ThereWillBeSpuds
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2019
- Messages
- 648
Here is my lightweight bow hanger solution. I made it from paracord, an aluminum knitting needle, some spring steel from old style windshield wipers and a wee bit of tubular webbing.
It weighs in at 24 grams plus the weight of the length of paracord you use to attach it to the tree. With 12 feet of paracord it comes out to about 50g.
The first two pics give you an idea of what it looks like installed on the tree, the third pic shows it holding a 10lb weight.
It was a fairly simple build and I only had to buy the kintting needle (2 for under 4 bucks at walmart.)
What follows is a painfully verbose blow by blow of how to make one for yourself.
Materials :
1x 14 inch #7 aluminum knitting needle
40 inches 550 paracord
2x old style windshield wiper blade (the type with multiple little arches supporting the blade, stop by a few autozone type stores and check the bins out front.)
Duck tape
Saran wrap
A few inches of tubular webbing
Tools:
Needle and thread.
Hacksaw
Bypass wirecutters
Sharp scissors
Lighter for melting ends.
Fineish Sandpaper
1: Using the hacksaw, cut the knitting needle to 10 inches long, leaving the point on it. Sand the cut edge, deburring and beveling the edges.
2: cut a piece of paracord 15 inches long, do not melt the ends. Pull the inner cords out and discard.
3: Ease the pointed end of the knitting needle into the outer sheath of the paracord and shimmy it all the way down until the point is sticking out of the other end. It will be a tight fit.
4: Cut off the point, leaving the knitting needle about 9 inches long. Sand to debur and bevel.
5: Shimmy the needle back until it is entirely inside the paracord, then a little more, so that there is about 5 inches of slack paracord on one end of the needle and about 1 inch on the other end.
6: trim the freyed ends, melt them, and flatten them.
7: On the end with the longer tail, sew a loop thats big enough for a piece of paracord to pass through it. The loop should bring the length of that tail down to 2 inches long or less.
◇ what you should have now is a piece of paracord sheathing about 14.5 inches long with a 9 inch piece of knitting needle inside it. One end should have floppy paracord sheathing sewn into a loop totaling about 2 inches the other should have a little less than one inch of floppy paracord sheathing. Both ends should be melted and pressed flat to prevent fraying.
8: Grab the windshield wiper blades and grasp the rubber bit at the end. Peel it away from the metal frame, freeing two narrow pieces of spring steel.
9: Using the bypass wire cutters, cut the notched ends off the pieces of spring steel and then cut out 2 pieces 6 inches long and 2 pieces 2.75 inches long. Sand all cut edges to debur and round corners
10: Wrap each end of all four pieces of spring steel with duct tape to prevent them puncturing the paracord sheath we will be putting them in soon. Dont use too much or you will not be able to get them through the sheathing. My method uses only a 1inch piece for each end.
11: Place one long piece of spring steel and one short piece end to end on a piece of saran wrap with about half an inch between them. Wrap them up with 3 or 4 layers and trim excess. Pull and twist the ends and trim them, leaving about half an inch of twisted saran wrap at either end. Repeat for the other pair of steel strips.
◇ You should now have a pair of saran wrap tubes with 2 spring steel strips inside each of them (1 short one long in each tube). They should be able to fold on themselves between the two strip of steel
12: Cut a piece of paracord 22 inches long do not melt the ends. Remove the inner cords and discard.
13: Take one of the saran wrap tubes and find the end with the longer piece of spring steel. Feed that end into the paracord sheath until it is entirely inside.
14: Feed the other saran wrap tube in from the other end
15: Work them toward the center until there is about half an inch of floppy sheathing between them.
16: Trim the ends down to 1 inch of empty sheathing and melt and flatten the ends.
17: Pass the piece of paracord with with spring steel inside through the loop sewn on the other paracord and center the loop.
18: Take the three remaining loose 1 inch ends on the pieces and sew them together.
19: place the three ends you just sewed inside the scrap of tubular webbing and fold it in half. Sew that together.
At this point all there is left to do is position it on the paracord to attach it to the tree. I do that by tying overhand knots in the cord around the top corners of the hanger.
I will post detail pics in comments below to clarify somewhat.
