I've mentioned spin wing vanes before. Spinnies are curled, plastic vanes, stuck on in an offset configuration.
They're meant for thin arrows, such as X10's and ACE's.
Their purpose is to put more spin on the arrow. I'll let the info card do the talking -
improved accuracy, stabilisation and arrow flight.
Most people won't use these, but they are the norm for competitive shooting. They also get ripped up pretty
easily, especially if your bow is out of tune, so they're higher maintenance than regular vanes.
Since they take considerably more time and effort to put together, most shops won't offer them as an alternative
so you have to do it yourself - it's not that hard but it can be a bit tricky to
get it just right
There's some leeway involved in not getting it precise, so if you're a bit off they'll still function fine.
My first pack of spinnies were pretty terribly done - the negative effects were negligible, they just looked ugly!
I've bought a new batch of arrows and a new pack of spin wings, so I'll have to fletch them all.
There are few videos on Youtube explaining how to put them on, but I'm going to do this one a bit differently.
I had to do a bit of improvisation and while this definitely isn't the most precise method, it came out fairly well.
If your club is well-equipped there's probably enough tools lying around for you to use to assemble arrows.
My Clubhouse consists of this concrete slab and a shed.
I glued my inserts using a candle shaped like a champagne bottle from the year 2000.
I've got the spin wing pack here, which comes with the vanes and tape and I've got a pencil and a fletching jig.
It's a lot easier if you use a paint pen which you can get from any art store. I've got one, for some reason I can't find it.
It's also probably a lot easier if you use a helical fletching jig, but I've got a straight one .
I'm using a Cartel fletching jig, although most jigs are similar.
Jigs come with magnetic clips that hold vanes in place while the glue dries, but since I'm using spinnies,
I won't be using glue, and I only need the jig to rule guidelines.
It's possible to adjust jigs left and right, but I was in a
rush and I couldn't figure out how to rule helical lines using a straight jig.
If you're watching this, you either think this is the most awkward and stupid way
of putting on spin wings, or you wonder why you didn't think of this yourself.
So, this is what I did. First, I had to figure out where to draw the lines - most
jigs have preset positions to place veins and if so, you're in luck.
For some reason, this one doesn't so I had to measure my own.
Thankfully the knob has equal segments, so I placed the pencil mark on the knob and the frame as a crude alignment tool.
To make aligning the vanes easier, I also mark out the length of the line.
The vanes start from around an inch from the nock and
I've marked the end point of the vane on the clip as a reference for my line.
And look! I found my paint pen!
I align my preset marks and mark each line -
you end up with an arrow with perfectly distanced vane markings.
However, the spinnies go on helically, not straight, so you can't follow these lines.
I'm not too familiar with angles and
measurements so I estimated the necessary angle - it's not large enough to
completely cross the lines, so I place about just below it and do the same
marking for the other two vanes.
Now for the tape - it's double-sided and can be tricky to peel, so my strategy is
to rip a strip off and hope that the end gets split.
I anchor one end of the tape on the solid line and stretch the tape so that
it crosses the second mark - if you make a mistake, the tape comes off easily if
you pull it back right away, but avoid doing it too often.
Press against the tape to secure it.
Do the same for the remaining two lines - you should get three equally distanced diagonal parallel strips.
Now for the vanes - expose the adhesive tape and carefully stick the vane on.
Use the back of the vane and the tape and or line as a reference point.
Since the tape is already angled correctly, all you have to do is follow the tape.
Try not to misalign the vane - pulling it off is actually difficult without ruining the adhesive tape
Peel and break off the excess tape and you've got a perfectly attached vane.
Do the same thing for the other two, making sure the vanes are stuck securely.
Finally, you need to apply tape around the ends of vanes - use the black tape that
comes in the pack, break off 2 small pieces. Peel one, and stretch it across
the end of the vane. Do the same for the other end. This prevents the vanes from peeling off.
And there you go! It's a fairly crude method, but it's actually pretty fast and not impractical, considering what I'm using.
Of course, if you're doing a whole set of arrows, it's still going to be a pain in the rear.
With all that said and done, I hope you found this video helpful and or comical.
As usual, thanks for watching and cheers!