Boomerang Dave's Boomerang Journal

Today I headed out at lunch to test a few boomerangs. I made 8 of one style and had given one to Art. He reported that it was always coming up short to the left. I decided to test them all, and a few others. The temperature was in the mid 80's and I was in my "business casual" attire which meant I was going to be hot, very fast. Anyway there was a slight 5mph breeze blowing which is pretty nice for throwing. My first throw was with an acrylic boomerang, the Darth Maul, designed by David Fantone. I made it months ago and forgot the range so tested it again. The next two booms were birthday gifts from David. The strip laminated lap joint Assault was really nice. I overpowered it a bit and had to chase it down behind me. His other boomerang was a rather large more traditional style. I also overpowered that one and adjusted to a lighter throw my second time.

Now to the serious testing, the reason I was on the field. I have 7 more boomerangs, 2 unweighted, 4 weighted with pennies, 1 with nickels. Because of Art's report, I added some undercut to the lead arm of one each, weighted and unweighted. The first toss was with the unweighted with undercut. It flew great but ended up a little to the left. I was pretty sure it was the power of the throw so I then tried the one without the undercut. Well I was really surprised that it came all the way around and crossed right in front of me. I reached out with my right hand and snagged it one handed without moving an inch! That one is a keeper! Both versions got 30-35 meters with the undercut one flying higher.

I switched to the weighted versions and found the undercut one was better than the ones without undercuts. I also discovered that the one weighted with nickels did not come close. It had great distance, probably 50 meters, but needs a real strong wind to get a full return. The others get 40-45 meters and with that added undercut, should be perfect. The one I did test with undercuts was a real performed and earned me another bulls-eye catch.
 

Art, if you're reading this, add some undercut to the lead arm of that boomerang and your problems should be solved.

BoomerangDave

Seems like a long time since I have posted. Travel for work, hat days and little time have reduced the amount of time I have for boomerangs. Here's an update on a few recent happenings.

Art Rentz and I got together just briefly on my last trip to CT. I was the transport for 1/2 sheet of 4mm and 1/2 sheet of 5mm Finland birch plywood. Last I heard he was merrily marking and cutting out boomerangs.

Saturday was out church clambake at Louise Moore Park in Easton. Since there is a fair sized field near the pavilion, I took boomerangs to throw. I did three sessions. The first one I was alone and just threw what made me happy. The wind was pretty strong and gusty, so I compensated by tossing a bunch of Aussie Round boomerangs. That stretched the limits of the field and tested my accuracy. After a brief rest and a liquids recharge I headed back on the field with a new member of our church who has never thrown before. He struggled quite a bit. He had most of the mechanics down pat but simply did not get much spin on the boomerang. I tried to keep him working with lighter boomerangs. He said: "This is harder than I thought". My last session was after eating. A few people had heard about some of the strange shaped boomerang I have and wanted to see some in action. I was lucky enough to have an Eagle, Heaven, and Roadrunner boomerang with me. I managed to throw and catch all despite the ever shifting wind. A couple guys were on the field with me and were surprised to fell the wind shift about 120 degrees as I was throwing. I had to adjust on every throw. It sure made things a challenge.

BoomerangDave

Saturday was a day in the shop, unless it was teaching visitors to make boomerangs and how to throw them. Things just sort of happen when I am visiting Gary and I never know what to expect. Two women stopped by with their daughters, who were in a basketball tournament in town. One woman had seen Gary's demo at a school the previous week and they decided to take up his offer. Gary showed them boomerangs, and then all four got to make an invertible boomerang in Gary's shop. Although it was drizzling, we still hit the field to test the boomerangs and get some throwing instruction in.

I did get boomerangs made, and picked up some materials for home. I also was lucky enough o use Gary's carbide tipped band saw blade to cut out about a dozen Voyagers from G10 from material I brought along. I also made a couple Ice Runners and Karma 2 booms. That was certainly a big improvement over using my saber saw at home to cut the G10. Sanding and shaping at home is easy.

Tom Brausch showed up in the afternoon and we decided to make a 4mm copy of the Deep Woods fish. We made 3 and hit the field to test. Our copies were going near 50 meters! We decided to do a wood burn detail on the copies. They look pretty good.

Sunday morning was a wrap up of things. I paid Gary for some materials I wanted and for some special zero clearance router bits. Gary had recently received a bunch of 1/4 inch thick lexan (polycarbonate). The sheets were 7 foot 3 inch by 9 feet. I was taking some home so we had to make it smaller. It must have been quite a sight to see four of use balancing these huge sheets and running them through a portable table saw to cut smaller. I think I have enough lexan to last a lifetime. We finished loading up, said our goodbyes and headed out of Ohio and across PA to get home. It was a great weekend.
 
Photo: Original Deep Woods Fish and three modern copies.