Has anyone tried to use AL arrow shafts for tent/tarp poles? How to bend, how to make joints/ferrules?
Have in mind very low- small shelter for stove when cooking, segmented arch in cloth sleeve design.

You may have better luck with the sections and accessories offered at Quest Outfitters.

Carbon Fiber Arrow shafts basically come in 32" lengths. I have been playing around with that idea too.

I bought some for bow hunting this spring to replace my old alum arrows and they look interesting. You can catch them on sale for about $55 per dozen.

This company sells carbon fiber tent poles, but my guess is they are arrow shafts and I would imagine all his connectors would fit. I have never verified that.

http://www.fibraplex.com/tentpoles.htm

Notice his max length is 32"

That said, unless you are planning to use many many sections, and or dont have a high speed cutter its probably cheaper and easier to buy from him.

Opps,

Just realized you typed AL arrow shafts.

Yep, go to quest. They have what you need.

> Has anyone tried to use AL arrow shafts for tent/tarp poles?
What do you think Easton tent poles are anyhow? Easton are primarily manufacturers of arrows.

Easton can provide ferrules to match.

But dealing with Easton tends to be utterly impossible.

Cheers

Um, well, I'd wager it would depend on the arrow quite a lot. I used to shoot a lot of archery, and the aluminum arrows I've shot were all much thinner-walled than the tent poles I've used. Carbon, on the other hand, I could see making a case for... and maybe there are some super-thick-walled aluminum arrows?

> and the aluminum arrows I've shot were all much thinner-walled than the tent poles I've used

Oh, Easton have a HUGE range of arrow tubings available. Have a look on the back pages of their hunting and target catalogs. I don't go for archery myself, but the range of 7075 T9 Al tubing available is ... wonderful!

But do not use the composite arrows for tent poles - CF wrapped around Al tubing. The miss-match in temperature coefficients between the aluminium and CF/epoxy is bad, and delamination happens during cold nights when the tent pole is stressed into a curve. The arrows were not designed for that!

Cheers

The reason I asked about arrows is because of their lighter weight as apposed to light weight tent poles. (I am a major gram weenie). Total length would not exceed 36 inches used in a non critical function ( small dog house sized enclosure to shelter a cooking area). My main task is to find a way to connect sections . Ideas anyone???

If you are making the shelter too:

See Roger's tent designs

http://www.bushwalking.org.au/FAQ/DIY_RNCTents.htm#Poles

36"? That's not very long. Quite doable in fact.

I suggest you buy two CF arrow shafts such as the Victory Archery VForce 400 or the Gold Tip Pro Hunter 5575, with an OD of 0.295", plus one Easton aluminium arrow 2117 to make a sleeve for joining (3" length is fine).

You could also buy some arrow bits to make the end tips while you are at it. And some good 3 mm bungee cord to hold the two sections together.

Cheers

Concur... 36 inches, no problem. Also recommend Gold Tip; best arrows I've shot, much better durability than I've experienced with other brands. (I suppose you could get into a "Ford/Chevy" loyalty debate, too, but...)

I have arrows and bows, but I've never really paid attention to tent setups for serious hunters. Seems like a longbow and some arrows could be used in a tent setup, talk about multi-use.

James,
You asked about aluminum alloy, not carbon poles, so I will focus on those. Henry Shires has some discussion on his tarptent.com website about the superiority of alloy to carbon poles, so your choice may well be justified, despite the fact that I am a true believer in using carbon arrow shafts for dome poles. My choices are the Carbon Express Maxima shafts and the Easton "nano" shafts, but each to their own.
Tarptent uses the Easton .344" diameter poles, which are over 20% lighter than the thinner Easton .340" diameter poles. Quest Outfitters sells both for around $2.50-$3.00 per 18" section. If you can get Henry to sell you a pair of Scarp 1 13.5' cross poles for $30, you will pay only around $1.67 per 18" section. Plus you get the end tips, and cord (that is heavier than I use). Quest maintains the lighter .344" poles are as strong as the heavier .340", and as mentioned, Henry believes they are well stronger than carbon.
For purposes of comparison, arrow shaft weights are expressed in grains per inch (gpi). The .344" are 13.77 gpi, which works out to about 3/8 oz per running foot, not counting the ferrules, tips and cord. The DAC "feather light" .355" poles that come with the MSR Hubba are about 16.56 gpi. The .355" Easton Carbon FX poles that come with the MSR Carbon Reflex tent are 12 gpi. The carbon shafts I mentioned above run around 7-9 gpi, which is why I am a true believer in carbon. The trick is to design the tent so the carbon will not be bent to a tight radius in high winds, although I do plan to try some carbon poles with a Scarp and a Moment, which both have tight radii that will get much tighter in a high wind.
Quest also sells the .312" diameter Easton "Fly" alloy pole sections wich are 10.558 gpi. Easton says all of the above mentioned poles have the same "Ultimate tensile strength," but I would think the lighter ones with thinner walls would provide less resistance to shattering or other failure. They are all 7075-T9 alloy, so I don't see how you would be doing any better by experimenting with arrow shafts made of the same material.
So you have a number of choices, and can get what you want.
Good Luck! Sam Farrington, Chocorua NH