Update 15 jan. 25
updated SM
error corrected
Update 20 nov. 24
added SM, L and XL model
I am an avid archer, archery-coach and -trainer. I shot many styles of bows (recreational and competitive) but mainly stick to barebow. Wisdom comes with years, I guess ^^
I recently bought a Fairweather Barebow-tab. These are excellent quality and the used leather is superior to all other types of leather I ever used: does the job as it should .. and VERY! consitent.
However, I have smaller hands and found the tab a bit “bulky”, big in my hand. Therefor it was not perfectly easy to use the stringwalking-technique, AND to bend my fingers easely around the string. I thought a slimmer finger-ring would help to position the tab deeper into the hand.
As I discussed this FW-tab with other archers, I noticed that more then one had the same idea: the FW-tab being a bit too bulky to be perfect.
So that's why tried my own version of this design with the goals being:
- keeping the excellent leather-mounting-idea
- being slimmer
- being able to be redesigned, adaptable to any size anyone asks me (thus using Fusion360 in which I can easely alter dimentions)
- using a slimmer finger-ring
- being able to print this in metal-infused-PLA so to make this tab a bit heavier, which gives a natural fun feeling when in use.
- with very visibly clear markings (I use glasses to read but not when shooting) … but also the posibility to have no permanent markings and to provide a bit of tape and make your own markings.
I designed this in fusion360 and made different sizes of the ring.
As I went on designing I also made …
- A lefty and a righty
- One for 3mm of leather, one for 4mm of leather
- A design which can be mounted using regular m3-bolts and nuts
and a design wich uses threaded m3-inserts (which I prefer myself).
You can find these on https://cnckitchen.store/
(credits to Stefan from CncKitchen for his feedback on these: https://www.cnckitchen.com/blog/threaded-inserts-for-3d-prints-cheap-vs-expensive ) - A template for the leather.
IMPORTANT: - Check out the fairweather-website. All my credits to them. I would never have discovered the excellent quailities of kangooroo-leather without this tab.
https://www.fairweatherarchery.com/ - Also, check out their page on sizing:
https://www.fairweatherarchery.com/sizing
(bottom of that page) - !!! I noticed that the FW-rings are a tiny bit wider then the marked dimension.
A Fairweather 22-ring actually has an inner diameter of 22,5mm
My rings are actually the correct diameter, so a 22 is exactly 22mm
I guess this may be due to different manufacturing: 3d-printing versus molding ?? - The rings should be printed out of TPU.
I printed my rings out of Fiberlogy Fiberflex 40D and they came out perfectly “rubbery”
Printing the rings out of PLA is absolutely a bad idea. They will break too easely. (I tested it). Maybe PETG might do better? TPU it is for me. - you will NEED to use supports when printing the rings … and TPU-supports are a pain to remove to my experience, I know :(
Pitty. - No supports needed for any of the other parts
- I printed these using different colors of PLA to highlight the markings … but found it far more easely to just print them in once color .. and highlight the markings with a sharpy.
LEGEND:
- Base stands for the bottom-plate
Top stands for the top-plate - 703 stand for length of 70mm, leather-thickness: 3mm
704 stand for length of 70mm, leather-thickness: 4mm - nuts: mounted using bolts and regular m3-nuts
If nothing mentioned, then intended to use threaded inserts (see pictures) as I did with my prototype. - Markings
no markings … duh? - LBB stands for LudoBareBow
All feedback is strongly appreciated.
Also, I also made some personalised designs for a couple of (internet-)friends, collegue-coaches :)