[aeronut]

in reply to: Spine testing #175414

I used to make and sell wood shafts, mostly Poplar and Hickory.  I have three different spine testers and all at 2# weights and all are 26″.  One of them I made out of 1/4″ aluminum angle and has a dial caliper and I use a deflection chart to measure the shafts.  It is not going to shift any to alter the readings.

All the orders I got were wanting the physical weight of the dozen arrows to be within 5 grains of each other and I would tell them all that the shaft weight would change during the seasons and I always got a puzzled look.  Humidity changes during the seasons and wood absorbs and releases moisture.

Then I would ask if they were going to seal and crest them.  “Sure” was the answer and I asked do you measure the same amount of sealant and paint used for each shaft.  Do you measure out the same amount of glue for each point and nock?  That got a lot of people scratching their heads.  No two wood shafts are going to have exactly the same physical properties as to density even cut from the same tree.  One will always soak up more sealant or paint than the one next to it and when you are measuring weight in grains it can be a wide spread at times.  I have weighed my finished shafts at different times during the year and it is surprising how much moisture they can absorb or release even after they are sealed and painted.

It was amazing to me that a lot of the customers had no idea about the properties of wood.

I have looked at lots of spine charts and they are puzzling things to try and sort through.  I’ll stick with the traditional wood shafts.

Now, you want to try bamboo or rivercane shafts?  That’s another subject.

[aeronut]

in reply to: Whatcha Got Going On 2026 #175383

I got a little rain lase night.

That’s a little over 6″.  I’ve never seen that gauge that full.

[aeronut]

in reply to: Still here. #175350

Hang in there Ralph.  I had retina surgery in my right eye and then cataract surgery in both eyes.  It took some getting used to.  Then five years ago I had cervical fusion done on my neck because of Spondylosis.  That ailment ain’t fun.

Last July I took a spill in the Smoky Mtns and tore my left bicep tendon.  I’m still working on that to get back to full shooting on some of my heavier bows.  I’ve got a couple that I can’t even string anymore.  Age is creeping up on us.

[aeronut]

in reply to: Whatcha Got Going On 2026 #175343

Several years ago I would occasionally meet up with my two cousins and we would go to the Three Trails 3D shoots near Lees Summit, MO.  Bob was my first cousin and Jim was his nephew.  I had made Bob a bow a few years earlier and he loved to shoot it.

Bob had lost his battle against cancer and passed away so shortly after Jim and I went to shoot the course in his memory.  Jim was the owner of Bob’s bow and this was his first outing with it.

Our normal procedure was that we took turns shooting first and the other shooters would try to shoot from the same position.  We seldom shot from the stakes and normally picked a little tougher shot.  It was Jim’s turn to shoot first and as we turned the corner along the creek the next target was two life sized elk a little over 50 yards away.   Jim dropped to his knees and sent an arrow downrange.  As the arrow arced over about half way I said “No way”.  Jim’s shot landed in the ten ring.  Now I had to try and match the shot but I didn’t come close.

About a year later Jim gave the bow back to me saying he didn’t have anybody to hand it down to.  I take it out and shoot it occasionally and remember the good times we had on the Three Trails course.

I’ll dig through my files and see if I can find some pictures and give you the specs on the bow.

Dennis

[aeronut]

in reply to: Website Hiccup #175231

Thanks Robin.  If it’s a computer you will have a lot of different problems.

[aeronut]

in reply to: Mother’s Day !! #175230

X2

[aeronut]

in reply to: Whatcha Got Going On 2026 #175173

We had another round of strong weather here last night and I was out as a Skywarn spotter.  We had a tornadic cell pass by a few miles south of us but where I was set up I wound up in a hail cell dropping marble sized hail.  Time to bug out so I went a mile north and the still got a dose of pea sized hail and a downpour with lots of non stop lightning.  One bolt struck less than 1/4 mile directly in front of me.

That storm finally passed by so I went home.

