The at home bow shop

All right, guys, welcome back! Today, I want to go over my little bow shop setup. What do you need to work and tune your bows? It doesn't take much. The most expensive thing is probably going to be your bow press and drawboard. If you want a drawboard, you don't have to buy one. If you have someone to visually check your timing for you or to draw your bow for you, or if you have a Matthews or a lot of modern bows, now have some kind of timing mark where you can check your timing while the bow is not at full draw.

To get on those timing marks, once you get them set in those timing marks, it's going to be really close. So, real quick, let's just go through the bow shop and see what you need to actually work on your bows.

Okay, so the main thing you're going to need to get is a bow press. This is the Last Chance Archery Easy Green B Press. I think I paid, I want to say I paid like right around 380 for it. That was two years ago; now they're over 400. But you can still use coupon codes for them to get them a little cheaper. I got this off Podium Archer. I want to say I had like a 20% off or something, and it only cost me like 380 bucks.

But Last Chance Archery is a USA-made, better-known company with a fantastic warranty. They will replace anything if it breaks. It does come with all the fingers, and with these, I can press Matthews specifically, but I can also press other bows too. I can press parallel limb bows and I can press over parallel limbs, so when your limbs are not straight, they're more curved in towards the center of the riser.

They do come with the draw stop finger. This is for your older bows with your single cam and draw stop. You're going to need this to press that draw stop. I mean, it's just a hand crank; it's just a real easy, simple hand crank. It does take a little while to get the arm to come in and out, but I don't work on a lot of bows. Maybe throughout the year, I work on maybe 20 bows, so I don't need the electric one.

If you really want to opt out of this one and get a more expensive one, you can. They got one with a foot pedal and electric motor. You simply push one side of the pedal, and it drives the arm out. The other side of the pedal drives the arm in real fast. But like I said, I don't need that. If you're watching this video, you probably don't need this because you're not working on your own bows or you're just getting into working on your bows.

The Last Chance Easy Green Bow Press, you can't go wrong. Last Chance Archery does make the drawboard for the Easy Green press or any other Last Chance press. You just pull off these end caps. One end comes in here; it's the end that holds the grip of your bow on the pivot point. Then, on the other end of the press here is where the actual winch and cord goes, so you can check your draw, check your timing, check everything like that, just right here all in one workstation, which is nice. I think I'm going to end up ordering one here soon.

All right, and on top of the press, you probably notice I got a bunch of little tools up here, like lighters, extra Allen wrenches, and stuff like that. All I did is I went to Lowe's or Menards or something like that, bought this magnetic strip that you use in your kitchen for knives and utensils. I just zip-tied it to the top of my press, and it's magnetic, so I can keep cool little metal things up there, like lighters and Allen wrenches. They're all right here; it even holds my razor knife.

Then here, I just took a broken arrow and, again, zip-tied it to this vertical post. Now I can keep servings and stuff up here, and I keep levels everywhere. You never know when you need a level.

Now that we're on the subject of serving and center serving, I like to use BCY. I use the Power Grip a lot. I have a Power Grip in every color. I also like the 3D serving a lot by BCY. All great materials! I do use a 62xx; I use an 18,000. You can use it on pretty much anything. I use a 21,000 in the 6C2X just because it's a little softer, so it compacts more, I guess you would say.

But even like these 18,000 Power Grips and 3Ds, these work great for center servings, especially for the IP knocks. They work fantastic. If you want to actually start doing your own center serving, you are going to need a jig. You just put the spool on here, and then you weave it in through here. Then you can adjust the tightness with these two on the side, and you just start wrapping, man. Get it going, get this on your string nice and tight, and just keep wrapping it, wrapping it, wrapping until your center serving is the right length.

All right, guys, now another main thing you really need to do—I have a video over serving and back serving, actually, if you guys want to check that video out. While we're on the topic of strings and serving, I'm going to go over d-loops. I got these cool little cable organizers here. You just open it up, put one end of your serving in, and then you just kind of spool it in. These are great for d-loop storage.

I have basic common colors. I like the yellow BCY 24 because it's very stiff, it holds its shape, and it's super easy to tie. The ends burn really well, so I use the basic yellow. I know a couple other guys that use yellow as well. Yellow and neon colors are awesome for low light situations where you can knock your arrow and find that d-loop with your release.

