Reply To: Giving it a try

[Jason Wesbrock]

#11402

FUBAR,

I apologize for not getting those photos of the jig last night. We were packing up to head out of town for the weekend (setting tree stands on our property and such) and I forgot about it. The jig is rather simple, so here’s a brief description. If you still need photos, shoot me an email and I’ll get them to you when I get back home.

Use a 4’ piece of 1×4 for the base. A 2×4 or pretty much any piece of 4’ long lumber will work. You could even use the surface of a workbench if you feel so inclined.

Clamp your Dremel tool to one end. I glued and screwed a pair of small wood cleats on each side of the Dremel to keep it straight, but with good clamps it’s not necessary.

Glue or screw a small piece of scrap wood across your base just in front of your Dremel blade. A ½” thick piece of scrap is perfect. This gives the front of your arrow shaft something to lie on while you cut it.

Cut about 2” off the end of a 2×4 and, with the largest regular drill bit you can find (no spade bits), drill a ½” deep countersink in the face of the 2×4 scrap. You will clamp this piece onto your base and place the nock end of your arrow into it while you cut your shaft. We’ll call this piece your nock receiver.

To set up the jig, start by clamping your Dremel tool to one end. Measure where you want to cut your arrow shaft and mark the shaft with a pencil (or fine tip marker). Put the nock end into your nock receiver and clamp the receiver to your base so your pencil mark on your shaft is even with the Dremel blade. Start your Dremel, slide your arrow shaft into the blade until it cuts through the wall, and gently spine the shaft 360 degrees to complete the cut. By cutting through the wall and then rotating the shaft to finish, you assure a perfectly square cut on the end of your shaft. By using the nock receiver and clamping it to your base, you guarantee all your shafts will be cut to the exact same length.

That’s it; nothing to it. If you already have a Dremel tool, some scrap lumber, a few clamps and a drill, you can build an cobble together an arrow cutoff saw for free.