My Road

[aeronut]

in reply to: Whatcha Got Going On 2026 #175122

The weather radar app I use shows the storm chasers but I don’t recall seeing a Lance.  I’ll look for him on there next time.

The initial batch of storms went by to my NW so I just stayed home during that bunch.  We had a strong storm with some pretty good winds and a lot of lightning come through just after dark so I went out to watch.  I have a spot about one mile north of my house where I have a great 270* view from the south all around to the east.  When I got there it started dumping rain and I had maybe 1/4 mile visibility during the flashes.  The road I was on doesn’t have ditches so water collects on the road intersection and in about ten minutes I was sitting in shallow water.  I also have a small home weather station and I kept checking the wind velocity on it and at one point it quit showing any wind so I thought maybe it had broken down.  When I got home there was no wind.  It had gone from upper 20mph to zero mph is seconds.  This morning I am showing 1-1/4″ in my gauge and the majority of that fell in just a few minutes.

Nothing but rain, lightning , and wind here but the folks in the northern states caught hell again.  The ham radio sky warn chatter was still going on over in Missouri when I finally went to bed.  Last I heard there was over 144 tornado warnings yesterday.

[aeronut]

in reply to: Whatcha Got Going On 2026 #175117

It’s been a wild springtime here weather wise.  Yesterday was a pretty nice day but Wednesday I was out spotting for the area sky warn system.  We just had periods of heavy rain and wind but the folks to the north of here in the Olathe area had tornadoes.  Today it’s more bad weather and we are under a flood watch until tomorrow with more rain and wind coming today.

[aeronut]

in reply to: Whatcha Got Going On 2026 #175067

It looks like it might rain on ya.

Years ago a friend of mine helped with restoring the turkeys here in SE KS.  They took hold and we had LOTS of turkeys but since the fur prices fell there aren’t many active trappers around.  The turkey and quail population has dropped off dramatically around here.

[aeronut]

in reply to: Rainy Day Projects #175056

Those shafts are slightly under 5/16 so the nocks look too big and yes the dot is grain alignment.

The fl. green paint is Rustoleum and I’m disliking that brand more every time I use it.  That is about the only brand that the local Home Depot and Wally world will stock.  It just doesn’t dry very or adhere very good at all.  The Orange is Krylon and I won’t have any problems with it.

[aeronut]

in reply to: Trouble with the Website #175000

WOW, that’s a pretty hard hit.

I never got into the Meta, Tik-Tok, and other stuff.  I have a cousin who was a federal investigator and he said there was too much underhanded stuff with them.

I was a BMX (Bicycle Motocross) photographer for 14 years and I do have a Facebook page that I used to post the race pictures on but that’s about it.

Yes, thanks again Robin.

Dennis

[aeronut]

in reply to: Trouble with the Website #174967

Thanks Robin for your work keeping the site alive.  Too many have gone down the FB path and I don’t follow them anymore.

[aeronut]

in reply to: Projects #174891

A couple of other projects I’ve got going are this little Osage selfbow.  It will make a kid bow if I can get that skinny tip built up.

One of my cousins who is more like a brother asked if I would make him a light draw weight bow.  I loaned him a bamboo backed Osage to play with and started thinking about what to make.  I decided to use Curly Tiger Maple laminations with a Hickory core covered with .040 clear glass.  For a long time I have pondered on what to do to give this a special touch and it finally came to me.  He has always been a Beagle fan and has three of them so I made some riser overlays and set them up in my laser engraver.

The Curly Tiger Maple and Hickory

The back of the riser Overlay.

The belly overlay.

After final tillering and measuring the final draw weight I’ll laser engrave those specs just below the squirrel.

Now I have to clean up the pile of stuff off my workbench.

[aeronut]

in reply to: Whatcha Got Going On 2026 #174846

That sounds like a pretty dangerous situation.  The Hoar frost we have had around here is just the spiky looking frost on stuff.

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