DIY Arrow Fletching Jig

DIY Arrow Fletching Jig

We all know being able to fletch more than one arrow at a time saves a lot of time, but buying expensive jigs are not always in the budget, and even buying multiples of the cheap jigs can get expensive, and the cheap jigs don’t always work all that well.

I’ve been meaning to make these for a while, and I’m not sure what took so long. The jigs I bought worked so-so, and the only reason I had two was the first one broke removing it from the package, so I was sent a new one. I managed to fix the old one, and  because of that I knew that it had to be “tuned” to work appropriately. 

So I made these. Cost was zero and they work much better.

The plates are cut from an old rusty saw plate. I clamp them off the edge of my bench and run the cut off wheel down the edge of a straight hardwood board (see the first image). Old rusty saws are everywhere (please don’t cut up a valuable saw or a saw with historical significance). They can be had for $1-$5 and will make several of these jigs. I also thought about using some old bandsaw blades. Anything  of similar composition should work fine.

The wood base is 8″ long and the sides are 3″ for this set showing, but you can modify the dimensions should you have a need or desire. These will take a 5″ fletch easily, but should you need longer or higher, just add to the dimensions.

The groove is cut down the center but placement isn’t really critical.  It just needs to fit the plates. They need to be snug, but not to tight.

Feather height really doesn’t matter. The clamp is really optional and just helps hold the plates when your gluing or taping,  I’ve done several without the clamp because I simple forgot it. It’s just not an integral part of the design. If your feather is wider, just let it stick out the top.

The screw in the back that holds the rubber bands wants to be close to the riser or it tried to flip the arrow putting them on.. I’m using some cut strips of old innertube, but any rubber band will work.

If you happen to make the groove a little two loose, the the clamp would be more significant, and you may want to clamp (with a bigger rubber band) around the entire clamp to hole the feather in place while the glue dries.

An advantage outside the $0 cost is cleanup. Glue finds it harder to stick to the steel plates than plastic or aluminum. And clean up when it does is simple. Scrape it, wire wheel it, sand it, do whatever is easiest for you.

Feel free to ask any questions one the comments below or in the forum

Cutting the plat with c cutoff wheel.

Marking the arrow and plate so the feather started in the correct location.