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az41mag

Advice for re-fletching

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I recently purchased an AZ ez-fletch mini, and am excited to try my hand at re-fletching some arrows. Since there seems to be several adhesive choices on the market, I wanted to ask some advice on what glue you are using, and also what to use for removing the old fletching glue from the arrow shaft? So far I've been able to strip the old Blazer vanes from the shafts with a stripping tool, but there is still residue of old glue. I will be using Blazer vanes and Gold Tip carbon arrow shafts. Thanks in advance.

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a fter you scrap them as clean as you can then use a bit of acetone to clean the shafts don't soak them in it just rub with a rag, and for blazers I use superglue the 15second set kind. its always held well for me. If you use AAE you need to use there special AAE glue . and if you like a bit of custom you could always get arrow raps before you fletch, it will add about 10 grains to the back end but there easy to see and you can get ones custom made for you.

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Scrape the arrow as clean as you can then wipe clean with denatured alcohol. Isopropyl alcohol leaves a bit of oily residue and acetone actually weakens the glue used when the carbon is wrapped together. Each vane manufacturing company has their own line of glue they recommend. If a vane is glued like a blazer then I suggest using bohning platinum. It's got a bit more elasticity and works great. When I fletch an arrow it takes pliers to pull it off. Super glues are over used and un necessary but also have less forgiveness during use. Working at the shop we fletch 10 dozen arrows plus daily so I tend to have a bit of experience in this. I also work for the guy who designed the Ez fletch.

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I don't have as much experience as maverick but I highly recommend loc-tite brand super glue ultra gel. I prefer it over any of the fletching glue that I have tried. It's not like normal super glue. It's very easy to work with and very forgiving. The bottle that it comes in allows it to be applied very precisely. Google it. I use it I blazers with an ez fletch mini and it results in pure perfection every time. Maverick is right about the denatured alcohol. Wraps are cheap also and prevent you from having to scrape glue if you decide to refletch.

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beeman recommends using M.E.K. solvent or acetone on the shaft to clean if there is no nock installed. if there is a nock installed use denatured alcohol. just be sure not to soak the carbon fiber for an extended period of time.

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I finally had some time to work on this, so I thought I'd share my results. I ended up having to use acetone to remove the old glue. The denatured alcohol wouldn't remove the old glue no matter how much elbow grease was used, (not sure what the old glue was since they were already fletched when I bought them). Gold Tip customer service said that acetone was fine to use on the shaft but not on the nock, so I just removed the nocks for this job. They recommended rinsing the shafts in very hot water afterwards both inside and out. I did use the denatured alcohol after they had dried overnight to clean the surfaces.

 

The AZ ez-fletch jig took a few practice runs before I got good results. The blazer vanes can move length wise in the arms that hold them. I found this out the hard way, but it was my fault for not closing the arms slow enough and forcing the vanes out of position. Probably the toughest thing was judging how much glue to use. It took a couple times before I figured out what was too much or not enough. By the third try I was getting good results, and the ez-fletch mini is really quite easy to use. I ended up using the bohning platinum glue, so we'll see how they hold up. Thank you to all of those who contributed suggestions.

 

 

 

 

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one more trick is I like to use the tip of a mechanical pencil for glue placement. just stick it over the spout tightly and squeeze a really small line out. you don't need much glue at all.

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one more trick is I like to use the tip of a mechanical pencil for glue placement. just stick it over the spout tightly and squeeze a really small line out. you don't need much glue at all.

thats sounds like a good idea! Does it work with gel glues?

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I've used it for all kinds of superglues gel included. Havent used it on the archery specific glues though.

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