I'm looking for a supplyer

Hello all.

I'm hoping someone somewhere can help me

I'd like to have a bespoke axle designed to specific sizes, very similar to those already made by Irvine/Ripmax, but to mm (and fractions of mm) not to imperial sizes. The finished axle would need to slide into a (pre-purchased) bearing to form a balancing guage for a measuring device used in archery (not model engineering I'm afraid), and held in place by a simple spring washer.

Initially, there would be prototype development of course, and then batch production in multiples of 100.

Delivery of finished products would be to Birmingham UK via post.

Is there anyone here that takes on such specialised subcontracting work? Of course, this is paid work, I wouldn't expect anyone to take this on without it. A reply here is fine with whatever questions etc, or please email me: [email protected]

Many thanks (*crosses fingers*)

Paul Hadley

I suspect that I am not alone in knowing nothing about Ripmax or Irvine. So, you might get a response if you offer a few dimensions, and a clue about what, exactly, you hope to measure with the device.

And a sketch would be even better.

Regards, Tim

It makes not a jot of difference whether measured in Imperial or metric units. Everything on this planet can be measured in either units!

Fair comment, Tim ... But whilst we're waiting, I spent a few seconds on Google, and found this page: **LINK**

It's a wild guess, I know, but I suspect that Paul wants something broadly along those lines.

MichaelG.

The only item that generally requires balancing in archery is the arrow where the forward of centre (FOC) dimension affects arrow flight. I envisage arrows being slid into a hole at right angles to the spindle held in bearings, just like the wires on the Irvine undercarriage axles referred to, and moved along until they balance horizontally. The FOC dimension can then be measured or read off a moveable scale. Oddly enough I used to do target archery and made one of these about 18 years ago, used it until frozen shoulder made archery impossible. I also have a dozen or so of those axles as I now build large rc aircraft, so recognise how they could be adapted. Could be wrong though!

Edited By Gordon Brown 1 on 17/07/2016 20:23:56

Edited By Gordon Brown 1 on 17/07/2016 20:24:33

Tim, NDIY, Michael and Gordon, thank you for your replies.

Tim- my apology- I (wrongly) presumed that Irvine parts would be recognised by name within this online community. My fault, I should have been more accurate, I'm sorry.

NDIY- you are quite correct, however, mixing imperial and metric meaurements only cooks my head, and will, I'm sure lead me to make further errors. I personally prefer to work in metric and units of 100 if possible.

Michael- spot on- that's exactly what I'm looking to have made. They'll need to fit tightly inside a bearing, which is pre-made in mm. The solution I have at the moment allows for more 'play' (if that's the correct term to use on a highly specialised engineering forum) than I'd like- that will lead to innacuracy during the device's measuring process.

Gordon, thank you. You are so very close, in fact almost a debatable line cutter (sorry, archery term). For reasons of commercial sensitivity right now, I'm really sorry, but I can't disclose here what the measuring device will actually measure. Once it's gone into production however, I'll be showing you all, for sure.

There's also been a couple of email replies received (thank you to those that sent them), but to read them through in full and reply in detail, I'll need to be at the office, tomorrow.

Lastly, I need a dictionary- my spelling in the title is very poor.

Off to sit on the naught step.

Thank you all again.

I'm intrigued as to why you want to measure the FOC point. Do you discard arrows out of spec or try to get a set the same by adding weight somehow? It's been a long time since I was involved in archery but we found commercial points were not very consistent weight wise so we had custom stainless steel points made up (turned and then ground) and checked each point on a sensitive chemical balance to ensure they were up to spec. Although I'm no longer involved in the sport I'd be quite interested to see what you come up with. Good luck with the project.

Also used to be into archery into the mid 80's. Back then we'd have just dropped the set of arrows into a spaghetti jar of water to see if they all floated the same.

In the days of X7 aluminium tube we also used to plug both ends and float test them to check the spine/weight and mark for the "cock feather" before making them up into arrows. We used to try all sorts of things to get a set of arrows to group including bench testing. We found it surprising just how bad some arrows were.

I still have some X7 arrows lying around and somewhere is one X10 that I hung onto just to remind me how bloody expensive they were. That one has a tungsten point, which were just coming into use when I packed in. Quicks now quote almost £300 for a dozen X10 shafts and £177 for the tungsten points. Add on the cost of nocks and fletchings and you'll be up to well over £500 for a set of 12. I used to carry at least 18 arrows for competition use and a dozen for practice, so I used Easton ACC carbon shafts to keep the price down. Couldn't have afforded the sport otherwise as all the other kit was extremely expensive too. My last bow, a Browning Afterburner compound, was over £500 and much of the kit would only last a season or two.

Archery as with any sport is 95% archer 5% equipment, yet 95% of archers put more effort into the 5%.

I was asked by a fellow club member why her scores were poor and inconsistent ( she only shot a couple of times a month). She had purchased some good kit but was thinking of spending even more.

Simple answer was to quote the following :- 

Shoot 4 times a week and you get 4 times a week scores

Shoot once a month and you get once a month scores.

 

Archery is more about the archer rather than equipment until you get to the top 5%.

"All the gear, and no idea" describes many victims of shiny new kit syndrome. I got to within one score of Grand Master Bowman (top 1% of archers) with what could be kindly described as basic kit, or crap if you want to be honest. But I also put in huge amounts of time practicing as I have a very large garden so could spend hours of an evening honing skills. As the old joke goes, "how do I get to Carnegie Hall?", "practice, man, practice..."

All flash and no fury as the Oblivion quote goes. I to be honest would be a hypocrite to say i don't spend money on things i don't need, as we would all. There isn't really a problem, it's just the human condition to try and reason why we spend effort and wealth into things we don't necessarily need, it can't be explained really and is what sets us apart from other animals (or most atleast). It cannot be reasoned so it just has to be accepted that we are rather odd regardless of what you believe. If people want to spend money on bows and arrows then let them i say.

practice, experience, luck and the mysterious element of talent are the recipe for a skill. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 18/07/2016 10:42:06

A chap we'll call DP and myself were ocassional pee-takers. He did shoot very well, knocking on the door of national status while i was county status on a good day with the odd MB score and 6 gold

One tournament DP fletched up his arrows with false eyelashes (his girlfriend worked for Weller) - so the next week everyone had copied him and false eyelashes were the rage.

Another time i mixed up a little whisky and dry ginger in an old Sarsons vinegar bottle and took the odd nip during the (cold weather) shoot...explaining to folk that the vinegar caused my eyes to water and clear them for a better aim. I was in the top 3 that day so you can guess what folk were sipping the next week....

Hi Paul,

I just came across this post and I am desperate to know if you got anywhere with it.

I used to be an archer in my teens so I'm interested for more than one reason