EAT MY DUST!!! CAN’T YOU SEE I’M MAKING BOOMERANGS IN HERE!!!

On May 3rd, I received my second BIGGIE order from my Wholesale Buyer in the UK, Peter Thake of Euro-rang.com. The last time Peter ordered was last August, and that too was pretty sizable, I must say. Peter has a real passion for boomerangs, a true enthusiast, as well as a really nice guy to do business with. He completely understands the emotion and devotion that goes into throwing, making and collecting of boomerangs. He’s NOT just some guy trying to turn a quick buck, unlike someone else we all know (I’m not mentioning any names here, but we all miss Jim Mayfield, now, don’t we?). The nice part about selling wholesale to Peter is that his customers are predominantly European, due to the fact he can ship to Europe from the UK a great deal cheaper than I can from the U.S., and it really helps put my rangs in the hands of a great deal more rang enthusiasts Overseas. I REALLY, TRULY APPRECIATE THAT!
Below, are pictures of my progress on Peter’s order of 131 new rangs. They are stacked all together, regardless of model, but I did separate the phenolic ones from the birch ones. The Tribladers pictured here are my Super-Fast F/C model, “Full Throtlle,” which are stacked separately, but only because tribladers don’t stack well in a pile of biwing rangs…..It didn’t take but one time for the pile to topple over before I made the decision to put them in their own stack!
As you can plainly see, there’s a great deal of dust all around both sets of rangs. For my own good health, you should I know, I NEVER work without a dual filtered, professional grade respirator. I just switched to a model of respirator that channels my exhaling downward, which is AWESOME, because it keeps me from fogging up my glasses while I’m working. Before buying this one, I actually couldn’t wear the mask without removing my glasses. I must say, SEEING WHAT I’M DOING, is pretty cool! Believe me, if you’re working with as many power tools as I am, VISION is a nice thing to have! Well, I think I’ll conclude writing for today, with this serving as today’s “BOOMERANG SHOP TIP:” When working with power tools, make sure you can see what you’re doing at all times….It’s a GREAT finger saver!”

Phenolic Models in-process for Euro-Rang.com in the UK!

Birch Models in-Process for Euro-rang.com in the UK!

When It Rains In Ann Arbor, My Shop Rains Boomerangs!!!

When I got up this morning, (at roughly 5 a.m., just like any other day), I was greeted by the steady down pour of yet another Spring time Michigan shower. This type of weather is typical for Michigan during this time of year, the whole “Spring Showers Bringing May Flowers,” thing, I suppose. Actually, I wasn’t really paying much attention, but I think we probably had steady rain for about 5 out of the last 7 days here. No big deal, really, except it keeps me from being able to throw rangs, either for test purposes, or for leisure. What it doesn’t do, however, is limit my ability to crank out new rangs in my shop. Between the hours of 7 a.m. today and now, I managed to fully produce, from the cutting of the blanks to the clear coating of the paint jobs, ALL of the rangs you see pictured below. I HATE the rain when it comes to throwing, but it DOES make for a productive day in the shop! Talaga!

5MM "VENOM" TRADITIONAL

"FIREBALL" HOOK, WITH DARK PURPLE TIPS (35+ METER RANGE)

"GRIFFIN" WITH RED TIPS

ANOTHER "GRIFFIN," THIS ONE WITH DARK PURPLE TIPS (35 METER RANGE)

1/4 INCH THICK OMEGA SHAPE, DUBBED "BOOGIE WOOGIE"

PHENOLIC "PATRIOT HOOK" WITH BLUE/RED METALLIC PAINT SCHEME, 70+ METER RANGE

PHENOLIC "OPERATOR" WITH RED/BLACK PAINT SCHEME: 60+ METER RANGE

CALVIN AND HOBBES ART RANG, "YOU SHOULD BE DANCING!"

DETAIL FROM "YOU SHOULD BE DANCING!"

PHENOLIC "GARGOYLE" VEE COMP. RANG, 60+ METER RANGE

Field Test Results: Some Great, Some Less Than Great….

