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Located in Mentor, Ohio, Voks Darts, Inc. quietly keeps growing, providing
the dart community with unique darts with superior innovations. Voks Darts is now owned by Diane Orav who keeps the business financially sound with str ong growth projections, but her husband, Mike Orav, is the brain child of
the patents which make the Voks product unique and superior, to their way of thinking.
The secret behind the Voks Darts company is the patents held by the
company for Anti Bounce-Back Dart, the Voks Helix, The EL-C, and the Retractable Spring Loaded Shaft. These patents provide Voks with a unique
advantage in the darts industry, manufacturing unique and superior product right here in the United States. Voks Darts can still claim 'Made In The USA.'
 The Voks Darts manufacturing process takes the product from blank tungsten billets all the way to
the finished product, packaged and ready for sale. The only part of manufacturing that is not done in house is heat treating or plating for those darts that require t hat process. Those tasks are performed outside the
shop, but everything else is handled in-house. The tungsten comes from three different sources, long bars from Mitek Metals in Detroit, Royal
Ordinance in England, and occasionally, sources in China. Once the billets arrive in the shop, they are put on the Brown & Sharp Automatic Lathe
which 'faces' the billets to exact standards and lengths. Then they are drilled and tapped on the same machine.
 Darts that require tapers, contours and/or grooves, then go on the BNC-34 Miyan machine
that handles precision grooving, tapering and contouring. Darts that require knurling are placed on a knurling lathe. This machine
was built specifically for knurling darts by Voks manufacturing. The quality  control on their knurling machine is second to none and is so good that each knurl has the same
pressure applied to each dart in the set and the same speed applied during the knurling process to provide an exact matched set. The machine is
gear activated as opposed to cam activated which provides a perfect knurl to each dart.
 Finished darts then go to the paint room for
coloring the grooves and applying coatings to the barrels. After painting, the darts are polished, packaged and prepared for shipping. With all the
machines running at full capacity, Voks can turn out 10 sets, 30 darts, an hour. Some darts are easier to manufacture than others due to the
differences in contours, knurls, grooves and tapering, but the average holds true at 10 sets per hour.  Each barrel and set is hand inspected to exact
weights for superb quality control.
The claim to fame for Voks Darts is the Helix Dart. Helix darts have a unique
patented collar that allows the dart point or needle to rotate as it enters the dartboard creating an anti bounce-back action insuring that all darts thrown count
for score. The Helix collars are made of brass and spring steel. Avid dart players will find the brass collars wearing out and needing replacements in 6 to 10
months of steady throwing. The spring steel collars last significantly longer. In fact, players find that the pins on the points wear out long before the spring
steel collars do. Both the points and collars are easily replaced making the Voks Helix dart the perfect weapon in any tournament or league competition.
 Voks Darts has a few other remarkable innovations that provide darters additional
advantages in competitive play. One is the Indestructo Tops. These space age, spring steel tops are manufactured on Rusnak Mill machine
that cuts fine grooves in the tops. Being made from spring steel, they don't bend and very, very rarely allow a robinhood. The grooves allow for a
tight fit for the flights so they don't fall off during flight or after hitting the board.
Voks Darts also has the patent for the EL-C moveable point system and drill
all EL-C Laserdarts before shipping them to Laserdarts in Kansas City, Kansas. A Hardinge Machine called the Omni Turn drills the EL-C for the long
points that go through the barrels. Two Logan Lathes are set up for drilling the famous Laserdart Blackwidows. The Blackwidow barrels come to the Voks
shop heat treated, plated and finished all except the drilling, Being already finished, the Logan Lathes are carefully rigged to insure that the barrels are
protected throughout the drilling process. Drilling the finished, heat treated barrel is difficult as the tungsten is hardened. Even with the sharpest bits, it's not uncomm on to have a bit break during the process.
Another unique product manufactured at Voks Darts is the dry erase scoreboard.
What makes this scoreboard different from others is that the lines and numbers are 'scored' into the board so they can not fade away. In fact, over time the
scoreboard becomes even better as the dry erase dust darkens the areas which have been scored making the score board even easier to read and use.
All Voks Darts products are sold in their retail store out front of the
manufacturing facility. The retail store carries other dart products as well, so it is a full service dart store satisfying the needs of the darters in the greater
Cleveland area. The Lake Erie Dart Association (LEDA) office is located next to the retail store in the same building, so all members know where to get
their dart supplies. The Cleveland Darter Club (CDC) members also know where the Voks Darts shop is by word of mouth and proximity of the shop to
the greater Cleveland area.
 Keeping the shop open, the
machines running, and the orders filled and shipped are Bob Brookie and Sara Jane Napoli. Both have been with Voks Darts for more than 10 years and know
all the ins and outs of the manufacturing processes. A call to their office is always welcome and they can usually help with most questions.
Voks Darts is located in Mentor, Ohio, and is one of the very few dart
companies that still manufacture darts in the United States. Check out their ad published elsewhere in this issue.
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