# Capping Forks



## Plinker (Feb 20, 2013)

I've been looking around for a while, and I can't find a tutorial about how to cap slingshot forks. It seems straightforward and simple, but I was hoping to get some guidance from someone who has experience with this.

What kind of glue do you use? Is it necessary to use pins? If so, what material should I use for the pins, wood dowels or medal rod? Is the process the same if you're gluing wood to wood, or antler to wood? It's a lot of questions, but I just want to make sure I get this right.

Thanks for your insight,

Jack


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## Btoon84 (Nov 22, 2011)

I would pin fork tips with metal rod epoxied in the hole you drill for same size rod. you can also epoxy the fork tips on or use gorilla glue, i suppose wood glue would work but I would go for something a bit stronger if you don't want the tips flying back at you one day. be careful.


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## Plinker (Feb 20, 2013)

Thankyou. The clear advantage of having pins is that you never really need to worry about the caps snapping off. One concern that I have, which may be completely ridiculous, has to do with temperature and moisture. Wood swells with moisture and metal shrinks and expands with temperature. I was wondering if having metal pins in very cold weather would cause them to come loose from the glue, or in extreme heat and humidity (the seat of a car parked in sunlight in July on a sticky day) it would expand enough to split the fork?


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## Imperial (Feb 9, 2011)

Plinker said:


> Thankyou. The clear advantage of having pins is that you never really need to worry about the caps snapping off. One concern that I have, which may be completely ridiculous, has to do with temperature and moisture. Wood swells with moisture and metal shrinks and expands with temperature. I was wondering if having metal pins in very cold weather would cause them to come loose from the glue, or in extreme heat and humidity (the seat of a car parked in sunlight in July on a sticky day) it would expand enough to split the fork?


1) use wooden dowels so itll expand and contract with the slingshot.

2) why would you leave it in the car ?

3) any excuse to make another slingshot is a good excuse :thumbsup:

.

dont worry too much about it, youll learn along the way .


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## August West (Jan 21, 2012)

I cap all mine with really thick leather to help protect my bands, I glue them on with super glue and no pins and have never had one come off. In the pic you can just see the caps.


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