Yesterday here in Ann Arbor, the weather decided to cooperate with me for all the field testing I had to do. The winds were light, (almost calm), and steady out of the West. It was sunny, and the temperature was mild, but not hot. I could very comfortably throw wearing just a T-shirt and shorts, without either sweating or freezing. My primary objective in my testing was to fine tune 4 Fast Catch rangs, (one lefty and 3 righties), and to try out the new Phenolic efforts shown in my last Blog post. I tested the Lefty Fast Catch first, and it was an exceptionally fast, accurate flyer. It had a nice stall at the end, making catching both safe and easy. I was off to a wonderful start…Would it continue into the testing of the other rangs?
When testing the Righty Fast Catches, I was having a bit of trouble getting them all the way around, without them crashing about 5 feet to my left each time. I therefore tuned a little bit of positive dihedral into one wing only on the three of them, but, mostly due to the extreme thinnest of these, I accidentally broke a wing on one of them while flexing it. Oh well, this kind of thing happens, but it’s never pleasant, I must say. I didn’t have any trouble tuning the other two righties, but it still stung a bit, to have broken the one. Time to get over it, and move on I guess.
The 3 Phenolic rangs all had very long ranges on them, each easily exceeding 70 meters out and back. Of the three, I was most impressed with the one pictured in the middle of the photo. If flew very much like I anticipated; it flew low, very circular, and for a long, long way. It was even coming back in almost dead calm, and that was a pleasure to see. Due to its size, catching was quite easy, as there was lots of wing length to grab onto. I named this rang “The Winnerang,” inspired by, and dedicated to long-time collector and thrower, John Winn of Winchester, Virginia. I am quite proud of how it turned out, and I will DEFINITELY be adding it to my current production line.
As for the other two rang pictured in the last blog post, both fly fine, but really require a lot of skill to handle them correctly. Their ranges are both in the 70+ meters area, but the small U obviously would need a bit more wind to get a full return, and the other boomerang just wasn’t that exciting to throw, at least, not for my personal tests. I’ll keep them in my throw bag for a while, try them a few more times, and then see if I have a change of heart as to their value as possible production rangs. For now, those two rangs are just going to remain as non-production prototypes.

Developing Brand New Phenolic Shapes….This IS What Being A Rangsmith is ALL ABOUT!

This past month, having gotten really far ahead on my stock of Sales Rangs, (TALAGA!!!), I have the wonderful LUXURY of actual free time to spend inventing new shapes. This is where being a Rangsmith is at its MOST FUN! Even in the cases where I fail, I STILL succeed, because those cases ALWAYS teach me SOMETHING about rang making. Of course, I’ve been around the block a few times by now, (I’ve actually been making “decent” flying rangs since 1978), and I DID manage to come up with some TRUE success stories during this past month’s R & D. The models pictured below, are the ones I just made and painted today….all Left handed, all untested as of yet. I’m fairly certain ALL will perform awesome, just from my knowledge of what does and doesn’t work, but we’ll simply have to take them to the field and see now, won’t we? I don’t bother assigning new names to these experimental shapes, I ONLY give them names if they EARN IT ON THE FIELD.
If you look these over, you may or may not realize how their shapes were derived. The top “U” shaped model is a phenolic version of my Birch Plywood “Boombastic” rang. The tip span is basically identical to the Birch counterpart, but the wing chords have been narrowed, and the airfoils are less aerodynamically efficient. This will keep the silly thing from hovering forever, and allow it to drop in for a slow rotating catch…I hope.
The center rang is a mutated version of my “Unforgettable” model that I just developed last week. I thought if I extended the lift arm out a bit, it would aid in getting better spin on the launch, and perhaps a wider circular flight as well. Once again, time and actual throwing will be the judge.
The last (bottom in the picture) test rang, is a phenolic sampling of what my Birch Butterfly USED to look like. More or less, this one has both tips in the shape of “Herb Smith Style” throwing handles. The Vee Omega aspects of it should yeild a very nice, balanced flight with good accuracy and end of flight hover. As I plan to throw all 3 tomorrow morning, directly after I see my son, Willie off to school, I’ll let you know how they all fair…..I’m soooo excited at the thought of this test, I don’t know if I’ll even sleep well tonight! More tomorrow, Adios Amigos!

