I have been working on trying a 3d box wrap for the past two weeks and am starting to get increadibly frustrated with it. I can't seem to get past my layout threads without it ending up all screwed up. I have Billy's book and have read it over and over and over again and done search after search on here and just cannot seem to wrap my head around it. Thankfully this is just practice so the only thing I am out is my time and so far lots and lots of thread.

Right now I am using an old arrow that I had laying around as my blank so there is no taper. My circumference is 28mm so if I understand Billy's book correctly them my spacing should be:

0 & 180 l--14--l--14--l--14--l--14--l etc etc etc.
90 & 270 l--7--l--14--l--14--l--14--l etc etc etc.

So I lay my mark out and everything look okay this is where things start to unravel. Now providing that I don't have my layou plan screwed up I take my first thread on the zero axis and wrap up the blank hitting my mark on the zero axis only and forgetting about where it hits on the backside. I then bring that same thread down the blank making a cross on the zero axis marks and where the cross ends up on the opposite side of the blank is semi irelivent. I the do that again for the other three axies?

Am I just missing a step here? Am I going about this completely wrong?

Ok. Get 4 colours of pens.

Take the first colour of pen and put a dot at 0, 14, 28,42 ... on axis 0
Take the same colour pen and put a dot at 3.5, 17.5, 31.5 ... on axis 90
Take that same colour pen and put a dot at 7, 21, 35 .... on axis 180
Take the same colour pen and put a dot at 10.5, 24.5,38.5 ... on axis 270

You will hit all of these points when wrapping the thread up the blank.

Take the Second colour of pen and put a dot at 0, 14, 28,42 ... on axis 90
Take the same colour pen and put a dot at 3.5, 17.5, 31.5 ... on axis 180
Take that same colour pen and put a dot at 7, 21, 35 .... on axis 270
Take the same colour pen and put a dot at 10.5, 24.5,38.5 ... on axis 0

Your second pass up the blank will hit all of these points.

Take the Third colour of pen and put a dot at 0, 14, 28,42 ... on axis 180
Take the same colour pen and put a dot at 3.5, 17.5, 31.5 ... on axis 270
Take that same colour pen and put a dot at 7, 21, 35 .... on axis 0
Take the same colour pen and put a dot at 10.5, 24.5,38.5 ... on axis 90

Your third pass up the blank will hit all of these points

Take the Fourth colour of pen and put a dot at 0, 14, 28,42 ... on axis 270
Take the same colour pen and put a dot at 3.5, 17.5, 31.5 ... on axis 0
Take that same colour pen and put a dot at 7, 21, 35 .... on axis 90
Take the same colour pen and put a dot at 10.5, 24.5,38.5 ... on axis 180

Your fourth pass up the blank will hit all of these points.

That is the easy part.

Now to start wrapping. With your first pass up , follow all of the pen marks of the first colour. On the first pass down, creating crosses, hit your first colour marks on axis 0 and 180.

On your second pass up, follow your second colour, starting on axis 90 and wrapping up. Wrapping down, hit the second colour marks on the 90 and 270 axis.

Continue this pattern for all four colours/axis. this will create the initial crosses. Now add addtiional threads as per Billy's book.

Chris Richer
Iroquois ON

Thanks Chris thats where I was going wrong, I was stopping at the first step. This actually makes perfect sense now. I can't blieve I struggled so bad with this.

Chris, that's a great reply, much better than I would have explained it and it's clear as can be. Scott I'm glad that answerred your question.

One of the things I tell people with my book - once it clicks and makes sense, you'll wonder why you didn't grasp it previously. Once you've completed this wrap, go back and re-read teh first 11 pages, and it should make even more sense. It's nice to see new Dec WRappers in the craft, post some pics when you're done and keep asking detailed questions.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2013 05:27PM by Billy Vivona.

Billy,

I think your book is very clear, I think I just tried to make this way harder than it actually is and instead of stepping back and taking it word for word I was trying to do it all at once and ended up confusing myself (not that its hard to do haha). I will do my best to put up some pictures when I am done.

Spent a few hours on this last night and it started really making sense and things were going well till I got to m last set of marks. It was at that point I realized that this design on a blank this small is not for the faint of heart or the inexperienced. Can it be done? I am sure it can. Can it be done by me, your dang right.....as soon as I a little better skilled with wraps haha.

A big thank you to everyone who has tried to help me with this wrap. I will get one of these done start to finish, I've got to its just way to neat of a wrap and I have a few ideas with it floating around in my head just need the right blank to do it one.

I agree that this wrap is better suited for a large diameter blank. This is one of my favorites done by Paul Rimbeck. [www.rodbuilding.org]

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)

Before Epoxy [www.rodbuilding.org]

After Epoxy [www.rodbuilding.org]

If you look closely on the second image, just above the flair, you can see one of the corss points.

Chris Richer
Iroquois ON