Photos 1&2 show the hanger attached to the tree
3 shows it holding a 10lb weight
4 shows it holding my bow
Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
It weighs in at 24 grams plus the weight of the length of paracord you use to attach it to the tree. With 12 feet of paracord it comes out to about 50g.
The first two pics give you an idea of what it looks like installed on the tree, the third pic shows it holding a 10lb weight.
It was a fairly simple build and I only had to buy the kintting needle (2 for under 4 bucks at walmart.)
What follows is a painfully verbose blow by blow of how to make one for yourself.
Materials :
1x 14 inch #7 aluminum knitting needle
40 inches 550 paracord
2x old style windshield wiper blade (the type with multiple little arches supporting the blade, stop by a few autozone type stores and check the bins out front.)
Duck tape
Saran wrap
A few inches of tubular webbing
Tools:
Needle and thread.
Hacksaw
Bypass wirecutters
Sharp scissors
Lighter for melting ends.
Fineish Sandpaper
1: Using the hacksaw, cut the knitting needle to 10 inches long, leaving the point on it. Sand the cut edge, deburring and beveling the edges.
2: cut a piece of paracord 15 inches long, do not melt the ends. Pull the inner cords out and discard.
3: Ease the pointed end of the knitting needle into the outer sheath of the paracord and shimmy it all the way down until the point is sticking out of the other end. It will be a tight fit.
4: Cut off the point, leaving the knitting needle about 9 inches long. Sand to debur and bevel.
5: Shimmy the needle back until it is entirely inside the paracord, then a little more, so that there is about 5 inches of slack paracord on one end of the needle and about 1 inch on the other end.
6: trim the freyed ends, melt them, and flatten them.
7: On the end with the longer tail, sew a loop thats big enough for a piece of paracord to pass through it. The loop should bring the length of that tail down to 2 inches long or less.
◇ what you should have now is a piece of paracord sheathing about 14.5 inches long with a 9 inch piece of knitting needle inside it. One end should have floppy paracord sheathing sewn into a loop totaling about 2 inches the other should have a little less than one inch of floppy paracord sheathing. Both ends should be melted and pressed flat to prevent fraying.
8: Grab the windshield wiper blades and grasp the rubber bit at the end. Peel it away from the metal frame, freeing two narrow pieces of spring steel.
9: Using the bypass wire cutters, cut the notched ends off the pieces of spring steel and then cut out 2 pieces 6 inches long and 2 pieces 2.75 inches long. Sand all cut edges to debur and round corners
10: Wrap each end of all four pieces of spring steel with duct tape to prevent them puncturing the paracord sheath we will be putting them in soon. Dont use too much or you will not be able to get them through the sheathing. My method uses only a 1inch piece for each end.
11: Place one long piece of spring steel and one short piece end to end on a piece of saran wrap with about half an inch between them. Wrap them up with 3 or 4 layers and trim excess. Pull and twist the ends and trim them, leaving about half an inch of twisted saran wrap at either end. Repeat for the other pair of steel strips.
◇ You should now have a pair of saran wrap tubes with 2 spring steel strips inside each of them (1 short one long in each tube). They should be able to fold on themselves between the two strip of steel
12: Cut a piece of paracord 22 inches long do not melt the ends. Remove the inner cords and discard.
13: Take one of the saran wrap tubes and find the end with the longer piece of spring steel. Feed that end into the paracord sheath until it is entirely inside.
14: Feed the other saran wrap tube in from the other end
15: Work them toward the center until there is about half an inch of floppy sheathing between them.
16: Trim the ends down to 1 inch of empty sheathing and melt and flatten the ends.
17: Pass the piece of paracord with with spring steel inside through the loop sewn on the other paracord and center the loop.
18: Take the three remaining loose 1 inch ends on the pieces and sew them together.
19: place the three ends you just sewed inside the scrap of tubular webbing and fold it in half. Sew that together.
At this point all there is left to do is position it on the paracord to attach it to the tree. I do that by tying overhand knots in the cord around the top corners of the hanger.
I will post detail pics in comments below to clarify somewhat.
Photos 1&2 show the hanger attached to the tree
3 shows it holding a 10lb weight
4 shows it holding my bow
Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
