Dowel making for shafts.

[Weylin]

John Strunk makes a hand arrow plane. It is pretty slick, he showed me how to make a shaft with it. I intend to buy one from him at some point, I think they were around $70 if I remember correctly.

[danlaw]

The cheap Lee valley dowel makers come in 1/2, 7/16, and 3/8. They work best with ash, hickory and yellow cedar; I've had no luck with red cedar, pine or fir really (needs some fidgeting with the blade adjustment). Wish I had a router or the real dowel maker.

[Jim Davis]

Watch craigslist or yard sales for routers. It doesn't take a powerful machine to make  shafts. Mine is a cheap 3/4 hp (IIRC) Black and Decker that I have had since about 1972.

[gordread]

I use a similar setup to Jim, though mine is all wood, with the exception of the router.

I rejigged it for 1/4" arrows for my nephews' bow last night, and spun off about 20 shafts in about 15 minutes.  Fortunately, I already had the router and all the tools to make the jig.  If I didn't, I'd probably go with the lee valley jig too, though the basic jig is $200 and the inserts for the arrows are another $100 if you want all three.  You can get a pretty good router for $300 and use it for other things as well.

[Jim Davis]

You can get a decent router for a whole lot less than $200 new. And check out eBay. The first one that I looked at would do the job and it has a buy-it-now price of $21.99.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-and-Decker-5-8-HP-Router-Routercraft-Book-/110960352368?pt=Power_Tools&hash=item19d5c09c70

Wally world has new ones under $60.

I thought primitive archers were good foragers. Seems more like a pack of consumers here. 

The router route is a whole lot cheaper than the trip through Lee Valley and has much more potential.

Math facts, not my opinion.

Jim Davis

[ionicmuffin]

ill definitely consider getting a router because in the long run i can make almost any size arrow shaft.

[Badger]

  I prefer the router set up over all others. The lee valley tool works fairly well for specific sizes but not nearly as well as the router jig when properly set up. A while bag I made a jig that would use my table saw in place of the router. That worked well also but the noise got to me.

[Jim Davis]

As an aside, after I reach the limit of how far I can run the square stock through my setup, I take the drill to the other end of the dowel, chuck it in the drill and pull it on through. No need to leave a couple of inches uncut.

I suspect the same could be done with the Lee Valley, if it is clamped or mounted in a way that gives access to the far end of the dowel.

[danlaw]

Jim, that set up has a router underneath right? The 25$ 3/8ths lee valley dowel cutter is fine if you're just doing a dozen now and then or you want crossbow bolts fast - but anymore than that and it is too limited for sure. I think I'll go router hunting this weekend.

[Jim Davis]

Danlaw, yes, there is a router underneath. Even a very low horsepower router is plenty for this. It's only removing a small amount of wood at a reasonable rate.

That aluminum plate the router is hanging from is part of something I found  at the dump when I lived in Maine. A piece of plywood  should  be a good substitute, though it might be noisier. I wear ear protection when I use mine anyway.

Jim

[vyadha]

 I have the cheap lee valley and have been making shafts from hickory, maple and ash. To get smaller shafts I use my thumb plane. This weekend though I put together a jig with some left over tng. the groove is 1/2 inch and when I line it with sandpaper I can get the shafts down to 11/32. I'm thinking by doubling over the sandpaper it can get smaller.

[Jim Davis]

The sandpaper method is certainly effective and useful. A hinged board with matching grooves was being used at least a century ago to  finish shafts. It's the way I did it too before I set up the router. You can make better shafts with a "sanding book" than can be made by the commercial dowel molders. It  just takes longer and leaves more to a judgement of when you have sanded the  right amount--too much will make the shaft undersize.

Jim

[danlaw]

OK Jim, I got off my ass and bought a 35$ plunge router off of craigslist (brand new - never been plugged in!). I've designed a multi hole jig (12$ lumber store), now I just have to put it all together.  I'll post some pics after I run a few arrows through. 

[Jim Davis]

Cool! We'll be watching.

Jim