Home made arrow shafts (alloy or carbon) - Possible????

[ado250]

Been looking into making up some alloy (or possibly carbon) arrow shafts at home.

Unless I'm missing something, there seems to be very little to making an arrow. I mean a bit of tube and some inserts and your half way there.

Does anyone know whether this can/has been done and where I can get my hands on some alloy/carbon tubing? I reckon it would be a whole lot cheaper than buying them "retail".

I have seen 10mm outer diameter alluminium tubing in a one steel catalogue, but when I measure my arrows they are closer to 9mm.

Cheers,

Adonis

[Luke]

Do you like your arm mate?

Would you like to be able to use your arm for the rest of your life?

Is the ability to hold things and use your hand important to you?

If you answered yes to any of these q's I'd consider ditching the idea of making home made alloys or carbon arrows!

Arrows undergo tremendous stresses and pressures when shot, esp from today's modern compounds and the risk you run of one snapping on release and ending up in your forearm or hand is very real.

Just ask "sorehand" (one of our members) or read this... http://www.aussiebowhunter.com/viewtopic.php?t=2647&highlight=


I might be wrong here and there could be someone out there who's successfully done this...however I've never heard of it and greatly doubt if it's been done.

Your risk, your choice.

I'll stick to what I know has been made well.

Luke

[Friar Tuck]

Okay here is where your expense will come in. You will have to make yourself up a spine tester if you hope to achieve consistant arrow flight and make sure the shafts are suited to your bow. Now lets say you can make your own which might run you at the cheapest $50 (a purchased one will run you $300 +) then you buy a series of tubing that you have to cut, test for spine throw away those that aren't close and then ensure that the aluminium is straight which means a spin test machine not to mention the correct aluminium grade for the shafts and if your talking Carbon are you getting 3 layer wrapped of cross weave or 5 layer and is it high impact et etc etc...

There is alot of variables in making arrow shafts and Luke is correct in saying that you run the very real danger of injuring yourself if you get it all wrong.

For the cost of $100 - $200 I personally would rather spend the $. There is enough risk with shooting as it is.

[jindydiver]

The aluminium used in the tubing from Onesteel is not the same alloy as what Easton use in their shafts. You cannot buy the alloy used in arrow shafts from your backyard metal supplier.

[Uba Tracker]

Hi Ado, mate in all honesty I thought your question was a resonable one, particularly since you're you're just starting out. You are no doubt aware by now that manufacturing carbon or aluminium arrows from the ground up is a hazardous proposition. I spent 11 years working for a specialized engineering firm which brought me into contact with most if not all of the commercially available grades of aluminium in all configurations, e.g. tube, plate, extrusion, billet stock, free machining etc. The one thing all of these grades have in common is a lack of post production heat treatment. Essentially that means the product is at its most workable state (softest) straight off the rack. The tube you mentioned is most likely a 2024 or 4043 grade with the industry standard T2 heat treatment value (which is a close to no heat treatment you can achieve). Now lets just say you chose to ignore the advice offered so far and somehow managed to fletch, nock and point some the afforementioned tube, several things are likely to result upon firing. The worst being that the shaft bends under the linear compression exerted by the bow and pushes the 'not very sharp', kinked arrow shaft into your hand/arm at 250+ fps. Say the arrow makes it off the bow and to the target chances are it may hit slightly askew and will bend like a piece of licorice, or you will bend it trying to retrieve it from the target butt.
Something else to consider is that generic aluminium tubing has a wall thickness 2 - 3 times that of a bonafide arrow shaft, meaning a significant weight gain and lack of speed. On top of that there isn't a manufacturer in the world that supplies inserts for points and nocks that will accurately fit generic aluminium tube.
In summary, the very small amount of money you may save by buying off the shelf aluminium tube will be quickly soaked up by hospital bills or only getting a single use out of your homemade arrows.
Buy the real McCoy and be safe
Cheers
Harry :wink:

[No eye deer]

no

[ado250]

I think I go buy good shafts now :(

Thanks for the advice.

[chris]

smart man
:D
Chris