What glue would be good to use to put feathers on bare/un-dipped aluminum arrows. I used to sand with sand paper using the cris-cross method and then wipe down with alcohol.  I then glued the feathers on with Scotchs 3M Super Glue but I can't find the super glue anywhere.

use fletch tape, after using it, I never went back to glue

Goat Tuff here.  It dries quickly and it's strong.

Regular fletch tite works fine on aluminums. Duco may also work but I've never tried in on aluminums, lots of people use it on wooden shafts with finishes that fletch tite doesn't adhere well to.

When I shot aluminum I used Loctite Control Gel.  Works great and can be found at Wal-Mart.

Fletchtite. Forget the sandpaper. Just clean well with laquer thinner or acetone and fletch.

Duco won't hold well!!

I second the fletch tape....

Fletch tite platinum and you don't have to do all of the prep, acetone, lacquer thinner, comet, sand paper and so on.  Just platinum on aluminum.

Fletch-tite platinum has worked well for me, as well as the Bohning fletch tape.

I think the bases are covered above.

Fletchtight platinum maybe, but regular Fletchtight?  Man I hate that stuff.  I had a dozen aluminums I fletched with it and spend the whole season losing approximately two feathers per session.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I get the impression I'd be better off blowing my nose on my arrow, throwing a few feathers at it and hoping for the best.

I use fletch-tite.  Never a failure.  Wipe alums down with MEK.  That's all.   Works for me!  

Duco won't work on aluminum very well. Last time I tried it, every shot would leave a trail of feathers to the target.

I used to size alum with a thin coat of fletch tite then use it to fletch them on with.Never had a problem.

QuoteOriginally posted by GingivitisKahn:
Fletchtight platinum maybe, but regular Fletchtight?  Man I hate that stuff.  I had a dozen aluminums I fletched with it and spend the whole season losing approximately two feathers per session.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I get the impression I'd be better off blowing my nose on my arrow, throwing a few feathers at it and hoping for the best.

Strange, I always used regular fletch-tite on aluminums and never had problems, even as a kid using huge gobs of glue lol.

What Charlie said period   ...Van

Another vote for the Feather Fletch tape.

When I have done arrow making with my Boy Scouts, we used the feather tape.  The arrows were usually lost or broken before the feathers came off!!

For the Fletch Tight (not platinum) guys...  Maybe I'm doing something wrong.  How long do you let the glue set for each feather before moving to the next?  How much glue - lots? a little?

I think I was using a moderate amount (an even bead of it along the quill) and I'd wait 10 minutes or so before rotating the clamp.  They stayed on until the temperature dropped.  Once I started hunting in temps below 35 or so, the feathers were flying (and not in a good way).

Jim... Fletchtite was developed for aluminum shafts. Those of us from the old days of aluminum can tell horror stories about getting shafts clean enough to keep the fletch bonded... I'll bet Van knows.

There was no anodizing and the shafts would oxidize almost as fast as you cleaned them. Once done,though, Fletchtite would hold damn good even on those old silver 24SRTX's.

Which is the long way around to saying that shaft prep is the key to keeping your fletch on.

In those days of unanodized shafts we would scour the fletch area with Comet or Ajax until a white rag came out clean.
It's a lot simpler today.

Laquer thinner is a good prepping agent as well as acetone and MEK. These three won't leave a redidue of any kind.

Simply rub the shaft's fletching area with a paper towel soaked in the stuff. Apply pretty good pressure.
Initial passes will usually show some discoloration on the towel. Fold the towel over and wipe again with a clean area.

After two or three passes the shaft will make a kind of harmonic squeeking. The shaft is now ready to fletch.

As long as you don't overdue the glue up (excess glue is unsitely in the finished arrow.). you should be fine.

I find that just a very thin ribbon of glue is plenty.

If I was into the fletching tape (I'm not!) I'd still clean my shafts this way first. I use carbon shafts these days and clean them as well.