Wooden Arrow Shaft Making Jig

Someone asked if I would show my arrow shaft making jig today, so here it is:

I start by milling the wood that I am using to 3/8″ by 3/8″ by about 3′.

Here are some milled shafts with a square blank in the center.

The jig itself is a straightened piece of hardwood (anything will do probably) with small blocks affixed to the side with screws. I drilled through the center of each block and lined them with bronze bushing parts that I found at my local hardware store.

On my router, I replaced the base plate with a 3/8″ thick piece of Lexan. I drilled a hole in it and I drive a machine screw through to affix the arrow shaft jig to the base (In the previous picture, you can see I used a wing nut to tighten the machine screw) :

This machine screw is really critical. It allows me to pivot the base of the jig closer or further from the router bit. This allows me to fine tune the jig to get the exact thickness of shaft that I need for the arrows I am making.

I run a few test pieces through, pivoting the jig back and forth until I get the precise thickness I want. Once it is just right, I clamp the jig to my router table tightly:

Using a round over bit, I run all the shafts through. The line of bronze bushings is there to keep the shaft from whipping around as it spins at high speeds. Without these, things get kind of emotional. Ask me how I know…

I use a 3/8″ allen wrench head socket bit in my electric drill to hold my square stock. I chuck it into the drill backwards, with the allen wrench bit in the drill, and put the square stock into the socket end. This works just great to spin the square stock across the moving router bit:

All this allows me to make traditional archery wooden arrows from hardwoods that are difficult to find or just really expensive.

Here are a few from this jig:

Happy Making,

Jim

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9 Responses to “Wooden Arrow Shaft Making Jig”

  1. This looks great! Any revisions to the design?

    • It could be improved but still works well enough that I use it when I need more.
      Let me know if you make and improve it.
      Thanks,
      Jim

  2. Very nice. Much more elegant than the one I made. Mine is 1 1/2″ Al angle with drilled hardwood blocks mounted. No bushings, If I want a different size I make new blocks or a whole new jig. I raise & lower my router to adjust size.

  3. Do you has measurements of the wing nut screw ? I guess the jig pivots in the screw then clamped down at the desired thickness of the shaft with a bat clamp

    • The size of the wing nut doesn’t matter, it’s just a pivot point and can be any size. I believe that one was a 10-32 machine screw.

  4. Clay Robinson Says:

    You say that the machine screw you place in the arm to rotate for correct diameter of the arrow is critically important, however you don’t really give any indication of where to place it. The pic would allow one to guess. Thanks, Clay

  5. Clay Robinson Says:

    What is the best way to get the block holes exact, also what router bit is used when raising and lowering the router for shaft diameter?
    Clay

    • I marked the holes carefully and drilled them on a drill press. The router bit I was using was just a standard round over bit – 1/2″ if I recall.

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