# Chuck Norris's Fletching Jig?



## peregrine82 (Aug 25, 2007)

Wicked looking machining. Can you post up pics with fletching in progress?


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## whiz-Oz (Jul 19, 2007)

Yep. I most certainly will. 

With a bit of luck, I'll have some pins and fletches on tomorrow. 

It's quite painful to photograph...


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## Belicoso (Aug 22, 2006)

It´s the coolest fletcher there is .......probably a bit out of my price range but very nice.


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## rjack (Jan 14, 2007)

That is a piece of art work. 

Congratulations on the craftsmanship alone and I can't wait to see one in action.


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## whiz-Oz (Jul 19, 2007)

A few closer looks at it.

This is the ball bearing in the clamp end.










And the design of the clamp.

As you can see, they're not really pitched at the casual weekend shooter, but for someone towards the higher end of the X count, where every point is one that you can win by.

Of course, nothing would stop someone who just likes things made with few compromises.


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## AlienX (Nov 16, 2009)

I would like to see a pic with the arrow in the jig.


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## nickster (Jun 30, 2007)

*bump*

looks reallly nice 

very clean looking too :thumbs_up


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## Paul Cataldo (Jul 31, 2004)

I too would like to see some pics with the arrow in the jig, and a Blazer vane or something in the clamp.
Also, what's the price in USD, what's the availability, and what's the material? Stainless Steel throughout I presume? More info please!


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## jrip (May 19, 2008)

Looks familiar.. much more complicated but very familiar....


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## STUDENT-ARCHER (Jun 26, 2009)

good looking rig, will it do a crossbow bolt?


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## whiz-Oz (Jul 19, 2007)

It's designed for nock pin and nocked arrows. Crossbow bolts would probably be challenging..

It's made mostly of Aluminium, with a steel facing place for the clamp magnets. 

Price (currently) would be $US510.00 plus postage. 

Deposits are required though. 

I'm sorry guys about not having a photo in it. I'm trying to review the fletching tool and a new bow while I'm sick and it's just not working. 

I expect that if I stay home tomorrow and my nose dries, I will have something to show you. 

Yes, it may look familiar, but all jigs pretty much do. It's just the level of construction which is different.


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## JPE (Feb 1, 2004)

Is that a typo or does it actually say $510.00 for a fletching jig?


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## Ryan.Johnson (Nov 9, 2006)

I would say that was not a typo. It is a great looking jig. I would want one but not at that price.


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## whiz-Oz (Jul 19, 2007)

No typo's. 
It's not aimed at the casual archer, but at the level where one or two points is the difference between winning and losing. 
To people who are around that level, I'd consider that a handmade precision fletching tool that is likely to be able to be used by their great great grandchildren is quite a reasonable expenditure.


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## SC Archer (Oct 11, 2006)

JPE said:


> Is that a typo or does it actually say $510.00 for a fletching jig?


looked awesome till i saw that ouch but looks like a very precise jig


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## dixiedeerslaya (Nov 20, 2009)

chuck norris can fletch arrows with his bare hands.... he needs no fancy jig!


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## Octabird (Feb 20, 2009)

dixiedeerslaya said:


> chuck norris can fletch arrows with his bare hands.... he needs no fancy jig!


Yeah, but he can't keep Bruce Lee from ripping off his chest hair!!!


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## whiz-Oz (Jul 19, 2007)

There are a couple of things that will interfere with a review of a fletching tool.
Some are really obvious, like having no fletches.
Or having no glue.
Or having a crap attitude because you're sick.

I know that I have some bright yellow FFP's in the house.
I know that I saw them not all that long ago.
As to where they are now...
Luckily, the rest of the orange ones turned up, which is going to cause some problems later.

Then I found that my superglue has decided that a lifestyle choice of slow and sluggish is the way to go.

It is being more than slightly difficult to get out and so is making precision application to the vane bottom more difficult than normal. So much so, that the last 3 mm on one side of the first fletch didn't quite perfectly adhere. Normally the glue would wick to that microscopic gap.

Having to take photos of stuff also slows things down. My photographic activities also interfere with my diet as the microwave door sweeps across the benchtop...

But lets get back to the Fletching Tool
The position of the clamp is adjustable in all axis. Because it teeters on a ball bearing held in place with four bolts, it's a simple matter to set it at the offset that you desire.
Loosening and tightening the bolts on the back plate of the clamp holder will swivel the clamp plate up to about 7 degrees before the screws bind. That's either way, left handed or right handed.










Of course, you can vary the upper and lower bolts as well, to tip the clamp forward and back.
When setting up the amount of offset, I utilised the "That looks about right" theory.

Then I used a free drawing package to make some paper angles of 1 and 3 degrees, cut them out and compared them to the faces at the top of the clamp mounting plate and the backplate.

I had to do this because with the amount of offset that I had selected caused the top of the clamp handles to foul against the transport protection bar.

I'll admit that I didn't know that it was just there for protecting the jig in transport until I told Brendan about the problem.

He said to just tilt the clamp mounting plate forward.

Because you should always listen to what the manufacturer says, I elected instead to remove the transport protection bar.

I'm sure that when I find my missing yellow fletches, alongside them will be the only allen key in the house that the fits the bolts that hold the transport protection bar in place.

So I tilted the clamp mounting plate slightly forward.

The cross travel adjustment is pretty simple as well. Put a clamp with a fletch in position, then wind the cross travel adjuster so that it lines up in position to your satisfaction. 










Once you've checked that it's going to put the fletch where you want it, lock the cross slide down with the cross slide lock.