Namelss, Phenolic Test Models

Overhaul of Gloverrangs.com Website….Now, MUCH, MUCH Easier to Navigate!

It’s been a long time a-coming, but I FINALLY got around to updating and simplifying my Gloverrangs.com Boomerang Catalog website. Now, rather than simply a more or less random listing of the rangs I make for sale, there is actually REAL LOGIC to the whole thing! I’ve broken down the website into 6 different Categories of Boomerangs. Namely, the pages are now LOW COST RANGS, BEGINNER RANGS, INTERMEDIATE RANGS, ADVANCED RANGS, FAST CATCH RANGS AND ART RANGS. Most all other features, such as Collectable rangs I have for sale, Ordering instructions, and my Boomer-Links pages have remained unchanged. I feel, actually I KNOW, this is going to make the process of finding the “right boomerang” a whole lot more straight forward to my Buyers. Please feel free to contact me privately with any further suggestions you might have….I aim to please!

This Boomerang is Literally “Unforgettable!”

Ah, Another week in the life of Gloverrangs! I concentrated my rang making efforts this week on Research and Development. In particular, I was hoping to “create” a new Aussie Rounder out of the 3mm Phenolic material. My first step in this process was to identify a good candidate amongst my Birch models for conversion to the thinner, stiffer synthetic resin material. I almost immediately focussed my attention on my very popular “Butterfly” design. The Butterfly, which I’ve made out of 5mm Aircraft Birch somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 times, is one of my most reliable, consistently great flying designs….Ever. It was a no-brainer to try and make it out of Phenolic now.
Basically, all I really did to convert the birch model into a phenolic one, was to narrow the chords on the wings over the entire body of the rang, and shorten the tip span just a wee little bit. The result: One VERY AWESOME FLYING PHENOLIC RANG! Not only did the stiffness and higher density of the Phenolic add about 20 meters to the outward range of the rang, (The new rang gets about 55 meters in range), but the new version also retained all of the other characteristics I loved about the Birch version. Primarily, this new phenolic version has incredible, dead-on accuracy, and it also slows down in its gyroscopic spin to a very nice end of flight hover, and is Super-Easy on the hands for catching. It was a total success! I was SO HAPPY with it, I dubbed it as “UNFORGETTABLE,” And, it TRULY IS!

Unfortunately, my hopes for the other model I was working on, (not pictured here…sorry), didn’t fair so well. Whereas it was also quite accurate, its outward range was basically no farther than its Birch counterpart. In my opinion, a phenolic model that only gets out about to 30 or 35 meters is a complete waste of the material, mainly due to the extra expense of the phenolic. Phenolic is also more difficult to cut and shape, and who needs all that extra work for “birch results?” It was no more special of a flyer than any o’ Birch Sports rang in my bag, and that’s just not good enough, not for me to bother making it.

NEW "UNFORGETTABLE" AUSSIE ROUNDER (LEFTY VERSION)

All In A Day’s Work!!!

On the average, I make about 6 boomerangs a day. That’s 6 per day, everyday, regardless of the outside temperature, the date, or any other climatic factor. Thus, I make approximately 2,100 boomerangs per year. Of that ridiculously high number, about 85 % are offered for sale, either via Ebay, my own website, or websites like Ted Bailey’s Flight-Toys.com. Out of the 85% that I put up for sale, I have managed to sell almost 100% of them….They don’t always sell right away, but they almost always do.

