Do you make & fit your own strings?

[Hidden Hippo]

A bit of both. Sometimes my dad will make a string that I use, but currently I am using ones bought from Stu369.

[Meddler]

I've made endless loop recurve strings for years.

Over the last couple of years I have recabled my own compound bow twice. Once with standard cables running over a cable guard, and then a Kudlacek shoot through system.

And last weekend, I (finally) learned how to make laid in strings.

Shop bought strings tend to have huge lumps of serving where they don't need to be.

[ironmonkey]

i find it really heartening that there are so many people out there who can make strings!

i use a homemade jig & an Arten. like many others, i make strings for myself, the club, and several other archers. i need to teach someone else how to do it soon.

as said before, if you make it yourself, you know alot of care has gone into it; you can control strand#, length, combination of materials & serving, and most importantly, colour!

[Marcus26]

I can and have made my own strings and cables, and fit them. In fact have been doing so since I was 12.
However 2 years ago I thought I would try Winners Choice. Unfreakingbelievable. I have given up making strings. These are SO much better than me or anyone I have met can make. I have made my own set once since and I changed them out for Winners Choice a month later.

What I like about WC strings is they work, straight from the packet, no twisting no fuss.
It takes me 3-4 hours to make a set of strings. For a set of Winners Choice my time is worth more than $25 p/h.

[BowSurfer]

Making my own just removed so much hassle. The last string I bought for my wife had to go back because the length was wrong - the 'nominal' lengths usually quoted just don't always seem right. My own ones can be made consistently and with few enough strands to allow my Beiter nocking points to fit properly.

[josh 77]

I dont make my own, but i get a fellow club member to make my strings and am very happy with the results.

[grimsby archer]

Originally Posted by dan

i make my own strings for my AFB, double ended flemmish twists, only made a few so far and enjoying learning the art, some have been too long and needed too many twists to get the bracing height right, some are too short, with more practice i think i'll be able to get it right, i don't use a jig of any kind just a hook on the wall ( is there a jig for the this? it would help to get them more uniform) as for the serving i hold it in place with a blob of beeswax rather than super glue, haven't had one unravel yet

For flemish twist, there is a jig, but it is for preparation rather than actually making the string. I found the plans by searching on the internet.http://www2.pcom.net/jthutten/jth/do...ig_compact.htm The jig is a board with a number of pins (screws) round which you wind a single continuous strand. Cutting through the strands at a certain point gives you a single skein with each constituent strand slightly shorter at both ends than its neighbour. This means when you twist the skeins together, the ends "fade" well. The jigs are adjustable to make different length strings, though I had to experiment with the actual skein length to suit the amount of twisting I put into the string. I also added lines to the jig to allow me to mark the skeins with a marker pen to indicate where to start and stop twisting for the loops at each end.
As I said, the jig is just for preparing the skeins, but preparation in 90% of the job. Once done, I just use a hook and twist for England!

[tel]

Originally Posted by Yorker

I don't make the string but I set my own nockng points and malarky onto it as required. I would like to learn how to make strings but the capital required is too high for my liking.

A decent home-made jig needn't cost a lot (mine was around £25 plus a couple of hours) and that cost is easily recouped in the saving over shop bought or custom made strings. The main issue is whether or not you want to make your own - I enjoy it and am happy with the results, but some I know can't be bothered and would rather pay the extra for ready made.

[Watch_Man]

Originally Posted by pyroarch57

Yes, i tension my strings at 300-400lbs for serving.

My wife shot at the EMAS champs yesterday and one of her competitors was having peep rotation issues with a new string. I asked her if the string had been pre-stretched and she said she didn't think it had. It was bought from a dealer BTW and not home made. Fortunately her partner is fairly switched on and was able to help sort out the peep rotation. At least making the strings yourself you know that it has been stretched and (hopefully) limit peep issues.

[Watch_Man]

Originally Posted by Marcus26

I can and have made my own strings and cables, and fit them. In fact have been doing so since I was 12.
However 2 years ago I thought I would try Winners Choice. Unfreakingbelievable. I have given up making strings. These are SO much better than me or anyone I have met can make. I have made my own set once since and I changed them out for Winners Choice a month later.

What I like about WC strings is they work, straight from the packet, no twisting no fuss.
It takes me 3-4 hours to make a set of strings. For a set of Winners Choice my time is worth more than $25 p/h.

We have had 2 sets of strings from Winners Choice and they were both pants. Perhaps we were unlucky but they were not well finished and after about 2 months of shooting my wife started to get really bad peep rotation issues. Tom Nealy who founded Winners Choice now sells his own strings which I have been told are how WC strings used to be. Her coach wasn't impressed with the WC strings either, he uses Tom Nealy to make all his strings.

I agree on the point about costing your time, however I enjoy making them as it gives me some quiet time