3D – Keyboard Monkeys

A few years ago, my youngest son got me into archery. I mean, I remember shooting recurve bows as a kid, and it was fun, but I never really got into it until he got interested. We loved it, and got to where we were shooting compound bows multiple times each week. The only problem was that we were not very good, so the fletching on our arrows suffered quite often. New arrows were expensive, and we were poor, but I did have access to a 3D printer so I designed a jig to help us re-fletch our arrows. The first version worked, but it was very rudimentary. I refined the design over the years, shared the 3D files on thingiverse and even started selling them on Etsy , so I don’t know why I’ve never really discussed them on here. I tend to sell 1-2 a week, and I just do it to help out other archery enthusiasts who can’t afford the expensive fletching jigs and/or don’t have the space. I’m proud of the jigs. They’re not perfect, but they’re perfect for hobbyists so it’s something I keep doing in my spare time.

Last week, out of the blue, I was contacted about the jigs by two individuals from companies linked to archery products. It looks like they were both connected, and one expressed interest in possibly purchasing bulk quantities. Unfortunately, it takes 4 hours to print one, and then 5-10 minutes for me to assemble each, so mass production is not an option right now. I responded to each, offering to discuss the jigs with them, but I have not heard back so I don’t know if anything else will progress with it. But the experience did prompt me to finally finish my next iteration of the jig. I spent some time the past few days finally dialing everything in so I can now print the jig with no assembly required. It increased the print time to 6 hours, but it saves me the cost of the adhesive, the assembly time and the overnight wait for the adhesive to fully cure, so it’s definitely worth it. It also removes the variation in assembly, so the jigs should be able to be even more accurate.

I’ve always used 2″ vanes, so that’s what I designed the jigs for, but I’ve had multiple requests for 3″ versions, so while I was making adjustments I finally completed that version too, though I have not printed one yet. I also don’t currently have any 3″ vanes to test it on, but I plan on picking some up this week, so I should be able to verify that design and offer it for sale as-well. Each of these jigs aligns the vanes perfectly straight, and many archers like a slight twist to their vanes, so that will be the next version I need to do, but it’ll probably have to wait until the end of the year.

In addition to being a writer, I’m also a designer. Most of my career has been spent around screen and digital printing so most of my design skills have developed around graphic design and color and material design. These skills have served me well, and I have successfully translated these skills into woodworking and other design applications but when it came to true 3D design, my skills and tools were sadly lacking.

In a previous position I designed and 3D printed some sample display assets, and last year my wife and son decided I needed a 3D printer of my own, so I have some CAD experience, but everything I’d done was with the free TinkerCAD software, which is extremely limited. But by designing some of the complex shapes in Illustrator and exporting as an svg file to be imported into TinkerCAD, I was able to get around a lot of the limitations. Eventually, though, those limitations became too much so I finally listened to the advice of others and signed up for the free Fusion 360 “startup” license.

For anyone interested in learning CAD, CAM & CAE software, I cannot recommend this highly enough. A design engineer I used to work with recommended it to me and I can only kick myself for waiting so long to download it.

Like most professional CAD/CAM software, there is a steep learning curve, but there are tons of tutorials online, through autodesk themselves as well as from other design professionals. It also really helps having a son who is somewhat experienced with solidworks to give me pointers, but there is plenty of information and helpful forums on line for those of you without engineering students to rely on.

My first Fusion 360 project from scratch was a speedloader/thumbsaver for a 9mm. It went through a couple iterations to get where I wanted it, but it turned out great and was an awesome learning experience. Now I just have to come up with my next project.