So, I personally use the flow yellow. I've got your flow green, I've got your flow orange, and I've got red with black spec. I only got one guy that comes here and uses this stuff, and then your basic colors like gray and white. That's pretty much it for the BCY 24. If you guys really want to start getting into working on your bows, that's a great place to start. That was the first thing I learned to do on a bow was tie d-loop.

Like I said, I got a video over it. Go check that video out; it's very educational, and it's step by step, and it's very easy to follow.

All right, now just a bunch of basic kind of necessity things. Again, lighters—I got lighters everywhere. I got a lighter there, I got a lighter at my press, I got a drawer just like extra keys, these lighters, dental picks, and stuff like that. Allen wrenches everywhere; I find Allen wrenches all over the place.

But here, like you got your typical bow square. If you really want to get your center shot and your arrow to sit perfectly perpendicular or 90° from your bow string, you're going to need a good square. If not a square, I don't use a square every time, but I like to. You got your leveling kit; this would snap on your string to get your bow perfectly level and plumb.

Then this here is your level that you would stick on your arrow when you're finding your center shot and getting your arrows square. So, you get your bow nice and square and plumb, and then you put your arrow on and get that as level as possible, so it's a 90° angle from your string through your burger button. Great little tools; you can get these for dirt cheap. I think you can even get them on Amazon for like a couple bucks.

Then you got your Hamski Gen 2 Pro third axis level. This is just to get all your levels correct on your sight. You want to get your first axis nice and straight, and you want to get your second axis nice and straight with these levels. This little rod here is if you want to check your third axis. You're supposed to check it at full draw. You would put this on your bow, draw your bow back, and run a plumb line down.

Then you just simply line yourself with that plumb line and adjust your scope so your third axis is level. So, for your up and downhill shots, you're not missing left and right. Then this, we just have an arrow stripper. I like to build my own arrows. Building arrows is a really awesome thing to do; it really gives you confidence in your arrows and your shot and then just your overall archery.

Then I just keep blades everywhere. Again, we run down to this drawer—lighter, more lighters, more razors, more razor blades. I got razor blades everywhere, Allen wrenches everywhere, and dental pick tools. Man, these are awesome for just like picking dirt and stuff out when you're cleaning out your cams after hunting season and whatnot.

Then, Loctite—you can never have enough blue Loctite laying around. Just basic stuff. I got more Allen wrenches, I got all my sight tapes for all my different sights, sight parts, sight barrels. Then these, for you Matthews guys, if you ever lose your set screw for your level for your bridge lock, always have replacements. I actually ordered these online; I ordered a 50 pack of them. I give these things away like candy. I just throw a couple in the envelope and ship them out to people if they need them for nothing.

In here, I just got like extra stabilizer weights, more hardware, nuts, bolts, stuff like that, d-loop, and then Matthews cam bearings because the bearings they use at Matthews are garbage. It's like my arrow drawer. I got all my inserts, outserts, stuff like that. I got all my field points in here, more outserts, more inserts, inserts, outserts, half outs, half in, field points—just a good way to stay organized.

You can use these little Plano cases, tackle boxes, and I got all my fletchings in here. These are the only two types of fletchings I use right now, and these are the AAE Max Stealth. I just use the fluorescent yellow and white, and I got all my knocks in here, all my IP knocks. I really like the AAE IP knocks; these are all IP 4S.

Then I got some Luminoks in here. Here’s a good way to stay organized—extra baggies and extra parts for my fletching jig and stuff. In this drawer, I got these Carbon Express pliers. I got these at Bass Pro; they're like 15 bucks. You can do the brass knock sets, and it's got the little jaws here for you can tighten d-loops with it, and you can pull on d-loops and stuff.

These are awesome for d-loops, by the way. These are what I started out with after I realized they had awesome pliers like this because I used to just use needle-nose pliers. Then they really crank down on the d-loops and get them set right and get them real tight. Use these Viper d-loop pliers; they really spread that d-loop out and get you the perfect length you need. I like to run like a 3/4 inch d-loop, and this is perfect for that.

