Hello,

Arrow track is one of the key components in crossbow making and should not be overlooked. Thou when it comes to fabricating one it doesn't look to be too possible without access to a nice large milling unit.

I wasn't able to locate a supplier of protruded aluminum profile that would fit our needs, perhaps you guys have had more luck than me.

Thanks,

Ivo

Geezer here: I once saw a home-made crossbow that used an aluminum sliding-window track to guide his bolts. And the horrors didn't stop there! It was perfectly awful from end to end... Arrrgh, hot pokers for my eyes! I have seen that which should not be...! Geezer.

Oh man...hot pokers for your eyes?

I've seen some ugly stuff myself...made by grown people too.
Hopefully our efforts here will help people like that overcome the "leaf-spring mounted on a 2x4" mentality and do their best.

On topic...I did some research on this and it looks like our big crossbow companies are ordering "custom" extruded/milled/anodized profile for their bows. I'm thinking...perhaps there is a similar option available to the public?

Guess we might need to do a separate topic on what people are looking for in an extruded profile arrow track.

Those cheap Tiawanese "rifle" crossbows with the plastic stocks use a short section of anodised extrusion so it must be manufactured somewhere.

In all my years of crossbow building I have kept an eye out for suitable extrusions but I have never found anything thats quite right. Im resigned to milling my tracks from solid dural - nice but heavy.

Fred

Yeah unfortunately most of it is only available if you can order large quantities of it. Hmm maybe I could do a larger order and sell some on the side for cost? What shape would be best? A V, U or some other shape? And what kind of finish do you want. I assume hard anodized aluminum.

If I could get some dimensions I'll look around for some quotes from extruded aluminum suppliers.

I also found out that doing a custom protrusion will require the fabrication of a custom die of the desired profile shape...now that is for a single piece barrel like design. After looking at the new crossbow models I noticed some of them using either a much simpler and more accessible track solution.

For example the Loved and Hated Twinbow uses a very interesting track composed of slightly modified "T" profiles.

And others use a milled composite or plastic block insert tor a track housed in a square "U" shaped profile bed or even bolted directly into the full composite stock(This is from an ATA video so I could be wrong).I assume this approach was taken to reduce the costs associated with fabrication and future changes in design.


V, U, dimentions? ....A lot of it depends on the string diameter and diameter of the
arrow...Robin has a nice chart that explains this a bit. >>>
http://www.thecrossbowmansden.com/Hints_%26_Tips/Entries/2007/10/20_Track_Dimension.html

Heres a photo of one of those extrusions. I wonder if it could be adapted to shoot balls. Note that the outside edges are a bit sharper than I would expect on a crossbow track. Perhaps this has been produced for some other application and simply used by the crossbow manufactures because its readily available.

Fred

I've been looking at this idea for awhile and found this site thats pretty cheap.(automation4less.com)
They have multiple profiles, almost could do a kit/assemble a crossbow body

barsod123- thats for the link. I ahve used that type of extruded aluminum before and it is really nice stuff. I hadn't thougt of using at a track before.
I wonder if it would be practical to add something like Delrin to the T part of the groove to give the bolt somethign to sit on?