it over the burner of a stove or with a heat gun.  The heat will soften the lignin that binds the wood fibers together and allow you to easily straighten the shaft.

Burnishing one side of the shaft crushes with wood fibers and is not the best way to straighten a wooden shaft.  Your hands and eyes can work wonders with a little practice.

QuoteOriginally posted by Slickhead:
Thanks
found a couple videos and the 3/8 groove pulley looks like the ticket (thanks nineworlds9)

Got a link to the vids?  I searched youtube and didn't see any with a pulley.

Douglas Fir from Surewood Shafts can EASILY be straightened by hand in the few instances they develop a bend which is almost always from shooting. Shafting as it comes from them practically never needs anything but building.

My hands and eyes are the best tools I've come across yet.  I haven't found a commercially made shaft I can't straighten - ash included.

Here is realistic rendering of one I designed a while back. I have a prototype at home and I am currently having one made at a buddy's machine shop. I should get it this weekend. It is similar to the Shaft Tamer except that it has a handle so it's a lot easier to use. I made mine from stainless steel.

Darren

Maybe a link to these two videos will help,

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF19jShVbsw

I used a hook for years, I decided last year to try the Ace roller - man that thing works fast