OpenSCAD Fletching jig

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Overview

Simple yet effective fletching jig that will adjust to all your needs. Intended to provide new archers with access to 3D printer cheap way to fix broken arrows without a need for expensive off-the-shelf jig. Hopefully, even skilled shooters may find utility in this design.

Features

• highly adjustable to fit different arrows and vanes
• supports both 3 and 4 vanes
• straight, offset and true helical fletchings
• features optional nock alignment
• no additional tools required for assembly
• hot swappable arms
• very compact and light

Prerequisites

First you have to download latest version (2019.05 or newer) of OpenSCAD. It's free and open source software available for all major desktop platforms. Nothing else is needed for editing and rendering.

Additional software required will vary depending on your 3D printer.

How to use

You may try to use Thingiverse customizer directly without downloading anything but it worked for me only in Microsoft Edge and the experience wasn't good. So if it doesn't work for you either (or if it's too slow), follow these instructions.

Although I provide several pre-rendered files as an example, it is very likely that you will not like something about them. If some of the parameters do not fit your setup or you simply want to enable some special features mentioned above, you will have to change the relevant parameters in the OpenSCAD customizer and render a new, unique jig yourself. Don't worry though, it is very simple!

1. Download and extract fletching_jig_v2.0.zip of this project somewhere on your PC.
2. Locate main.scad and open it in OpenSCAD.
3. Go to the Customizer section:
   • Windows/Linux: Click on Window in the top menu and select Customizer.
   • macOS: Click on View in the top menu, then select Customizer.
4. The Customizer panel will appear on the right side of the OpenSCAD interface.
   • If you don't need to see or edit the code, you can close the editor window on the left to focus solely on the Customizer and 3D view.
5. Adjust the parameters:
   • You will see a list of customizable parameters, such as dimensions and features. See the table below for the detailed description or refer to parameter reference drawing.
   • Modify these parameters as needed to customize your model.
   • I did all i could to prevent user from inserting invalid values, but there could still be ways to generate completely invalid design - so be reasonable. I'd advise you to change parameters you're sure about first (arrow_diameter, vane_length etc.) and then adjust the rest.
6. Preview your changes in real-time. The 3D model will update automatically as you adjust the parameters.
7. Once you're satisfied with the customization, you can render the model (F6) and export it to your desired format with File > Export > ....
   • By default, you will get file with every jig part. However, by changing part_select parameter, you can isolate individual parts in their correct orientation for 3D printing. This way you can split the jig into multiple files.

Parameters

Thresholds

Like I already mentioned, I've take some precautions to ensure a valid outputs.

First are constrained sliders in customizer. These are set to accommodate even extreme values and should be sufficient for everyone. They're nothing more than recommendations though and even values beyond their range may work just fine. If - for any reason - you'd want to allow values outside of default range, you can do so in main.scad by editing lines just like this one:

//distance between the bottom of the base and arrow
arrow_offset = 3;//[0:0.1:100]

where comment behind the assignment means [min:precision:max]. Go to customizer documentation for more information.

Second are thresholds in the module itself that are actually checking if desired parameters make sense or not. For example, if you have small jig for 6mm arrows, you can't have 10 centimeter wide hinge. So even if you're able to set something like this in the customizer, invalid parameters will be truncated in the module to a closest valid value. If this happens, you'll be informed about it in the console window with similar line:

hinge_thickness threshold (max = 5.25) reached!

List of some thresholds is in the table above. Some extreme values may still produce invalid results. That could either be because fixing it is more trouble than it's worth or because calculation of thresholds is impossible. Or it can simply be an oversight on my part. If you think something can be improved or you discover a bug, raise an issue or submit PR.

Also, not all parameters are available in the customizer. Some of them do not change and should not have an effect on the validity of the generated output. However, if you did some testing and think some of these default values could be adjusted to generate better results, let me know.