Today, I took it a bit easy on myself, and only carved out 8 new rangs, and I decorated the 3 you see in this post. I did the artwork on these simultaneously. While the paint was drying on one, I was working on the other two. After the paint was set, I went back, and carefully retraced my ink lines, to make things stand out a bit better. Decorating rangs is really what it’s mostly about for me, that is, after a GREAT flight has been tuned into the rang, the very next item in terms of importance is to make them look great as well. I call this Calvin and Hobbes rang “RIGHT ON!” The other two are simply one of my “Boombastic” Righties, (the “U” shaped rang), and the other is my Hummingbird Vee, but with a Blue Bird on it instead of the usual hummingbird. I just felt like changing the bird for this particular one….For whatever reason, I just felt I needed to match those Blue tips.

CALVIN AND HOBBES "RIGHT ON!" ART RANG

DETAIL OF "RIGHT ON!"

"BOOMBASTIC" SPORTS RANG (FOR SALE ON EBAY.COM!)

"BLUE BIRD VEE" BOOMERANG (FOR SALE ON EBAY.COM!)

IT’S ALWAYS THE SAME OLD THING! VARIETY!! VARIETY!! VARIETY!!!

It occurred to me, that even though lots of people read my blog, many of them still might not realize the wide range of boomerangs I currently offer for sale on the 6 various sites they sell on. For that reason, I thought I’d use today’s blog entry to show off the WIDE RANGE of various rangs I make and sell…..Enjoy!

Currently For sale on Bonanza.com

Currently for sale on Bonanza.com

Currently for sale on Bonanza.com

Currently For sale on Bonanza.com

Currently For sale on Bonanza.com

Currently For sale on Bonanza.com

Currently For sale on Bonanza.com

Currently For sale on Bonanza.com

Currently For sale on Bonanza.com

Currently For sale on Bonanza.com

And So, On It Goes! The Weather in Michigan Says, “Carve! Throw! Carve Some More!”

This may have been the shortest, most maintenance-Free Winter in Michigan I have EVER experienced. In my entire 49 years, I’ve NEVER had so little to do in terms of Snow Removal. Not only that, our outside temperature never went under zero….NOT ONCE. Now, the snow problem is one thing, but it’s really only the extreme cold that can keep me out of my Boomerang Shop, (that’s “Garage,” for all you guys that want to be more specific as to what part of our house I’m referring to). As long as it remains above 20 degrees Fahrenheit or so, I’m good. I just have to be able to blow my visible breath out of the way when it comes to putting on the rough airfoils, seriously.

Well, since we’ve been WAY ABOVE 20 degrees, in fact, for the most part, we’ve been above 50, I’ve really gotten quite a few rangs made this winter, as well as this Early Spring. My best estimate would be that I’ve successfully carved and painted not less than 200 boomerangs from January until April first….And I’m NOT fooling! It’s given me all kinds of time to relax in my carving, and produce quite a number of artsy, fancy rangs as well. The latest one, one I just finished decorating this morning, is pictured here for you. I call it, “GONE FISHIN’!” I’d used this name once before, when I did one of Snoopy and Woodstock holding up a nice string of fish on an old style Hook Boomerang design. I have to be honest, I’m much happier with the premise of this one! Let’s just say, this one is much more in line with my personality……

DETAIL FROM "GONE FISHIN'!"

GONE FISHIN'!

MORE Calvin and Hobbes Themed Art Boomerangs…..BY POPULAR DEMAND!

I really hadn’t given it too much thought, but when I started doing Calvin and Hobbes themed Art rangs, they REALLY took off in popularity. I’d mostly done cartoon characters from either Garfield or the Peanuts strips up until then, and, though they too were a big hit, it seems Calvin and Hobbes is WAY more popular. My personal favorite cartoon to place on rangs is a barely known one called “Invader Zim,” but, due to lack of interest by others, I really haven’t done too many Zim rangs to date. Here below, are pics of the two most recent Calvin and Hobbes Rangs….I hope you enjoy looking at them!

"EXTREME RADIO FLYER!"

DETAIL FROM "RADIO FLYER"

"FOLLOW THE LEADER"

DETAIL FROM "FOLLOW THE LEADER"