Hello,
I am somewhat new to Traditional archery and have switched from aluminum to wood shafts.  I recently purchased a few Douglas Fir tapered shafts, tapered down to 5/16.  I am having a problem getting the nocks to fit (5/16 nocks), it seems the shaft is tapered too much causing the nock to not fit snug???  Not sure if there is a solution to this or something I can do to make the nocks fit.  I thought about shortening the shafts from the nock end to compensate for the what appears to be less than 5/16 inch taper. Shafts are full length and have a few coats of thin laquer applied.  Thanks in advance.

A lot of times the very tip of the taper needs to be cut off to allow nocks to fit well. Maybe 1/16 inch.

Thanks for the advice Macbow but I cut about 1/2 inch off the back of the arrow, re-tapered for nock and still no fit.  Nock will not fit snug and cannot get any type of straight fit.

When arrows are tapered, the angles you get for nock tapers are not quite the same.  Maybe check that out and play with adjusting the angle a bit.  How are you grinding / cutting the Nock tapers ?

ChuckC

I'm using a Traditional Only taper tool.  It just seems to me that the diameter of the tapered end (taper of the arrow) is just too small???  I have another set of Doug-firs, tapered as well and nocks fit just fine on them.  Not sure what the problem is.  Could it be that the taper of the shaft is too small?  Really don't want to cut the shaft from the back to compensate for the bigger diameter when you move up arrow??? Thanks for the responses.

Pictures of the problem may help.

get smaller nocks 9/32  or 1/4

If you cut off a little of the nock taper and they still were too small in diameter then I'd have to say the taper was too small to begin with. You never want to cut off the nock taper on back tapered shafts and then try to put another nock taper on them. Because of the angle of the shaft on a back tapered shaft the nock taper will not be centered. That's why you always back taper shafts AFTER you put the nock taper on first.
Do you have calipers? If so, check the diameter down by the nock taper collar.

You're not by any chance using a 5° head/point taper instead of the 11° nock taper?  

Pictures would help.  Even off center a taper should be snug to the nock.

I'd think that it would be impossible to get a good nock taper using a pencil sharpener type taper tool on an already tapered shaft.

This won't help you, but I taper my shafts after I cut the nock taper, and get a perfect fit.

Maybe someone with a taper block and sanding disk can help you get squared away.

I nock taper before length tapering as well.  I suppose with the right set-up you could make it work.  A Woodchuck Lathe likely wouldn't do it even; but a pencil-sharpener style may be your only hope at this point.

get out your ruler and measure the shaft

What Snag and others have said.  The nock taper is put on before the back taper.  Sometimes the nock doesn't fit because the taper is a little long and the point taper keeps the nock from fully seating, as Macbow pointed out.  

Solution is to just nip a little off the tip of the taper. This works, even if the arrow diameter is actually less than 5/16 at the start of the nock taper.  The shoulder of the nock may not be flush with the shaft, but it will fit solidly.

If you cut  off the entire taper and re-tapered the nock with a hand held tool, it's quite likely it didn't come out straight and probably came out too long as well (because you had to use the 11/32 guide to accommodate the increasing shaft diameter).

It's possible to regrind an accurate taper using a shim against the shaft on a taper jig on a disc sander, but it's about impossible to do it with a hand held tool.  Hope you didn't cut off all the original nock tapers.

You mentioned that you have other DF shafts that are fine. Were it me I would contact the vendor and advise them of the problem. I have purchased many tapered shafts and have never had a problem like you describe. You did purchase shafts that were already tapered right!

Can you show pix or.. maybe get a little more descriptive please.  Exactly WHAT doesn't fit ?  Are the apertures of the nocks wider than the shaft at that point ? Does the nock taper of the shaft not fit well into the nock itself ?  If the latter, why ?  Is it off center ?  crooked ? Too long ? Wrong angles ?

Thanks
ChuckC

QuoteOriginally posted by luvnlongbow:
You mentioned that you have other DF shafts that are fine. Were it me I would contact the vendor and advise them of the problem. I have purchased many tapered shafts and have never had a problem like you describe. You did purchase shafts that were already tapered right!

x2

Can you post a pic?
I too have never heard of this happening on "manufactured" tapered shafts.

As mentioned above, I have had to sand just a little bit of the point of the nock taper off too...just a 1/6" or so.

two questions...

Are you sure you're using the correct size nock?
Did you by your's or their mistake get shafts that are 5/16" turned down to 9/32" nocks?

By chance is your nock 11/32" instead of 5/16"?  Have you tried more than 1 nock?  Are you sure the taper is to 5/16"?