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Applying Eli Vanes

3K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  Fury90flier 
#1 ·
For those of you who have installed Eli Vanes on your shafts, what have you found to be the best method? Marking the shaft is easy enough. but with curl in these vanes and the roll of fletching ape, I find it really hard to hold onto. Any suggestions?
 
#2 ·
The best way I've found is to stick the tape on the shaft with a knife (keeps tape clean), then use a binder clip on the vane to set it into place. EliVanes tend to be a little tight on tape, so cut your tape as close to length as allowed.
 
#3 ·
The method I use:

- Mark shaft with exact length
- Unroll a little bit of the tape
- Stick the little bit of tape to one end of the mark
- Unroll enough to cover the rest of the mark
- Stick end of tape to the other end of the mark and cut the tape (unrolling the tape and laying it all down at once creates a straight line over the mark with the tape and it's easier)
- Use the back of a spoon/ back of a finger nail or something dull and burnish the still covered tape to make sure it has good contact
- Peel the top off of the tape stuck to the shaft
- Take one of the eli vanes and rub both sides with a paper towel. The paper towel will catch at first, but then become easy to rub when it's clean. Don't use any liquid!!!
- Take the end of the now clean eli vane that goes closest to the point of the arrow and - without uncurling the vane - stick a small part of the eli vane to the exposed tape
- Now, like you did with the tape, while holding the little bit of the vane stuck to the tape, uncurl vane
- With the vane uncurled and partially stuck to the tape, adhere the other end of the vane to the end of the mark/tape
- Press the edge between the 2 stuck ends of the vane to ensure adhesion

It really doesn't take as long as the steps seem to make out. I can do a vane in about 20ish seconds.
 
#4 ·
First, I clean the shaft with denatured alcohol. Then, I mark 3 straight lines at 120 degrees with a silver sharpie.
After that, I measure the double sided tape to the length of the wing, and apply it along one side of the sharpie line (the lines are kind of fat, just be consistent on which side of the line).
Next, I clamp a wing using a fletching jig, leaving enough room at the bottom of the wing to apply it along the width of the tape.
I line the edge of the wing with the edge of the tape and apply it along the width of the tape.
Next, I use my nail or pencil or something to make sure the tape sticks to the wing.

Do this for the other 2 wings.

After that, I apply the wrap, from the end closer to the point first. I apply it in the direction against the curl, first gently placing it over the front end. When all 3 wings have been covered in 1 layer of wrap, I add a bit more pressure - enough to make the wrap stretch and finish wrapping. Take care not to pull too hard, or you will pull the wings out of alignment as well as snap the wrap. I do the same thing for the other part of the wing.

I use glue to dot the end of the wrap that touched my fingers (it's not sticky anymore). Then I use baby powder and sprinkle the wings so they don't stick to each other.
 
#6 ·
I use a large binder clip and a rectangular piece of cardboard a bit longer than the eli-vane and about twice as wide.

  • Fold the cardboard so that there is a gap slightly larger than the width of the fletching-tape between the sides of the fold and put it in the binder clip as in this drawing (not to scale):
    View attachment Folded Cardboard.pdf
  • Slide the eli-vane into the cardboard aligning the vane with the edge of the cardboard.
  • Remove one protection strip from the fletching-tape and apply the fletching tape to the exposed edge of the eli-vane.
  • Remove the protection strip from the (other) exposed side of the fletching-tape.
  • Press the fletching-tape/eli-vane against the edge of the line on your shaft.
  • Apply the pin-striping tape over the front and rear of the vane half-on and half-off the vane and about 1 1/2 times around the shaft.
  • Apply a small drop of CA glue to the end of the pin-striping tape.

You can make up eli-vanes with fletching-tape already applied and store them. Then when you need to do a replacement in the field just remove the damaged vane and tape residue, remove the protective strip from the fletching-tape and press it against the line. If you carry some alcohol pads in your kit you can clean up the shaft surface first, but even if you just rub off the old tape the fletching tape will adhere well (as long as the shaft is not greasy).

Once the eli vanes have a strip of fletching-tape on them they are pretty easy to apply even without the cardboard and binder clip.

Of course this method also works for spin-wings.
 
#7 ·
instead of the tape on the front and back, has anyone ever tried heat shrink tubing?
 
#8 ·
No, but I have just used a small drop of Super Glue instead of taping the ends. I really never noticed a difference either way.
 
#10 ·
Yes, I've tried heat shrink tubing.
If you're prepared to inspect it often and replace it as soon as it shows signs of wear, then it's okay.
When I put my first set of vanes on (mine are Gas Pros, not Elis, at the moment, but I've used spin wings and also the British Kurly vanes too), it came with the end tape already so I didn't bother with the tubing, I used the tape that came in the package. So far so good, the tape holds as well and doesn't wear as easily as the rubber.
If you're shooting to a high enough level to warrant skinny arrows and Eli or similar vane setups, you'll know that having them in decent condition results in better groups. So personally, even though I have many arrows still with the heat shrink, I'm redoing them with tape as the heat shrink wears away.
*but* I'm shooting a lot of arrows a day, so my wear and tear is high, particularly recently since I'm overhauling my form entirely and spend a lot of time, and shots, blind baling.
 
#11 ·
Here are some trials of using heat-shrink (h/s) tubing. The tubing is Tech-Tron 1/4''. The shaft is a 5.5mm Beman flash shaft. The silver marks are from the silver Sharpie I use to make lines on the shaft.

Recreation Magenta Games


My wife's blow drying provided insufficient heat to shrink the h/s tubing, so I switched to a 1500W industrial version. The first attempt (bottom shaft) partially melted the Eli Vanes. My second more gentle (distant) attempt (top) successfully shrank the h/s tubing without melting the vanes.

Some observations and comments:
1. The thickness of the shrunken h/s tubing is considerably more than the pin-striping tape that comes with the vanes and would cause more drag. Thinner h/s tubing does exist.
2. The h/s tubing when shrunk is considerably easier than the pin-striping tape to dislodge. Thinner h/s tubing might be harder to dislodge.
3. The Eli Vanes can melt at temperatures not far from that needed to shrink the tubing used.
4. The fletching tape was apparently unaffected.

I expect a combination of h/s tubing and blow-drying temp could be found that would keep the temperature sufficiently below the melting point of the vanes, but given the ease of taping, particularly in the field, any advantage of using h/s tubing is not yet apparent.
 
#12 ·
I've never used the curly vanes...just not good enough to warrant them yet. But when I was researching them, I saw how they were applied and the tape seemed like a pain.

As to the tubing tearing up...there is another type of heat shrink tubing that is much more durable.... PTFE (Teflon), much less rubberized. There is another type that I use on my batteries- can't recall the version of that right now- extremely durable...it's clear

As to heat- It might be a concern but in my experience, it can be very localized and doesn't take as much to shrink the tubing...just need to be careful. There is also, low temp heat shrink

I'd figure the tape would come off more easily...you're giving me much more faith in it.


Try using a lighter...you can fold the vanes out of the way (cover them). Just wave the flame back and forth across the tubing (between the vanes)- Also, get the clear thin stuff...shrinks at a lower temp
 
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