LR - arrow party

[Sluggy]

Greetings, fellow arrow-lobbers....

Short version: All materials are in hand for the canton's arrows except
for the vane glue, which I hope to get today. There are few supplies
needed for the personal arrows that I will also be getting today.

Longer version:

This good news just in: I have secured the loan of a 35,000 BTU
propane/electric heater and fuel for heating Polydore's shop! I'm not
sure if it's big enough to heat the whole place, but it will certainly
help...

In general, we have all the materials needed for about 200 arrows plus
an extra 100 heads for Polydore's arrows. The current plan is to make
300 arrows, 100 arrows for Loch Ruadh, 100 for Polydore, 50 for Sean and
50 for Lady Gabrielle and I.

Yesterday, I received 204 fiberglass shafts. I'm not sure if they were
just being nice or if they even know that they gave us the extras, but I
figure four arrows is four arrows! The shafts are bright white in color
and cut very nicely to 29". Polydore is expecting his shafts to arrive
today.

I have a total of 30 feet of UHMW rod for the heads. That should be
enough material for 318 heads, maybe a couple more if the saw blade is
thin enough.

I have a total of 600 4" vanes, 200 red, 200 yellow, 100 black and 100
green. They didn't have enough black vanes to make them all alike. I
suggest that Loch Ruadh's arrows have one each black, red and yellow
vanes with the yellow vane to the nock. Sean, Gabrielle and I will
choose our favorites among the remaining color combinations: 

100 with black, green and yellow

50 with 2 black and 1 yellow
50 with 2 green and 1 yellow

50 with 2 yellow and 1 green
50 with 2 black and 1 green

50 with 2 yellow and 1 black
50 with 2 green and 1 black

I currently have the canton's nocks as donated by Smithfield Archery and
I will be picking up another 200 somewhere today to make for other
arrows. If I can find different colors, I will try to get all different
colors for each group or arrows.

Padraig is planning to provide the tape needed for Loch Ruadh's arrows,
Polydore is providing his own tape and I will get tape needed for the
other 100.

In a tape related aside, according to the arrow standard in the Complete
Participant's Handbook (page 52), fiberglass shafts may be taped with
electrical tape instead of fiber reinforced tape. This would give us
more color options, but electrical tape is more sensitive to heat than
fiber reinforced tape. Once the arrows ride in the trunk of someone's
car in warm weather, the tape may start to slide around and get gooey.
We must also be careful about over-stretching electrical tape when
applying it for similar reasons. Otherwise shootable arrows may not pass
inspection if any tape, decorative or otherwise, is coming loose.
Luckily, we are expecting to have the assistance of *the* central region
archery marshall on Saturday, so such concerns can be addressed quickly.

As for what we need to do Saturday, there are two major functions to
perform, making parts and assembling the arrows. 

We need to make the heads, which will involve cutting and drilling the
UHMW rod. Polydore and I have discussed this a bit and have a couple of
ideas on good and safe ways to cut the stuff. We will determine what
works best on Saturday.

We need to cut the padding, which will involve cutting about 600 disks
from a bedroll pad. I will find or make an appropriate tool or hopefully
several tools since so many disks need to be made.

The assembly will be easier and we will make much more consistent (thus,
better shooting) arrows if we come up with some sort of jig for cutting
tape lengths, particularly the duct tape for the heads.

I have come up with a sequence of steps for us to follow in the assembly
of the arrows. Each of the steps below assumes that some sort of
assembly line will be formed, though it is intentionally flexible as to
the number of steps a given person may do.

1.  Taper one end of the fiberglass shafts. This must be done before the
nock can be glued on.
2.  Clean the end of the shaft and the nock with acetone. 
3.  Glue on nock. This must be done and dry enough to handle before the
vanes can be glued on.
4.  Clean gluing surface of the vanes and vane area of shaft with
acetone.
5.  Glue on vanes. We will be trying superglue for speed, but even so,
this may be the most time consuming step.
6.  Clean length of shaft with acetone. This is not a critical step, but
is still recommended.
7.  Mark shaft with name. I have small paper labels to try, but we may
end up using a permanent marker.
8.  Tape length of shaft.
9.  Put on head.
10. Pad and tape head.
11. Inspect.

Notice that there are three separate cleaning steps, each before the
application of an adhesive. I have assumed in making this list that the
arrows will probably sit for some undetermined amount of time between
steps. The adhesive components, particularly the vanes, are sensitive to
oils in the skin and we will have much more reliable arrows if we are
careful to avoid fingerprinting the shafts. I will make sure we have
some latex or vinyl gloves for shaft handlers. If we can be sure that
the shafts are only handled by gloved hands until after step 8, we can
simplify a bit by cleaning the whole shaft once in step 2.

We can depart from this order somewhat if we think ahead. For example,
we can mark and tape the shafts before the vanes are put on if we are
careful about exactly where the tape goes.

I think that's all I have to report for now!

See you all Saturday!

Sluggy!

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