What is your method for applying clear coat?

[woodystyle777]

Hey guys! About to make my first set of arrows and was curious about the finishing stage.

I watched Raptor Archery's video on Arrow Making and he completely submerged the shafts into clear coat, and then hung them up letting them drip dry.

If your curious just type in Raptor Archery Arrow Making on youtube. Should be the first video and the clear coat part is at 3:21

Is this better than using a dip tube with a squeegee? Seems like his method would keep more of the clear coat on than squeegeeing a lot of it off?

What is your method for the clear coat stage?

[JW_Halverson]

I used to dip using the gasket lacquer and dip tubes from 3Rivers Archery.  Two dips and you have well sealed arrows.  Without the squeegee, you would end up with too much material on the shaft and it would get gooey and gummy. 

I quit using the gasket lacquer because if I needed to use any heat to straighten a shaft again the lacquer would boil up badly.

[woodystyle777]

So what do you do now JW?  I see what your saying about the buildup without the squeegee, but this pro that does this for a living is doing the free dip method so surely it can't be that much of a problem.

[Grasshopper Mouse]

Different finishes may need different application methods.
Gasket lacquer must be used with the gasket system. The coating is so thick the excess finish must be wiped off with the gasket.
I haven't seen the Raptor video but undoubtably he's using something other than gasket lacquer if he isn't using a gasket. He may be using Bohning finishes, polyurethane, spar varnish, etc.

Guy

[JW_Halverson]

Maybe Ted thins his material before dipping, I dunno.

Nowadays I am back to using 4-6 coats of TruOil, or else using a spray on shellac from Zinsser.  Good results from both of those.  Though the shellac method is much faster.  I can spray down a dozen in a minute, dries in 10 minutes and a second coat follows up right away.  The TruOil method is one coat a day...for some reason I find it needs to cure a little longer than other finishes.

[Pat B]

When I was shooting cedars I used water based poly and either used a 'lil dipper dip tube or a homemade PVC pipe dip tube. Hung them from a "cloths line" with cloths pins. Two coats with a steel wool rubdown before the second coat.