Bitzenburger setup
Equipment
Just wondering best option for setting up my bitz for helical on my vanes? I will be doing 3 fletch with either a 2 or 3" vane and not sure how to get the right helical. Normally I've just used a left or right wing clamp and just made sure they set on shaft good and glued. Never had a problem just wondering if this is right or is there something I'm missing?
Yep, just set the angle of your helical clamp so both ends of the fletch is in full contact with the shaft and you should be good.
Hey NIson...not sure if I'm following you correctly, but Bitzenburger makes a "right hand helical" fletching clamp for their jig. You must have this clamp to place right-hand helical vanes on the arrow shaft. You can buy this Bitzenburger helical clamp for less than $30 online.
Having said this...and especially if you are using small diameter arrow shafts (like the Easton Axis N-Fused carbon shafts)...you will find it difficult to max out the helical twist of the vane when using longer length vanes. Using a 3" vane on such an arrow shaft may keep you from achieving your goal of maxing out the helical twist...while keeping the leading and trailing edges of the vane on the shaft. I personally use short 2" Blazer vanes and my Bitzenburger right-hand helical clamp on these particular Easton arrow shafts and get significant helical twist on the vane...despite the small diameter (roughly 1/4" in dia.) of these arrow shafts. Looking from the nock end of the finished arrow, the helical vane placement looks like a boat prop with plenty of helical twist! And yes, they do stabilize a three-bladed, compact broadhead very well. Check out the photo for my results.
If you are using a larger diameter arrow shaft, then the 3" vane you describe should work fine and you will achieve good helical twist.
Good luck. Kevin
Dang. I thought this was gonna be a German Beer Keg thread . . . . .
"Gotta love the helical you can get on a bitzenburger. MW, thats a beaut."
Actually what you are referring to is the offset not the helical. The helical cannot be adjusted, but you can set the offset to whatever you want as long as you still get good glue-line contact.
I set my bitz up years ago, with a helical clamp to where I got maximum contact of the vane to shaft and fletched everything from the big extra thick target arrows to smaller diameter. Recently started using the ultra small diameter shafts and had to adjust it a bit.
Hello again Nlson...once you get a right-hand helical clamp for your Bitzenburger jig, you can experiment with the amount of offset you can achieve for a given arrow diameter using the jig adjustment screws. Me personally...I'd max out the helical "offset" by adjusting the clamp to the point where the leading and trailing edges of the vane are in good contact with the arrow shaft and the vane lays flat along the length of the shaft contact area. At that point, you will have reached max helical nirvana!
Enjoy the broadhead stabilization this will afford you! Kevin
Thanks for the info guys I'll see what I can come up with
