pile cutter

oldnut

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evening all, just for something different to do while in lockdown I decided to make some 3/8 horn nocked ash arrows. I have now finished the nocks and moving on to the piles but I am having trouble finding a cutter, would anyone be able to point me in the right direction, thanks
 

dvd8n

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I see your problem; there's not much available for 3/8 shafts is there?

Most people seem to be knocking up their own tapering jigs or using parallel fit points. Are you using taper or parallel fit points?
 

oldnut

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hi , sorry about the confusion, my brains been a bit off since my jab on Saturday. I am using taper. I should have gone for parallel would have been easier but these tapered ones I have look good being completely tapered, they quite often have a parallel part to them before they taper, these were just different.
 

oldnut

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I decided to try from a different angle, I ordered a hand cranked pencil sharpener that goes up to 12mm, will see if it can 'hack' it
 

dvd8n

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These are the specs for the taper that you need (according to AMO / ATA specs):

Screenshot from 2021-03-03 17-48-27.png

Try your sharpener out on a piece of scrap; if the resulting taper isn't close to this you may be better off knocking up a shooting board and doing the taper by hand with a plane.
 
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Deleted member 7654

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You don't say what sort of points.
With forged points you need to whittle the end of the shaft, then heat the head to very hot and push it on, it will burn the shaft to be a good fit, pull off point clean shaft and ad the epoxy it on.
Del
 

oldnut

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These are the specs for the taper that you need (according to AMO / ATA specs):

View attachment 8557

Try your sharpener out on a piece of scrap; if the resulting taper isn't close to this you may be better off knocking up a shooting board and doing the taper by hand with a plane.
hi, what I did to see what the taper is like was to grease the inside of the pile then fill it with araldite and push a pen into it to pull it out when dry. looking at your pic mine is slightly shallower, but pretty close
 

oldnut

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You don't say what sort of points.
With forged points you need to whittle the end of the shaft, then heat the head to very hot and push it on, it will burn the shaft to be a good fit, pull off point clean shaft and ad the epoxy it on.
Del
its steel, I am guesing its made similar to standard wooden arrow steel pile, but a bit bigger. I have just spent half an hour trying to find out where I bought them from(I tend to buy from all aver the place) but no luck yet
 

dvd8n

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You don't say what sort of points.
With forged points you need to whittle the end of the shaft, then heat the head to very hot and push it on, it will burn the shaft to be a good fit, pull off point clean shaft and ad the epoxy it on.
Del
Del's quite right; forged points need to individually fitted like he says and I hadn't considered them.
 
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oldnut

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they are not the type used in re-enactment groups, hand made type they look machine made . I have found somewhere that has one the same (its pictured next to the arrow) its from the longbow shop, 'wooden arrows for warbows ' its just looks conical. next up make a bow with enough 'go' to chuck them! mine is only 50#
 

Berny

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I was lucky enough to pick up this a while ago .... a Woodchuck (motorised) Taper Tool/jig.
It handles any diameter of shaft!
WoodchuckTaperTool-1-mine.jpg
Perhaps not the cheapest item to import & not aware of a European equivalent but,
perhaps you can make a similar jig with a disc sander/grinder?
 

dvd8n

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There are a number of people on youtube demonstrating similar homemade jigs for their disk sander. Most even claim that they do a better job than the pencil sharpener ones.
 

Berny

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There are a number of people on youtube demonstrating similar homemade jigs for their disk sander. Most even claim that they do a better job than the pencil sharpener ones.
they do do a better job than pencil sharpeners ones - which need a v. sharp blade to work properly ....
they also work very well on bamboo shafts with/without inserts!
 

bobnewboy

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I made my own version of this product from 3 Rivers Archery: Taper Vee Block It works perfectly clamped into any kind of disk sander. You can also vary the precise taper angle if needed to fit your particular piles. Pencil sharpener type cutters are fine when brand new and very sharp, but as they becopme blunt they cause tear-out of wood on the taper.
 

oldnut

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thanks for all the ideas, as we still have a few weeks before I can start shooting again I think I will have a go at making one
 
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