Darts anyone?

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Cwalker935

Cwalker935

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First try at making darts. These were fun to make. I guess that I will have to start hanging out in a pub. Walnut with orange and sycamore with tarheel blue.

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Friends in the know, know not to be in the room when I attempt to play



Doesn't keep me from enjoying a nicely turned set of them though!




Scott (nice segmenting too) B
 
If you are making darts for someone who competes, they are a pain. Generally, that person will have his/her personal preference regarding the weight and shape & they have to be exact. Steel tip darts are weighed without the rear shaft or flights. For someone who is used to tungsten darts at 24g, it's hard to get wood darts that heavy (even filled with lead). As for electronic darts, they are much lighter, but the entire dart is weighed.

Shape and weight distribution come into play, too. Does he like a front loaded dart or is the weight balanced through the length of the body?

Plus, the body has to be dead perfect square to the tubes. If not, the hardware won't fit square and the dart won't fly straight. This is not a good thing. BTDT

Maybe it's just me, but I'm going to finish up my one order and let that be it.
 
Have you tried throwing them? I made several sets a few years ago and gave them out as gifts. Unfortunately, I didn't try them out. My son told me that they wobbled when thrown. I experimented moving the weights around but never could get it balanced properly where you got a smooth flight.

Seven
 
studioseven said:
Have you tried throwing them? I made several sets a few years ago and gave them out as gifts. Unfortunately, I didn't try them out. My son told me that they wobbled when thrown. I experimented moving the weights around but never could get it balanced properly where you got a smooth flight.

Seven
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I do not have a dart board and am not much of a dart thrower but I did set up a box in the garage and made a number of throws. Every throw stuck in the box within the radius of a typical dart board and I was able to get close to my aiming point when I concentrated. My estimation is that, from a throwing perspective, they are equivalent to or maybe slightly better the darts that come with your run of the mill rec room dart board but probably far short of a competition grade dart. In short, they are probably best suited for adornment than for competition.
 
I have made a set and have thrown for a dart team years ago. Those are very pretty darts, the only suggestion i would have is find a sports store and buy some larger flights, they will dramatically improve the flight for only a couple bucks. ;)
 
I've done a few, but none in the last few years... I had a special order of a set and since it was more economical to buy several kits at once, I did... This is the last set I've made... I have the scale and generally try to keep them in the 18 to 23 gram range... I think these are 23 grams. I used deer antler for the special order set and made up a second set at the same time.

The wood set I made for my son-in-law... they wood is cocobolo.
 

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Cwalker935 said:
studioseven said:
Have you tried throwing them? I made several sets a few years ago and gave them out as gifts. Unfortunately, I didn't try them out. My son told me that they wobbled when thrown. I experimented moving the weights around but never could get it balanced properly where you got a smooth flight.

Seven
Click to expand...

I do not have a dart board and am not much of a dart thrower but I did set up a box in the garage and made a number of throws. Every throw stuck in the box within the radius of a typical dart board and I was able to get close to my aiming point when I concentrated. My estimation is that, from a throwing perspective, they are equivalent to or maybe slightly better the darts that come with your run of the mill rec room dart board but probably far short of a competition grade dart. In short, they are probably best suited for adornment than for competition.
Click to expand...

The last time (and only time) I ever threw in competition was at a British Caledonia airline party at the H&H ranch at the Houston Airport... I stopped for a beer on the way home, had two or three and got talked into entering the game by the BCal sales rep... she had way about her that was convincing - plus three more or so beers :)... I wound up taking home the little trophy... sheer luck or the beer was guiding my hand. :cool::cool:
 
elody21 said:
A question. Do the darts have to be a certain weight?
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Yes, they have to fall within a given range. The kit comes with "lead wood" that you can tamp into the darts. I used the "lead wood" and a scale to get them to a uniform weight. I forget the exact weight range.
 
has anyone ever made them with corian? Would it be too heavy or maybe just right? I have a set of 3 darts that I have never made. I'll have to give it a try.
Alice
 
elody21 said:
has anyone ever made them with corian? Would it be too heavy or maybe just right? I have a set of 3 darts that I have never made. I'll have to give it a try.
Alice
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I don't like to turn corian - I think it stinks - literally I don't like the smell... but I turned a set from antler and got ahead of myself and put the flight shaft on before I put the lead wool in the tube... fortunately when I weighed them they were at the 19 gram weight.. a little light, but still within range... I would think corian would fall in the same weight - plus you would still have the lead wool to add and increase the weight.
 
I made a set a few years ago and they didn't fly very well. It's really hard to get the lead wool in evenly and it would be better if you could get it evenly distributed in the barrel vs tamping into one end. A friend purchased them from me and uses them as a conversation piece.
I throw competitive darts on a regular basis for league and you would be hard pressed to sell these to a regular darter for anything other than decoration or a conversation piece. The 2 big design flaws are the 7mm tube design and the large brass section at the tip. Not sure how they would change the design but the tube needs to be smaller and the brass at the tip needs to be smaller and tapered. Although I haven't made any since, I would think corian would be a good material to make them out of.

To the OP ....I really like how yours turned out. They mimic the old Widdy darts and look like the would work pretty well in a friendly game.
 
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