Posts by Brendon

Good to know.

Quote from Don Paul

I shoot too many rocks thinking they are fish.;)

Cheers, Don

Shooting one is bad but at least you figure out what it is pretty quickly.
While h&l fishing the bottom once, I dragged a broken off piece of coral about the size of a kitchen sink at least 150 feet up thinking I had the world's record halibut on the line...

Quote from Marco

Enclosed track for a 36" gun? I don't think so...

For the rest, I leave it to the experts.

Marco, why do you say this? Is 36" too short to get any benefit from am enclosed track?

As a noob spears, I'll leave the gun stuff to the seasoned guys but As for the building aspect,that's all in my wheelhouse. Sapele is a joy to use, just pay close attention to the rising grain direction as it does have the tendency to tear out deep if it tears out.
Although there are different schools of thought, directly from the manufacturer, TB3 is waterproof but NOT recommended for being submerged for any length of time. I have seen tb3 fail under high humidity applications too many times to trust it in a lam blank. Ws epoxy is a great alternative.
Stain or oil before epoxy? Absolutely, you actually have to. Epoxy is there to form an impermeable film finish. If you try to oil or stain after, if will just sit on top of the epoxy and look like junk. If you use oil, make sure it has finished fully curing before final coating.

Thanks guys, that's helpful.

So fresh water would work?
I was planning on taking it to the boat launch but the drive is about 30 minutes each way. Much more convenient to walk out the back door.

Quote from Dude george

That looks gorgeous! Just looking at its size though I think it could hve done with a third band hole, but with all that band stretch maybe not! Beautiful gun sir!!!

Is 42" of stretch a lot for bands? I thought this gun was pretty small..

A question about ballasting. Iso it stupid to attempt to ballast the gun in my pool? I know things float different in salt but walking out back to the pool is so much more convenient.

And don't mind the mess. During a project, I have the habit of leaving every tool I'm using within reach. .

I know I'm skipping a few steps in pics here but I started lay night on a roll and didn't quit working until about 3am. Slept and got right back on it.
With the mech fit, channel routed out, handle fit, trigger and push rod set in last night, I started this morning with setting the line guide, line anchor. Next came shaping the blank. I started by taking the front down to 1 5/8 top to bottom. 1 5/8 side to side from just shy of 2" at the butt. After tapering the blank on the band saw, I smoothed it with low angle jack plane. Once the taper was done, I just wasn't happy with the shape so I set a 5 degree taper and also added a Taper from the bottom (whets the line anchor is) to the top where the track is. Once I was happy, a 1/2 radius roundover bit eased the bottom. A block plane and scraper finished off a slight chamfer on the top.
About 3 hours of hand sanding from 150 up to 320 and it's finally ready for finish.

So dan, you double the length, then divide by 3? And how sorry short is short? 2", 4"?

Mech dropped in nicely. The trigger felt like crap at first then I noticed the tension spring was not attached at all. Once I snapped it on and bent it over, it feels great.
So I've got measurements off of the gun. Rear band hole to rear shark sharkfin measures 41.25". Front to front is 40.75".
Anybody know of an online calculator for band length?

Thanks for the input guys. Parts should begin arriving tomorrow.
I understand that shallow track CAN be used, I just think I'll be more comfortable with burying the track down a bit.
Dan, I would have preferred enclosed but after watching a few YouTube videos of guys blowing their ends off shooting too close, I decided against it.
Next up will be setting the mech, pushrod& forward trigger.
After that, I'll cut the track, do some shaping of the blank with rasps, a cove bit, and roundover bit.

Once these are done, I'll tackle getting the power right. I'll admit it,that part I'm at a total loss of where to even start. Once I get the measurement of the bands slots to the fins, I'll post up some numbers and hopefully get some help.

After thinking more about the build, I've decided that an enclosed track is not a good idea for me. With wanting this to be a jack of all trades gun for a while, I fear shooting into a rock hole and blowing the end of the gun out.
With that said, how deep do most people cut the open channel for a 9/32 shaft?

Good to know. My buddy who is building along ordered the shafts so I didn't have much input there.

Next random question, is there a universally accepted depth to cut the enclosed track? I feel like the deeper the better for the strength of the upper side but too deep and the shark fins disappear. How much fin do most people leave exposed to the wishbone to attach to?

Another of those questions I'm sure has been hashed over a dozen times but I can't seem to find with the search function.
I purchased the reverse trigger mech from Dan's shop and have neptonics American shafts on their way. I can't figure out how a) the mono will attach to the spear as it doesn't look like there are any holes in the shaft and b) how the mono will properly fit back into the trigger mech and slide out with the shaft using an enclosed track.

Thank you very much for your detailed reply. I am still very in research mode but finding the paralysis by analysis taking hold. I have been in contact with Dan about what I am looking for and he gave some recommendations.
As far as what the gun will be primarily used for, I mostly hunt kelp lines where they transition to a sand bottom. Due to inner ear problems, I'm not a deep diver so 90% of my fish sightings are in open water/ hugging a kelp string or shooting a flatty layang on sand.
As far as the person preference, I both knew that answer was coming and dreaded it. I often have to give that a sweet to new woodworkers on my forum. Unfortunately, I don't have any data to compare to.
Knowing me, this gun won't be my last. As a woodworker, I'll be surprised if I use it for a year before saying "I'm building another one better".
I'm leaning toward a 7mm flapper shaft as I read a few places that is a decent "all around size. As far as length, the things I read were all over the place. I wish someone could say, "get 30 cm overhang and your good"

Quote from Oscar

You spearo's in SoCal are in 7th heaven this year. Early big YT, early and Big WSB and now daily reports of BFT being speared over 100 #'s with videos showing hundreds of big BFT swarming divers. Just this week a guy speared a BFT weighing 165 pounds with a rail gun off a jet ski :@:D.

Great time to be a spearo in SoCal so what's a few baby GWS. Get out there and spear your BFT before they disappear. :thumbsup2:

The wsb and Halibut have actually been pretty pitiful in sheer #'s this year in my area. Specifically anacapa, the outer channel islands have yet to really stumble on a pattern on fish holding anywhere for longer than a few days.

By comparison, last year this time, you could throw a stick blindfolded and backwards and hit palaegic sport fish.

Handle shaping is finally done. A lot of padeuk dust in the dust collector from this one.

Marco, I agree. The closest hole to the mech should be lower than the front hole allowing the front band to sort of ride up and over it. Sort of like an elevator?

I'm going rear set mech with a remote trigger about 11" in front of it.