Recently,
Karma Tales began giving Archery lessons at Chanslor Ranch near Bodega Bay California. With over 400 acres, along Northern California’s breathtaking coastline, there was plenty of room for us to practice Traditional Archery. We needed targets and plenty of arrows, but we also needed something for the Archers to hang their bows on while retrieving arrows down range. Also, since these were beginners with no equipment of their own, we needed arrow holders to keep our firing line neat and orderly.
You can make a bow stand out of anything. It could be just a peg in the wall, but since we had no walls, our bow stand would need a base of it’s own. We chose to use PVC pipe after finding a few others on the internet who had already done so with great success. We used tough 2 inch schedule 40 PVC pipe and fittings from the local Home Depot, and a handful of easily wielded tools.
You’ll need a saw and something to clamp the pipe down with while you cut it, and you’ll need some self tapping screws and a power drill. You might decide that glueing each joint is more your speed, but we liked the fact that if we made a mistake, or simply wanted to take it all apart and make something else, unscrewing was a better option than ungluing.
Once you’ve rallied your tools, you’ll need to purchase your pipes and fittings. Working with PVC pipe like this, is allot like working with Legos. You need to pay careful attention when buying all the bits so that you don’t miss one joint, and have to endure another trip to the hardware store. Our bow stand is just over 5 feet high and will accommodate most bows, although if you planned on hanging lots of really really long, longbows, you might want to go higher with the main arm. There will be plenty of extra pipe if you’d like to make your bow stand taller.
Here is a list of all the fittings that we used to make our bow stand. All of these fittings are compatible with 2 inch PVC pipe except for those marked accordingly. (pictured above on the left)
4 x Right Angle Elbow
4 x T Joint
1 x 2 inch to 1 inch reducer Cap
1 x 2 inch to 1/2 inch reducer Cap
(below are 1 inch fittings)
1 x T joint
2 x Caps
The longer straight sections of bow stand were cut from 2 separate 10 foot long pieces of 2 inch PVC pipe and are displayed here in this photo like a plastic church organ for your viewing pleasure. You will also need a short piece of 1 inch PVC pipe, but they conveniently sell those short pieces right next to the long ones. It is a good idea to use a Miter Box, like the one pictured, to hold the PVC while cutting your sections. Here is a list of the pieces and their lengths that we used for our bow stand.
2 x 18 inches long
2 x 9 7/8 inches long
2 x 5 inches long
1 x 7 1/4 inches long
1 x 5 feet long
2 x 7 inches long (from the short 1 inch PVC pipe)
Once all the pieces have been cut, your bow stand will come together in minutes. Simply fit the sections together, starting with the base of the bow stand as they were laid out in the picture above, making sure you have the forth T joint standing by for when you build the main arm.
Next you’ll want to make sure the 3 T joints used in the base, are angled straight up, 1 for the main arm in the back and 2 for holding arrows up front. You’ll be screwing the entire stand together next so you need to make sure both arrow stands are inline and pointing up.
Next, Carefully turn over the base unit and screw in 1 self tapping screw for each connection. Do NOT secure the T joint which will be holding the main arm as you will want to double check that it is standing straight. The good thing about using screws here instead of glue, is that if you do twist something on wrong, you simply need to unscrew the set screw, and try again.
The main arm is next. We made ours 5 feet high, but you can make you bow stand whatever height fits your needs. Anything too much taller than 5 feet, may become unstable if you plan on hanging heavier bows. We wanted something reasonably tall, but also sturdy enough to do its job out in the field.
Fit the last 2 inch T joint on the end of the main arm, and secure it with a set screw. Next, fit the 2 inch to 1 inch reducer into the right angle end of the T joint, and a cap for the very top of your stand. This is where we used a 2 inch to 1/2 reducer. We will be adding flags to the tops of our bows stands and we found the reduced 1/2 inch fitting is perfect for holding a dowel flag pole on top.
Next, set the 1 inch T joint into the reducer, and attach your short sections of 1 inch PVC pipe into the other ends. Cap the ends with the 1 inch caps you purchase and drill in set screws so everything is lined up and sturdy.
Finally, turn the base over, and insert the main arm into the T joint in the base. Make sure it is nice and straight and then add set screws to secure the angle. We decided not to screw the main arm into the base so that we could partially dissemble the stand for transport and storage.
You certainly don’t have to sand or paint your bow stand, especially if you like that “working construction site” look, however we decided to paint ours. First sand off the lettering that goes down one side of each pipe. Also, there are sometimes sharps edges that can be dangerous on PVC pipes. A small electric sander makes short work of this.
Pick a color and spray away! Make sure the paint that you choose is rated for use with plastic. PVC pipe will degrade over time in the sunlight, so a good paint job will actually extend the life of your stand.
We hope that this information is useful to anyone practicing the art of archery. There are hundreds different ways you could put one together for yourself. We recommend you customize the building process to your desire and means.
Blog post written by Edward Seaton
