Mantis UPDATES.....Post here

Phil, I decided to clean this section. Post here with all new updates with the Mantis!
Thanks!

Good Idea Donnie

Donny i have emailed some picture's to you of the cast up Mantis.IT IS NOT FULLY WORKING AS THE LIMB'S ARE THE PATTERN'S I MADE AND THERE IS NO GAS SPRING YET,also the track will be milled out next week but you can see the wooden walnut and pistol grip's on it and it is a nice weapon.Now i will rework some pattern's to get perfect fit and if you like please put them on Facebook.Thursday i am off to meet up with someone that may well be able to help out with getting other part's made,anyway looking good so far so good,Greg good to hear you are ok and i will call you in the next couple of day's,Phil.

Nice one Donny,i love the new mantis myself and i am very pleased how it is all turning out.I have got the gas spring's ordered and they should arrive very shortly and it is rather nice to see another Mantis as the prototype version and see the slight change's to trigger mechanism the slot at the front of the mechanism is for when you have cocked the bow if using cranker to store the truck.Now also it is possible we may be able to get it very lightweight by casting some of the part's in Magnesium alloy,i will look into this but i can modify the pattern's to get it to around 7-8 lbs as they overdid it slightly on most of the part's not to worry as now i can tweak them to exactly what we need and want,and they are wood so easy to work and refine,no sweat,thank's i will call you this week,take care bud,Phil.

Met up with Joshua yesterday and now i will get some pattern's to him to get cast and see how they are on quality and price and i have a good feeling that this could well be a very good contact as he was very helpful and came up with some very good idea's as to getting some of the smaller part's made so now i will get this done,meanwhile i will video some broadhead's this weekend being shot from the Mantis prototype and we can see what it doe's should be very wicked we will see.

Be sure to use a 22" arrow 3 fletch if possible ! 100 grain broadhead. Sounds good Phil! keep up the good work !!

Thank's Donny no worrie's a 22" bolt/arrow is what i will use with a 100 grn broadhead's both machanical's and fixed blade's is what i have done. On the fletching of these bolt's i cannot shoot three fletch bolt's from the prototype but i can shoot a two or four fletch that will give identical impact result's,four fletch is very stable,wait till you see this video and you will see what i mean.This thing is so dam powerful when fully wound up,should be able to drop anything you like with this thing,no problem.

Been trying to upload this video for a while now,soon it will work i hope.Anyway i have got load's done with the pattern's and have greatly improved on the one's i have been working on.I have lost one third of the weight from the trigger mech housing alone after finding the perfect location's for the fixing screws's and also the rail has been greatly modified by hollow shaping and this not only reduce's the weight but greatly improve's the overall look,also the safety has been lightened and modified,just waiting to get the core box back from the foundry of the shoulder stock and then this will be all modded for less weight.I have also got one neat design for the scope rail system of which is both a weaver type rail and also an 11 mm rifle scope rail of which has been designed for clearance of the tilting speed dial type rail for those very long distance shot's.Now if you already have high scope mount's then to use this effectively all you need to do is remove the pillar's for your custom set up.Tomorrow i will make the pillar's and fix them onto the weaver scope rail then get these off to the foundry for casting up.Next on the list is the forestock corebox of which i need to remove part of the gas spring guide's as this will help reduce weight as with the nameplate's on the side it is already very reinforced here so we can now clean up and get perfect it's all good gas spring's are on their way and i will get some smaller pattern's off down to Joshua the engineering genius in Devon to see what quality and price we can get there.Oh before i forget more good new's is that if we can get the limb's cast in magnesium alloy a very strong alloy that can withstand the stress then the speed and power will go up quite a bit more also some of the bigger component's could be cast in this too so we can get the ideal weight that we require easily to around 7.5 lb's no problem now that will be awesome.Donny i will call you this weekend for a chat,anything that you feel that i have not covered then please let me know and we will get it right,Phil.

Sorry i did not get to call you this weekend as we have been very busy this whole weekend clearing up the mess from my daughter's HALLOWEEN PARTY on friday.Oh man it took me all day prepairing the garden and setting up the sound system and lighting rig and little did we know she had invited about 200 people and yes they all turned up and it was a nightmare 14 year old kid's and then around another 50 or so 18 year old's got to know about it and tried to gatecrash,we managed to handle the situation very cooly and it was ok apart fro the fact that they got mud all over the house so big clean up all over the weekend so anyway did another video today and it came out not that good so i will do another this week if i can.But hey it shot an Excalibur mechanical broadhead through two piece's of 18 mm plywood with the point sticking right through the second piece and that 22" bolt was 450 grn and at 12 yrd's and American broadhead company broadhead with shaft weighing 360 grn nearly through two piece's so we got plenty of power there.The Muzzy phantom fitted to the 22" shaft weighed in at 718 grn did not go correct and got trashed due to the string riding a little too high off the deck so i need to drop it down then i can redo it all with complete success next time i hope

Right then,i have all the work refinishing touch's all nearly completed.Tomorrow i will send the pattern's for the scope rail and trigger mech housing and a few other small part's off to get cast in Devon and see if it is up to standard and also on pricing.Still waiting for two set's of limb's to come back from the foundry one set in recurve and the other set in compound and hopefully the gas spring's will arrive soon.Then we can see what it all operate's like,should be very wicked.

Phil, Will there be a channel in the deck of the finished model so we can use 3 fletch? We normally use 3 with tne cock vane down. with all the new vains and sizes it would be nice.

Yes gplant. there will be a groove cut in to accept the 3 fletch arrow. I think phill as going to make it 5/8" - 3/4" deep. That should be plenty.

