I've Just re-pointed my my n'th set of darts today and I thought I'd share some tips and tricks I've learned from all of my collective sucesses and failures from my re-pointing experiments.

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Summary:
There are many reasons you may want to or need to replace the points on your darts. Perhaps you've broken a point or maybe you'd like to install a set of spiffy new board grippers or you like the sleek and sexy look of storm points(me).

When selecting the equipment and preforming the tasks there are many junctures where a potential mistep could warp or even break your darts and the new points. I hope you find my quick walk through helpful and with any luck it will save you many head aches and even some money, two things that I was not afforded the luxury of!

Equipment Selection:

There are a vast array of tools on the market to help you repoint your favorite set of darts. These tools vary in their methods as well as their price. Although I have not tried the harrows or unicorn style repointers I have tried the target brand repointer and can not recommend it. However, assuming you are clever enough to remove the points, you do not need expensive tools to install new points. If however you already own a repointer, don't fret some of my tips are still helpful!.

In lieu of an expensive repointer you will need the following tools: a pop rivet gun(or another devised method to remove the points), a drill, a hammer, a large heavy duty bolt, an extra long narrow bolt with nut and oversized washer, a vice, cooking oil and an electric stove top.

Removal

I personally still use the broken remains of my target repointer to remove MOST dart points. However, I do not use it on tappered or rounded nose darts. The reason for this is the target method of removal will scar or warp the nose of the dart if it is tappered by the removal action.

A friend of mine has demonstrated many times the easy of using a pop rivet gun. Simply load the dart squeeze the trigger and points are removed. This method can be found on youtube.

Installation

Now for the fun part! First take the large bolt and make sure the head is smooth. If not, file it so. Now arm your drill with a bit slightly larger in diameter than the points you are installing. You need to drill a hole into the center of the head of the bolt deep enough that the dart point can be seated in it securely while leaving plenty of room for the shank of the point to be inserted into the barrel.

Secondly find your self a long bolt with a diameter small enough to sit loosely in the stem side of the barrel. Secure a nut mid way up the bolt. Now place the bolt tightly in the vise with one end pointing up with the nut sitting flush on top of the vice jaws and the washer ontop of the nut. The portion of the bolt siting above the vice needs to be short enough that the stem side of the barrel can straddle it but sit flush on the washer. At this point Id recommend filing off the threads of the exposed portion of the bolt.

Now you have built all of the tools you need to repointed your darts.

The next step is to prepare the barrel by heating it up on the electric stove top. The reason for this is to allow the metal to expand slightly to aid in fitting the points. I have at times skipped this step and have ended up with warped darts as a result of the extra force required to seat the dart. I have also used this method on darts with TI finish and it has not effected the finish.

WARNING: On the previously mentioned step, always wear leather heat safe gloves. Also do not drop the barrel while its hot because it may cause fire or possibly melt into your kitchen linoleum--I have had that happen and the melted linoleum is a pain to get off the dart not to mention trying to explain to the wife what you have done!

Once you have the barrels warmed up, seat them on the bolt that is in the vice. Now take the shank ends of your new points and dip them slightly into your oil. This will also help them seat as well as seal it up a bit. Now place the dart points into the large bolt and proceed to line the shank up with the open face of the barrel. Once this is done use your hammer to carefully tap the bolt that the point is in, until the point is properly seated in the dart.

With any luck the point should slide in with great ease especially if you have previously heated the barrel and a bit of oil. Once the barrel cools a bit it will contract and that point will be impossible to remove!

Sounds good to me Vally, you should do a vid of it if you ever get a chance, have a +1

I had two sets repointed in a shop last week. The guy had the basic (A180, designa whatever one), a unitool and the expensive target one. He used the unitool to remove points, the expensive target one to put plain points in, but for the storm points, he used the cheap basic repointer and not the expensive one. didn't ask him why, but he didn't seem to rate the target machine too much, although to me it looked like a brilliant bit of kit.

Come payday this months, I will be buying one of the cheaper repointers, as although my trusty rivet gun is great for removing points, I am finding it more of a pain to put new points in these days. Plain points are easy, but A180 gold point and storm points are a pain is the backside!

I have the Target repointer and love it. I have had great luck with mine and have done alot of storm points with it. I've heard some say they weren't happy with it but hasn't been my experience at all. Could be the operator

To be honest, I think he was of the opinion that he had a faulty one, at least that's the impression that I got when he said "It's going back".

If I could afford it, it is definitely the machine that I would buy, but just done have the money!

Funny the round bolt piece that the point sits in, in the target machine, will actually warp the longer storm points if you dont heat the barrel. This is because hole gradually narrows but is longer than the point, so the pressure from the pointer forces point into the narrower hole effectively peening back part of the metal ack!

Never had that problem with the 30mm storm points. I had an old timer a long time ago tell to never heat your barrels. I've never warped or broke a point. Knock on wood!

wonder why he said not to heat them?

Anytime you heat and cool metal it changes it's properties. I've seen it done alot though and never seen it hurt anything. I never heat them but I would if I needed to. I do think maybe Target had a bad batch of repointers out there because I've heard that a couple of times -glad I got a good one!

For sure it changes the properties, I'd image more so if you heated it really hot, like above 200 degrees. In the 350 -400 degree range you can change the dart from marsentite to austentite and back again depending on the cooling that follows for sure, but I was heating it in the sub 200 degree F range which is just enough to expand it a bit.

But yeah, if some one wasn't savy to what temp the heated it to I bet they could do some serious damage for sure!

Ive seen guys at tournaments put a propane torch to them! One of my buddy's darts will hardly hold a point now -I put some loctite in it for him with new points and it's held so far. So how's the dart scene in Washington? I know a guy that used to live there and he said it was mainly soft tip, but not sure exactly where he is from

Yeah pretty much just soft tip. State laws are pretty nasty as far as insurance goes for business owners so they really don't have much choice. I was a grocery store manager for years, and one of the bread vendors had a friend who played pro steel tip, but he had to be on the road 300 days a year or so to make it work.

I don't really see the point in changing tips Tbh. Unless you actually hold the point.
Just a waste of money and time IMO

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