# The Band alignment Checker! Do your bands draw equal on both sides?



## Ralph G (Jun 14, 2014)

Accuracy is mostly in the shooter but if the setup is not perfect it makes it harder still, so I made this lil gizmo to check if the bands are equally attached to the fork and draw back with equal force:



Just a stack of small bearings and a holder to draw it back with. It has to be bearings because just a tube on an axle will bind from the draw force and not show alignment accurate.

You have to draw back from the fork at a right angle. If you cant/angle the fork ,readings will be screwed. If it looks like this, all is well:



In this picture one side of the bands was attached intentionally abour 5mm short. If it looks like this on draw something is amiss and you better correct it.



Usually I just eyeball it when attaching bands and mostly I get it good enough to perfect but I also found two setups on some forks that had to be corrected. It can also be used to frequently check if your attachment has slipped somewhat during use. Maybe something like that has been posted before but I could not find it so I decided to show it.

Best regards
Ralph


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## Greavous (Sep 29, 2013)

lol, i cant even begin to count the number of times ive given a brief moment of thought to making a tool which does exactly this but somehow the bands get tied on and im out in the yard and the thought is lost again. I never thought of using bearings! Awesome idea and thanks a million for sharing! To add some thought to this system it seems if you created a jig to hold the frame plumb and square to the holding jig you could then reference a line perpendicular to the frame to ensure you draw and evaluate the tie job 90° to the frame.

Thanks again!


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## treefork (Feb 1, 2010)

Good idea !


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## JohnKrakatoa (Nov 28, 2013)

Very nice my man Great job.


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## S.S. sLinGeR (Oct 17, 2013)

Nice work!


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## Rayshot (Feb 1, 2010)

I have seen someone make one of similar design.

I am not absolutely sure but I am going to put the following out there.

Try shooting both band sets with many shots, the band set that is perfectly equal in length and the one that is not equal.

I believe you will find it isn't that big a deal. And if they do shoot a hair different I also believe the mind and eye compensate marvelously for the difference. Credit to our designer.


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## Beanflip (Sep 11, 2010)

Looks good. Jack Koehler mentions this devise in his book,"SlingShot Shooting." I think he made one from an old VCR part.


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## Alfred E.M. (Jul 5, 2014)

*Very innovative. Thanks for posting.*


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## hashbrown (Mar 10, 2014)

That's a great idea. Thanks for sharing.


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## Ralph G (Jun 14, 2014)

Thanks guys,

I also think you will adapt to a non-perfect bandset, so its no big deal - but I still prefer to attach the bands equally If I have time for it and not doing a quick change in the field.

Just eyeballing it has served me well enough in the past but now I can check it if I want.

I dont have the jack koehler book but its no surprise someone else has already come up with something similar.


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## Rayshot (Feb 1, 2010)

I should add too, that even though some discrepancy in band length isn't a big deal, the perfectionist in me will mark the bands at the precise desired length, tie them evenly and when I load the pouch I want the pouch wrapped evenly around the ammo.


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## Greavous (Sep 29, 2013)

Ive gone to such a small pouch that I can feel in my finger tips when things arent even and it really bugs me so I will go back and retie until its right. My pouches are kangaroo and just a tad over 2 inches overall length and will hold a 3/8 ball and have just enough room to tie to the bands. Im going to incorporate this tool into a band tying jig ive been building in my mind for about a year. Ill be sure to share it with everyone if its worth doing.

I dont think it really matters what diameter (OD) the bearings are but it would seem logical to match that with what you are shooting?


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## DogBox (Aug 11, 2014)

Ralph G ! Wonderful tool!! Have you thought maybe you could hold the slingshot against a table top edge, and have a perpendicular line

drawn so you could 'centre' the bands equidistant of the line and then follow the line as you draw back and measure...? Keeping things at

right angles..? Maybe?


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## 4950cycle (Nov 4, 2013)

Absolutely, Use a carpenter square on the edge of a table with straight edges. Hang one part of the "L" of the carpenter square over the edge of the table. Push the angle hanging over the edge of the table up against the table. Take a pencil and draw the line down the side of the part of the "L" that is still on the table top. There's your near perfect 90 degree angle line to follow. Lay the forks of the sling shot against the edge of the table, pull the bands with your special tool you've made along that 90 degree line you just drew on the table top, And if your patch gets cockeyed your bands aren't tied at the same length. Hey,I Iike it . Good tool you've made there !


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