That is correct,i have sent the first casting off to be machined out,all i need now is gas spring's and limb's and we are ready to test out.Everything is being finalized right here and i am halfway through making the pattern's for the winch and also rope cocker and we are all done.So i now know that right after Christmas is when we go into production with this thing as around another two -three week's is when all the other part's will definately be all here and then right up to Xmas time and during we will really trial this weapon in all wind's and weather.I have everything all worked out as it has taken all this time but then again it is a highly complex bit of kit we got here so we are doing good.Also the boy's will be helping me get this thing produced and machined so it will be all downhill and i can get to go shooting as well,be nice to have a rest,Phew.

Thats cool. I thought that was the way you where doing it. The posts above confused me a bit. Yea it would need to be 3/4in to cover all the vains out there. I was also thinking where would be the best spot for a quiver mount and I think a rangefinder mount loction would be nice as many hunters use them and I know there out there. I'll have to see what it would take for the bow to accept it. Do you know anything about them Donnie? I've seen them on crossbows but didn't check how it was mounted.

Well, i know they make them that attaches to the top of the scope. I do know that Virginia it is illegal to have a range finder connected to a weapon. Anything that shoots any kind of "beam" is illegal. I will double check that rule. But i'm pretty sure. If VT hunter reads this maybe he can give us some insight on this subject. He would be the one to know! So VT Hunter....if you read this please fill us in.

Same rule here but Im sure its a visablle beam for targeting.You cant see a rangefinder beam.

Range finder sound's good,pretty sure they attatch to the scope too and you can also get rangefinding scope's.Well how are you all,doing good i hope.Well i have got all the cranker and rope cocker part's completed and have set them up to make a mould so that i can get around a dozen or so set's cast up in metal in one go.These part's comprise of the main body,winding handle,ratchet wheel bowsring pulley hook's and the ratchet engagement paw and also a set of handle's for the rope cocker.Tomorrow i will start casing up these part's to be set on a board ready to be cast in metal then all we need is to get the spool's for the winch/cranker cnc turned.Got three gas spring's here that arrived today so now all i need is the machined part's back from the machine shop and the recurve and compound limb's back fro the foundry plus the scope rail bit's back from the trial foundry in Devon and very soon we will have the first production crossbow all together to try out.Been to the facebook page and it has gone,hope everything is fine there.

When do you need my address to ship this bad boy over ? Ready to test and show this thing off for you!!!!! Need to get some hats, shirts, stickers. so when im out showing this off i'll have some advertisements on me! Sounding good Phil! Keep us posted!

Donnie

Got all the part's done and painted.Monday i got the silicone rubber moulding compound and fast cast resin.Then it was a case of going over the part's to make absolutely certain they were all just perfect and working on them more so as to end up with the very best result's now i am no newcomer to moulding as i have done all this before casting up river pike some i caught and i also made a huge plaster pike and painted it in oil paint and it is on my wall in my livving room and everyone think's it is the real thing,lol.Anyway i have used this process befor so i know how good it is.So i set all the part's onto some plexi glass with glue and made a liquid tight wall around the part's mixed up the two part silicone moulding compound poured it and left overnight.Next day on tuesday i carefully eased the mould off the original part's,checked the mould did some trimming up mixed some resin and poured the first casting's and they came out perfect so i cleaned the flash off and made certain everything was good to go and yesterday i spent the day making all the part's i needed and cleaning off any unwanted bur's etc etc this took several hour's but was good fun.Now these small part's can be replicated if they get lost or damaged and what i will do now is take them to the pattern maker's and get them all set up in 5 rope cocker set's and 5 winch/cranker set's ready to go to the foundry and get cast in alloy.Doing these smaller part's like this will be much more cost effective so this is the way to go.This winch will be a neater lighter version of the one on the original crossbow so this will be great.Bossman i must call you buddy this week,you can email me your address now if you wish or leave till later date it's up to you.Anyway the next couple of week's should see the production test crossbow all up and running and this cannot happen quick enough.The new year will be a good one for us i reckon.

Here is some info on the rope cocker and winch/cranker.The main body has been designed and refined to reduce weight and improve look's.The winding handle is of a nice rounded shape and nice length for ease of cranking whilst adding to the great look's of this unique weapon.The ratchet wheel has been designed to be ultra reliable and strong and the ratchet engagement paw is better and easier to use than on the original bow.Also the bowstring engagement hook's and pulley is of a design to compliment all the rest same on the rope cocker with nice looking comfortable handle's to make it a real pleasure to use.I will get the spool's for the wincher/cranker mechanism cnc machined.

What we will do is get this production test bow all camo finnished and do a video of it being speed tested.And we are not far away from doing this now.

Sounds good Phil! Its all coming together nicely! A mix of black and camo would be great looking! For a show bow a candy coated one would be wicked! That way you could still see the metal under it. Brush a pattern in the metal and spray it with your favorite candy color. Now that would be a show piece. Throw in a mix of chrome.....now thats just sexy LMAO!!!!

G Plant now that sound's real neat,yes also maybe chrome but also a nice combination of camo n black is good.How are thing's going over there all good i hope.Got all the part's worked out for it all now such as getting tiny pulley's made for rope cocker and winch also the spool's for winch and also the pulley's for the compound set up so everything is on track here,been trying to call you a couple of time's,don't worry i will try later on or tomorrow,take care bro speak to you soon.

Happy New Year everyone,now it's back to this ongoing project.Christmas was ok but very quiet and now i have got to get back on with this.I have found the right foundry for all the main part's along with lazer/waterjet cutting so we are getting there,be back soon as i get this all together.

ok....Im ready to receive bow! Let's do this!