Skinny and fat arrow holder
3D Printed arrow holder to organize the fletching process
Introduction
Whenever I build new arrows or refurbish existing ones at the start of a new season, the process can become a bit of a juggling act. Arrows tend to roll off the table or bump into each other before the fletching glue has properly set—an annoying issue, especially if your table isn’t perfectly level. This can lead to a lot of unnecessary frustration.
Fortunately, there's a simple solution if you have access to a 3D printer.
Let's Get Started
Most of the arrows I was using when I came up with this idea had a diameter of less than 8mm. To keep them in place during assembly, I designed two side holder plates, each with grooves that can hold up to twelve arrows at a time.
The two plates are connected by three 10mm dowels, each cut to approximately 25cm in length. I re-purposed some plastic rods I had lying around, which were originally destined for the trash, to serve as the dowels.
The great thing about this solution is that it can be easily disassembled for storage. This is especially convenient if you live in an apartment or want to minimise clutter in your workspace.
When I first designed the holder plates, I was only shooting outdoors. Later, I got into 20-yard indoor shooting, which led me to explore fat arrows like the Easton Superdrive 23s. Since I typically only build six indoor arrows at a time, I also designed a 6-arrow holder specifically for these fatter arrows, accommodating arrows with up to a 10mm diameter.