And again, just more Allen wrenches—Allen wrenches everywhere. Got knives everywhere. I actually went over this in the arrow build video. I just use this simple—it’s a bone, it’s a plastic boning fletching jig. It's a clamp style; you set your arrow in it, and then you put your fletchings on with this clamp. You just stick the fletching in there wherever you want. I usually put it at the 1-inch mark, and it's a magnet.

But this jig is great; it's super cheap. It's like $34 or something. That's with a straight clamp. You can get different helical with it or offsets. I'm sorry, it is a helical clamp, but with this, you can achieve a 2° offset is what I use—a 2° to left with the left wing clamp. They do come with straight clamps. I don't really use this too often. I do have a couple guys that come here that have me build their arrows for them, and they just simply want just straight fletching.

But I personally use a left 2° offset because I shoot a Matthews; my arrows clock left. But it's a great jig, man—$34, you can't beat it. And these clamps, extra ones, they're like $13.

Now, this is just my garage, by the way. This ain't no fancy shop or anything. But Amazon, another big find on Amazon, if you don't want to spend three or 400 bucks on a vise, you go on there and order this bicycle vise. It's fully adjustable; you can tilt your bow every which way. You just get this thing level, so you set all your aisles and stuff with your levels.

You simply just stick the grip in there, clamp it down like so. Now you got a bow vise. You can turn it vertical; you can turn it around. This thing even pivots sideways. Super nice, super handy. It's not your orange Mountain Products vise or your Last Chance Archery vices or anything like that, but when you're on a budget, you're on a budget, man. That's all I got to say about that. I think it cost me like— it was like 35 bucks off Amazon for real. It's not a bad little deal if you're just, you know, your at-home bow shop.

Now that we're in arrow building, I just got this little cheap grain scale. It's from Harbor Freight. I think I paid like five or six bucks for it. It's pretty accurate for what it is, for how much I paid for it, and it does weigh grains, ounces—all. It's just like a letter scale, I think it's called something like that.

Then I just got one of these little arrow holders that go on your riser to hold your arrow. You just simply turn it on, you go to grains, set your arrow on there, then you weigh your arrow. That way, you know exactly where your arrow weighs.

Then this bad boy is an arrow saw. I had a decut, and the motor went bad. It started smelling real bad, like burning electrical, and it stopped working. The motor got real hot, I think, because it's a brushed motor. But I went on eBay just to get a backup, and now I'm using this thing full time because my decut took a crap.

This thing cost me $100 off eBay. It's called SPG. If you just go on, it's SPG arrow saw. It's just some random guy on eBay; they're $100, and it works fantastic. It gets super straight cuts, and it's $100. You can't beat that. Just a little electric motor; everything's 3D printed. It's not the quietest, but it's not the loudest either.

Then it's got all your measurements on here from here to six, and then you set it at zero. You got your rest of your measurements down here. Like, I'll start at 25, 26, 27, 28, and so on. Then you got your knock receiver on this end; it's fully adjustable. You just set it on whatever arrow length you want. Like mine right now is set at 28 and 3/4, and it's actually a really straight cut. I can cut an arrow with this and not have to use a squaring tool, which is fantastic, especially for what I paid for—$100, you can't beat that.

Just get on eBay and search "arrow saw," it'll pop up; it's like 100 bucks. Then here, I just keep all my glues. I really like the AAE Max Bond glue for my fletching. I use this, the G5 glue—another great glue. Then you got your Victory Bond, your TAC glues, and your super glues.

For certain fletchings, like TAC veins, you have to use a primer pen. A lot of AAE, you need to use like the AAE Max Stealth fletchings like I use. I use the AAE Max W primer pen and the AAE Max Bond glue. I've never had a fletching just fall off or not stick, so primer is important, and your glues are important.

Then for components, we got the Hot Melt—it's an Iron Will Hot Melt. This stuff is awesome; this is the best stuff that I found, especially in the summertime. This is not like a real low temp melt like the blue Flex by Boning. This stuff, in the summertime on a hot day, if you're out there shooting, you will lose your inserts and outserts and field points and stuff in the target, and it sucks because that stuff melts at very low temperatures.

