Arrow Fletching

thingiverse

I did this for my science fair project to start learning about 3D printing, and am about to go to regional science fair after succeeding at my school. This is just one of my designs. This design was put on 1816 shafts and tested, and had very nice results, the best of all my designs. I looked at 2 designs on thingiverse, however they did not meet my needs. Here are some specifics - The sketchup model is divided into to components - the sleeve and the vane. The sleeve can easily be resized for other arrow shafts. I did not use any adhesive to locate the sleeve and vanes on the arrow shaft.The tolerance of the sleeve (on my printer) is such that it made a good friction fit on the aluminum arrow shaft. I used a small strip of tape to keep the sleeve from moving forward on the shaft when shooting the arrow. As my aluminum shafts were a little expensive, I indexed the vanes before each shoot. At 9.2 meters the arrow(s) had a very similar flight pattern to my Easton feather fletched target arrows. However at 18 meters the arrows had a noticeable tail "kick". My best estimate is that the CG of the arrow is moved significantly back from my Easton arrows. The solution to this might be going with a heavier tip. Print Settings Printer: Monoprice Mini Select Rafts: Doesn't Matter Supports: Yes Resolution: .1 mm Infill: None Notes: On my Mini Select this model prints amazingly well. HOWEVER, it is a tall and thin model so I do print the base at .5 speed. Once the first couple of layers are complete I set the speed back to 1.0. Also, it helps if your bed is level when printing this model. I set the temperature of the build plate on my printer to 55 degrees, and the extruder to 210 degrees, but this may vary depending on what printer you have. Overview and Background NA Lesson Plan and Activity NA References Arrow Fletching and Nock Replacement by SJAmakers, published Feb 22, 2016 http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1362071 Arrow fletching by Vimpelis, published Jun 8, 2015 http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:870019