Once you had this set up at home the way that you like your fletches done, you lock everything down and don't touch it again unless you're an incurable tinkerer.

Don't lend it to your friends either, unless they're under pain of death not to change it from where it is set up for you.

They will of course fiddle with it. This means that you can't refletch one arrow to make your entire set the same again. You'll have to redo the whole lot. 

Once you've done that, use a 1 wood to tee up a golf ball on your friends kneecap and try to beat Tiger's longest drive.

Check just to make sure that you've got it where you want it. Short fletches will of course handle much more angle before they won't seat evenly across the shaft.

The fletch clamp lets you seat the fletch hard up against the edges of the gripping surface.

I put it in and aligned it to a mark that was handily about the right place. If you were seeking the nth degree of precision, you could get a small piece of metal angle bracket and use that to slide the fletch to a precise position from the reference end of the clamp.
Once it's in the right place fore and aft, you can put your finger at the hinge side of the clamp and press the vane's bottom surface against something flat with your finger across from where the middle of the fletch would be. It seats the clamp edges against the fletch with a satisfying little "clump" noise.










At that point you can prep the surface of the vane if required.

With the second fletch I ensured that there was glue to the edges of the vanes glue surface, keeping in mind that generally it's better to err on the side of slightly too much, than too little.

The clamp has some powerful magnets that hold it to the clamp face plate, so it's easiest to put it against the top of the face, sit it flat and then slide it down until it positions the vane against the shaft. It would have been easy to make these magnets too powerful, but these seem about right. The clamp is easier to slide off than a bitzy one.










Seeing a little bit of glue come out from under it means that you've erred on the side of safety.

Essentially though, if you've used any old fletching jig, you'll be well acquainted with the gluing process.

Having the most precise fletching tool on the planet won't help you if you can't apply the glue properly.


So this is where you see why I wanted my yellow fletches. Nothing to see from this point of view.










But even with the left hand fletch sitting slightly up at the base from my lack of glue precision, this is the perfect spacing provided by an indexed location system.










Obviously, I now have to find my yellow fletches, rip these off this shaft and refletch twelve A/C/E's before giving this back.

So here's my final word on this Fletching Tool.

It is deliberate and precise. It is flexible to configure. It is rather robust. It is fun to use.

And if I had the capability to measure tolerances, I think Bitzenburger would have no grounds to justify that they're the only precision fletching jig available today.


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## deadeyeD (Jun 28, 2006)

$510.00 for a fletching jig wow.


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## Dead Center (Dec 24, 2006)

Is it capable of different fletch spacing degrees? 3 fletch @ 120 degrees spacing. Can it do 75 & 120 degree 4 fletch or can it be adjusted?


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## whiz-Oz (Jul 19, 2007)

It is a 3 fletch design ONLY.

It is a single minded precision tool designed to put straight or offset fletches on arrows with nock pins for serious competition archers. 

There is a nock adaptor, but I've not seen it yet.

It's not mass produced. 

And as I've found in the last few days, it rewards your care with what you are doing with faultless results. 

However, if you make assumptions like "This nock pin fits a little loosely, but it will be okay", it will reward you for your stupidity with, er... less than perfect results.

I have proven that it isn't fool proof with my attempt at foolishness, but I don't know any fletching tool that won't let you do something like put the fletch in the clamp backwards, or stop you from putting the arrow back into it 180 degrees out, after checking to see how it went.


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## z34mann (Feb 4, 2007)

*cost*

i cannot imagine what that thing costs


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## whiz-Oz (Jul 19, 2007)

That's cool. You don't have to imagine. The price is earlier up in the thread.


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## Belicoso (Aug 22, 2006)

Compared to this my Bitz looks like a cheap little toy fletcher LOL
Again great work you did there.


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## Paul Cataldo (Jul 31, 2004)

Dang.
Disappointing that it won't do helical....


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## introverted (Jan 2, 2009)

z34mann said:


> i cannot imagine what that thing costs


510
he said that


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## whiz-Oz (Jul 19, 2007)

Paul Cataldo said:


> Dang.
> Disappointing that it won't do helical....


It could do helical but that would be another 500 dollars to do the clamp. 

Still interested?


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## Carbon One (Nov 4, 2007)

*Well*

Looks really really nice. Great workmanship. One question, when you were traveling all those miles and went by my house why didn't you drop one off? I was home!! Just kidding. Love to have one and a few points do matter to me, but cannot afford that. Good luck in your new venture.:wink:


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## Sagittarius (May 22, 2002)

Beautiful craftsmanship; very impressive ! :thumbs_up
When are you going to build a string jig ?


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## aggiegoddess (Aug 12, 2009)

*Where does Santa Order one for a very good girl?*

Santa says I have bene very good and dint wreck anythign or kill any horses,,,

Where can Santa get one ?

An E mail is just fine


thanks mate-:darkbeer:
Texas Aggie Goddess


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## dillio67 (Oct 1, 2004)

*Unreal*

That is truely for the man that has everything.
Unbelievable quality and precision.Nice job


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## caspian (Jan 13, 2009)

I have example #3 in existance - #1 being still owned by the creator. I can't shoot well enough to justify owning it in terms of the increase in accuracy over my Bitzenburger, but I just like using it for the quality and workmanship.


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## 1955 (Sep 22, 2009)

caspian said:


> I have example #3 in existance - #1 being still owned by the creator. I can't shoot well enough to justify owning it in terms of the increase in accuracy over my Bitzenburger, but I just like using it for the quality and workmanship.


+1...It's awesome owning quality equipment! I'm jealous.


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