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Bow Stabilizer and Side Bar

bowhunter15

bowhunter15

Well-Known Member
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Joined
Feb 1, 2016
Messages
646
Almost finished. Just need to stealth strip the side bar. It can be made with entirely off the shelf parts and has all the adjustability of a $200+ kit. It's quite stiff and light as well. It would be slightly lighter and stiffer with carbon fiber, but when I ran the math aluminum was very close in this short of a stabilizer in overall weight and deflection. Longer stabizers is where the carbon fiber really shines. I'll be uploading a how to video for this one. My front bar is 12" and the side bar is 8". Also shown in the pic is my aluminum sight extension (2.5") that I finished up tonight.

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Zddog said:
That's great work. How does it compare to carbon with sound?
Click to expand...
Uncoated, it's louder and more unnatural sounding when you hit something against it. Also, it's colder to the touch in cold weather. But with the Stealth Strips, both problems are solved. In other words, I wouldn't use aluminum without some kind of fabric/tape on top, but with carbon I would.

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bowhunter15 said:
Uncoated, it's louder and more unnatural sounding when you hit something against it. Also, it's colder to the touch in cold weather. But with the Stealth Strips, both problems are solved. In other words, I wouldn't use aluminum without some kind of fabric/tape on top, but with carbon I would.

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Click to expand...
Will you please post a link to the video when you complete it please..?
I like seeing how others create their projects.
 
@bowhunter15 , are you still using this and do you have anything you'd do differently next time? I'm planning to give it a try- your videos are greatly appreciated.
 
beej32 said:
@bowhunter15 , are you still using this and do you have anything you'd do differently next time? I'm planning to give it a try- your videos are greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Still using it. There's not much that I'd change, though the off-the-shelf steel tube end weld nut does work pretty well also if you don't have a lathe.

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For anyone looking, here's the video:

I'm giving this a shot with the stabilizer but without the side bar. Bought some aluminum at lowes ($10 for 3 feet of 3/4" 6063) and ordered the weld nuts from mcmaster-carr linked in the video. I'm sure those could be found cheaper elsewhere once you factor in shipping ($7 for the 2 I ordered), but I went with those, figuring that was worth the time saved and the confidence in knowing I was getting the correct part.

I plan to add updates as I progress through this, but in general will just be copying from the video.
 
Here's my final result. I followed the instructions from the video almost exactly, with the main difference being that I used the tube-end weld nuts at both ends. The biggest note for anyone doing that instead of the end used in the video is that means the bolt at the end will be 5/16," so you'll want to start with 1/4" washers rather the 3/16" like he mentioned in the video (still drilling them out for a precise, non-rattling fit, though).

I cut the aluminum at about 8" and the total length from the bow is 10-1/2".

The toughest part of the whole project was ensuring the stabilizer's straightness out off of the bow while the epoxy set. I used some of the quick-drying jb weld, which probably helped with that. I used some shims to be fairly precise with elevation of the end as the glue dried. I expect the jb-kwik will hold fine, but that could come back to bite me. I also went with thick w ashers as the weights at the end and opted to paint them. I actually painted the whole thing before wrapping with the camoform-like self-adhesive wrap (no stealth strips). I put some rubber washers on there too- not sure if that helps with vibration but seems like it might. It'll be trivial to add more washers at the end of I think more weight is needed, but I don't expect to.

It was a really easy project, costing roughly $30, including $7 for shipping and a lot of unused aluminum. If you were to make 4 or 5, they'd wind up being less than $20 each. I see this as an alternative to spending $50 or more on something like a bee stinger, though I've never used one of those so couldn't say for sure. Regardless, I'd never shot with a legit stabilizer before- always just used a cheap, light, short one. Only shot out to 20 yards this evening, but it felt as if it did help reduce pin float quite a bit.

IMG_0957.JPG IMG_0956.JPG
 
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