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How much bend is acceptable in a new shaft?

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Adrian Peterson

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Mar 24, 2021
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I recently purchased a new gun, and the shaft it came with had a decent bend. About 2mm in the center held on a straight edge. It had an obvious wobble when rolled on the corner of my granite counter top. They sent me a new one, it's better, but still has a slight wobble when rolled.
Is this normal or should I expect perfection from a new shaft?
The gun is a 95cm Salvimar which has a 7mm shaft
 
Reactions: Mr. X
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Any perceptible bend will screw up your shot. I've had times when I couldn't figure out why I was missing, and then found a tiny bend in the shaft when rolled across my granite counter. I don't know anything about Salvimar but it sounds like they don't care about quality. But they aren't alone. Some very popular guns are sold with bent shafts. That's one reason why its good to buy from a local shop if possible. Then you can check it before purchase or bring it back easily. I get all my shafts made custom by a guy here in Southern California. Not only can I get the exact length, shark fin spacing, and tail length that I want, but his shafts are perfectly straight.
 
Reactions: Bruno malabas, hydroid, Adrian Peterson and 1 other person
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Rob Allen has good youtube videos on testing spear straightness but unfortunately nothing on how to straighten them (despite the misleading title of the second video):

 
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Reactions: Adrian Peterson and musubi
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If you can see the wobble, I wouldn't trust it. Return it if you can. Or repurpose into other things like a stringer. I'm not familiar with bending shafts back, but some people have the apparatus to do so.
Shaft straightness is one of my peeves. Which is why I end up being very particular of the brand or who I get them from.
Rob Allen is one of the few out there that really cares of shaft straightness and he checks every shaft. RA shafts are one of the straightest out there and one of my recommended brands for shafts. They are not SS, but spring steel. They're very hard to bend.

Another straight shaft brand is Omer (America One). Dean with Addiction Spears made custom shafts for me and a friend of mine. His were very straight

I used to be into archery a lot more, so I spin all my spear shafts on an arrow spinner to check for straightness. The two tube roll/spin works fine.
 
Reactions: Adrian Peterson
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Dean Koutras with Addiction shafts is where I get my shafts. Rob Allen shafts are straight as far as I know but I just don’t like dealing with the rust.
 
Reactions: Mr. X and Adrian Peterson
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Ya, I don't have a shop anywhere near me.
Thanks for the advice. This is my first gun, I'm thinking i made a bad choice with Salvimar. This wasn't the only issue. One of the rollers didn't spin and the wishbone was frayed. The roller would have been obvious to anyone assembling it
 
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These are spring steel also. And very hard to bend, as i learned from trying to straighten it. They said it must have been damaged in shipping, but any impact that would have been enough to cause that would have broken the gun in half. I think it's a Salvimar QC issue
 
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I still use the spear that came with the gun. The gun is great, but the spear is as soft as cooked spaghetti. It came bent, and after about every shot I have to straighten it again, no spring effect at all. So about to order a replacement, and I actually was thinking of trying a Salvimar as someone on DB gave it a great review. SigalSub is the other option... Oh decisions...
 
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My understanding is all spring steel shafts are not made or heat treated equally. I've received other similar spring steel shafts to RA's and they're definitely not as straight or hard. I have a very difficult time drilling through RA shafts, for example, with my carbide bits. Rusting is really a non-issue for me since I use it often and wash frequently. If storing, you may want to put some oil on the exposed portions.
So what's your plan? Bend back or new shaft?
 
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My plan is new shaft or returning the gun. I've tried multiple methods of bending the origional one back, that had little to no effect. I didn't try at all with the second one.
They are still working with me though. I may see if they'd send me a RA shaft instead. The other option is returning the whole gun and replacing it with a RA GT Carbon Roller, which is a similar price.
 
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