Homemade Cresting Machine

[Jack Guard]

Thought i would share a pic of a home made cresting machine i "finally" finished.  

I have had the sewing machine motor for something like 5 years and never finished the project.  I took the info from Ron Shealer's machine on Stickbow and basically copied it.  Its white in color because i didnt like how it turned out when i stained the wood.  

I have $10 in the motor plus the cost of the dimmer switch (cant remember what i paid its been so long).  the electrical cord, plug and wood were scrap from my garage. The one issue i have had is the conection from the arrow to the motor.  i have tried 4 or 5 different types of tubing and they all had a bit of wobble left in them.  so i put a piece of painters tape on the motor shaft and its pretty darn good.  although i have to replace it after 8 or 10 shafts.  I have thought of buying the cresting chuck from Three Rivers for $8.99 but dang man, that would double my investment.  

Let me knwo what you guys think !

[Coon007]

great job

[Jwilliam]

Nice job!!! Good looking cresting machine.

Bill

[R.W.]

Hmmmm. Just happen to have a motor like that in the basement.

Mayhap, I shall have to copy your model of cresting machine!

"Imitation is the greatest form of praise!"

Nice cresting set-up!

R.W.

[SOS]

But did you check out the tie-dyed crown dip on those babies?  Need a dip-along to show us those techniques!~

[flatbowMB]

Let's see some close-ups of your arrows!  They look mighty beautiful.

[Jack Guard]

Thanks guys for the nice comments on the crester and arrows.  i will work on some pics of those crazy things tomorrow. Its waaaaay past my bed time.  They are inspired by the 8th Dwaf "AKA" Too Short.  I use to look through his Catalog constantly drooling over his arrows.  He is responsible for a lot of my obsession (one of them beeing Texas Recurves).  The technique is "fairly" easy. although i havent tried to make a matched set.  i am to impatiant to do that.  

Just to get you started on the arrows.  

 ** Take your dip tube or an old vase and fill it full of water.
 ** Put a drop or two of thinned cresting paint, i use testors, in the tube.  mix and match colors to your desire.  dont go over board, i did, all you need is two colors and a drop or two of each.  use a tooth pic to swirl the paint around. watch out for bubbles and clots.  if you see any bubbles or clots you can use a tooth pic to get them out.  the paint likes to cling to the tooth pic, so its easy to get out any bubbles.  keep this in mind, whatever color is in middle of the tube will end up on the nock end.  as you dip the arrow shaft it draws the paint inward.  so be sure to either swirl the paint around if you want a consistent look, or you can have a faded look, like i did, by putting one color in the middle of the tube.  its take some experimenting.  there is another description of the technique on Stikbowhttp://www.stickbow.com/FEATURES/ARROWMAKING/MARBLEdip.cfm.  If you mess up just wipe it off with paint thinner and try again.  well, actually i normally have to re-do the dip, which by the way, i have been doing by spray painting, thanks to the members of this forum.  

If there are others out there doing this technique i would love to see some pics.  

Good Luck, Jack

[OzarkRamblr]

Looks like a winner to me, great job!

[Jack Denbow]

Jack those arrows realy look cool.
Jack

[Hatrick]

Jack, I'm with ya buddy. I made this one about 14 years ago and it's still going strong. Pretty similar in some ways.