Archery Bag Insert - Making Order From Chaos

As an amateur archer, and as someone without a ton of spare money, I am currently not investing in high end equipment. I was able to get the soft sided bag for my equipment for $20, and one for my daughter as well. The problem? When you carry it around everything falls all over the place and gets messed up. I really couldn't stand that anymore so I decided to fix up something to keep our equipment in order.

This is a low cost project and took me less than an hour for two bags

Step 1: Supplies and Tools You Will Need

The great part about this project, is the low cost. There were only two things that I bought, the rest I had around the house.

A soft sided archery bag - $20
2 inch thick Project Foam - This cost me $25 for this roll, long enough for both bags

For tools, I really only used the following.

Scissors
Razor blade
Marker
Utility knife
Straight edge

Time to make, about 45 minutes for two bags

Step 2: Getting the Beginning Shape

Lay out the foam on the floor or whatever work space you will be using. I then laid the bags on top and did a general outline mark with the marker to know where to cut. As you can see that roll was enough for both bags. First I cut between the two bags, to divide the roll evenly. Then I put my bag on top and traced that out to cut. Then cut the lines you traced to get the start of the insert.

Note: I started with the scissors, but stopped using them since I found the utility knife and razor blade much easier to use.

Step 3: Making the Insert Fit

Now that I had my insert I figured I could just put it in the bag and then move on. When I put it in, I found out that it was too long around the edges, and stuck out a good amount. My helper and I thought about it and realized that we had to shrink down the basic form, and then round out the edges to make them less 90 degrees, but more rounded to let the zippers close. We took the straight edge and the marker and marked out what we wanted to remove. I then used the razor to take off those parts. Then I used it to slice strips around the edges to round them.

Step 4: Making the Spaces Inside

Once I had reduced the size of the foam so the bag could close I could move onto the next step.I laid out all the part of my bow, arrows and other items. When I was happy where they were I traced around them to get a template of where everything would be. Then it was time to get to work with the utility knife and razor. I found that the easiest way to cut out the inserts was to cut the lines with the utility knife then use the razor blade to cut under that to make the hollows for the items.

Note: You will get a lot of chunks of foam to clean up, so be ready.

Step 5: Finished Product

Once I was done, I tested everything for fit. It worked great! I could close it up and walk around and nothing went out of place, all held safe and secure. And while it may not look the most professional, it works well enough for me, and I made it. A quick and easy project, and the one I made for my daughter went even quicker now that I knew what I was doing. Between the two of them it took me less than 45 minutes to make both.