You just got your basic Q-tips to clean up your mess, your glue, and stuff off your fletching. We got—I use fingernail polish remover; it's pure acetone to get the glue and stuff off the residue and stuff off your arrows when you're stripping and fletching.

Then this is another big important key component—a little propane torch, a Burn-O-Matic. This is great for your hot melts, putting in your components. Another little pro tip for you is yellow beeswax bars. You can get this stuff on Amazon for dirt cheap; it's a bag of them for five bucks. They're just little bricks of beeswax, and this is awesome for serving.

When you're doing any kind of serving or d-loop, this, as you're serving and you're trying to keep it tight, this stuff is so sticky. It helps keep that serving real tight as you're going.

Here, where I keep all my serving and stuff, I just got more random crap, like an extra B-grip for Matthews and then an extra UV button here. This scope box is actually empty; this is the Ultra View UV3 XL SE scope that I'm currently running. Then an extra cartridge—this is actually the 3-pin cartridge. I don't know if you can see that or not. No, of course not; these Canon cameras suck.

But I keep this; I use this during hunting season. Awesome that I can just swap out my cartridges like that. Matthews V-bar stuff, more Ultra View crap, and other random crap.

Now here, I just have a pegboard set up. I got a couple dozen arrows here that I'm not using anymore. I got parts for—I got like extra windage brackets for like Excel landslides and XL acu-touches. I got extra dead stops because I did lose one before, and it sucked. More dead stops, and I just keep extra size peeps because you never know, especially when you got people coming in, you know, using your shop, kind of help them figure out what size peep they need.

Just keep extra parts for my arrow rest, for my Hamski dampeners, and the top hat kit. For you Matthews guys, you got to have the master top hat kit because you never know how far you have to shift those cams over. Like my 29, I had to shift it over quite a bit, and I had to use the smallest top hat kit that they have.

Then extra yoke splitters—these plastic yoke splitters, they do break. It's happened to me, especially on my 29, and I just went out and bought extras of them just in case. I got more stabilizer weights, I got more buttons, I got extra cams and stuff for the Matthews Halons and whatever other bows go on.

I got PSSE yoke splitters up here, these little bunch of these Ultra View "try before you buy" release aid things, and they work as bottle openers, which is cool. Just extra d-loops and stuff like that, pens, markers, permanent markers, silver permanent markers. When you're working on archery stuff, especially arrows and stuff, silver markers are great to have. They're cheap; go get you a bunch.

Just down here, I've got extra arrows. I've got the arrows that I'm using now. I got a quiver full; I got more up on the wall—the VAP Elites. Then I got extra arrows that I used for hunting season last year. These are the Carbon Express Destroyer SD arrows—little heavy for my liking, but they fly fantastic.

Using a heavier arrow really quiets your bow down, especially during hunting season. I got some standard arrow shafts here; these are Bloodsport Hunter Extremes. Walmart had a bunch of them on sale, so I bought a bunch, and I was just—I use them for random crap. Extra tripods, lifelines for my tree stands and stuff like that, extra strings.

I got an extra set of gas strings for my V3X 29, and I got an extra set of A3 Bloodline for my 33.

All right, guys, yeah, like I said, man, it's not super expensive. You can buy stuff over time, and you can really cut corners. Like the whole bench vise, the bicycle vise that I use for an actual bow vise—you can really cut corners here and there.

Like I said, the most expensive thing you're going to buy is your press and drawboard if you really feel like you need a drawboard. But like I said, you really can do your timing without a drawboard if you have a friend that can help you, that can draw your bow back. Like my wife checks it for me, and she does a really good job.

But the majority of the time, I just use my timing indicator marks on my cam. A lot of newer bows do have it; it'll show you where your cables are supposed to sit on your cam for your timing. For the most part, it does work. I think it works pretty well. I get it close enough to be able to shoot bullet holes through paper.

And that's pretty much it, guys. I want to thank you for watching. Again, do me a favor—like, subscribe. If not, it is what it is. You guys have the freedom to do whatever you choose, and that's it. That's my little home bow shop where I work on bows. I work on my own bows; you guys can do it too. Start by watching my d-loop videos or my serving and back serving videos.

And that's it, guys. Thank you all for watching!