Best spine tester for the money.

[loefflerchuck]

I'm looking at investing in a Veritas shaft maker and so will be needing a spine tester too. Like the subject says I'm looking for advise on the best one for the best price.
Thanks in advance.

[loefflerchuck]

I was looking at the Ace spine-master. Not too expensive and has good revues.

[aaron]

I have a home made one that uses a digital caliper- simple, cheap and accurate. Instructions at poor folks bows dot com.

[Pat B]

Google "James Hill spine tester" Easy to make an accurate spine tester.

[loon]

Google "James Hill spine tester" Easy to make an accurate spine tester.

This? It seems harder than what I'm thinking of doing, which is more like the poorfolkbows one, but instead of dowels I will use more board.

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https://web.archive.org/web/20060111071953/http://www.jamesmhill.com/Spine_Tester.html
All the spine testers just seem too expensive.

[Knoll]

I have a home made one that uses a digital caliper- simple, cheap and accurate. Instructions at poor folks bows dot com.

That's what am currently using.
But if I can find the time, hehehehe, Jim Hill's tester would seem to be marked improvement.It looks like DBar's.

[TSA]

i second the Poor folks bows spine tester- simple and very effective-
however if you want to spend money there are some good ones out there- i like the ones from oak creek archery- it has the conversion chart on it - so that you can test ali- carbon and wood.
 they are Pneumatic- so you need a very small compressor to run it- but the old style ones were manual!

by the way- the veritas is a great rig- i bought one years ago- i love it- dont use it much anymore- and its great to just keep around- for when i retire one day!
only thing, keep the blades super sharp- and it will make beautiful shafts. i use one of these sharpening rigs- they work so well
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=33001&cat=1,43072,43078

build extra amd better  guides on the  out feed side.
higher drill speeds and lower feed rates - will also improve the quality- i would run a 36" shaft in one minute at max rpm!
i found that the quality of the shaft increased- if the drill was in a carriage and tracked perfectly in relation to the cutting blades and infeed hole. 
I can take some pics of my setup , if it will help you!

[loefflerchuck]

Thanks everybody, and TSA ya, that helps big time. Thanks. I went all out on the Veritas and got the 3 arrow shaft specific inserts too. I finally got a good bandsaw last year and have arrow blanks building up. I figure all this stuff will pay for itself and I will be making everything here at home with my own quality control. I'm heading to "James Hill" now

[PEARL DRUMS]

I have the low end model Ace that hangs on the shop wall, Clint bought it for me used. I absolutely love it for wood, cane and boo. I made good arrows before I got this, but it took a ton of time. Now, I can make six perfect arrows that match within one pound, or less. I was blown away by the variance I found in "matched" sets of shafts I was buying. Sometimes 15#.

[Tracker0721]

I got the $99 ACE because I'm having the same thoughts as you with the veritas and the ACE work awesome and is super accurate. I'm really impressed with it

[gfugal]

I built my own. I started a topic about it a while ago. It's not for most people since it requires doing your own calculations, but if you can get through my ramblings you should be able to figure out and just put it into excel to calculate it for you. It's very accurate and cheap. No calipers required, and you can use pretty much anything for a weight. http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,58825.0.html 

[BowEd]

Making your own worked great for me.Whatever method you use.Testing it against other spiners will tell ya if it's good.
It reveals a lot that's for sure especially if buying split timber shafts from different companies.I've found some companies hand pick and test each one before they send them.Some don't.
Nice to hit what you aim at too.

[loon]

I built my own. I started a topic about it a while ago. It's not for most people since it requires doing your own calculations, but if you can get through my ramblings you should be able to figure out and just put it into excel to calculate it for you. It's very accurate and cheap. No calipers required, and you can use pretty much anything for a weight. http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,58825.0.html

I think it's easier to just use a caliper than to make that dial thing, but it's very cool