Boo done and power lam cut, im going to now work on theipecore.

Since this bow is going to be a trilam, im going to cut the core 1/8" shy of my board bow design. Reason im doing this, is to compensate for the 1/8" belly lams Ill be putting on later. Since I want to have a 5/8" total at the fades and 3/8" at the tips (belly tapper that is), Im going to cut the core 3/8" and tapper it down to 1/4". 3/8" + 1/8"belly lam + 1/8"boo = 5/8".

Im going to rip a 3/8" strip 70" long. The stock I have is 1 3/4". I want a narrow limbs, after I rip the 3/8" strip, ill rip off a light 3/4" from the sides to make it a heavy 1" thick.

Here is the core after cutting out with the table saw.



Time now to put on the belly tappers and limb tappers and get ready to glue up.

I first use the belt sander and make sure the back of the core is smooth and perfectly flat. (agian, I sure could use a jointer). After this, I mark off what would be the grip area and the fades on the board.


That little red line is a long piece of Dacron 50 im useing to run a midline down the core. I dont have it in the pic, but I found the center of the tips and ran the line from the center point of the end to see if my board was perfectly square. It was, thank goodness. If it is not square,I would haveto cutmy limbtappers accordingly and keep the middle of the tips inline with the middle of the handle area.



I dont have the pics, because I wanted to get the back and core glued up last night, so ill just explain how I did my belly tapper and limb tapper. For the limb tapper, I measured 4" from my fades and marked a line perpendicular across the boards bellyon both ends of the board. I then made a mark 1/4" on each side of my midline mark on the tips. This way Ill have a total 1/2" tip. I like thick tips because it gives me plenty of material to remove during the fine tuning. I then make a few reference lines perpendicular along the limb so I could measuer the tapper on each side to insure they are the same. To get my tapper, I simply connect the line I made 4" off the fade (on theedge of the board)to the markes I made on the tips (1/4" from midline), with a straight yard stick and drew a line connecting the two. Did this on both sides. After drawing the line, I use my reference marks and measure the distance from the limbtappers to the edge of the board on both sides, just to insure my tappers are the same on both sides of the limb. I do this for both limbs. Then cut out the tappers with my bandsaw. I cut near the line, not on it, and use the belt sander to sand it down to my line.


Belly fade; I place my board sideways in my vice so I can draw my belly fade on the core. I measure 1/4" from the back of the core at the tips. I then use a yard stick to make a line for my belly fades. I do this by placeing the yard stick on the side of the core (on my fade line at the belly edge) connecting it to the 1/4" mark I just drew at the tips. I then connect the two dots with a pencile. I now have a line the runs from the belly of the core, at the end of the fade, slopeing down to the 1/4" mark. I do this on the other three sides of the bow and cut out the belly fade with my bandsaw. I then use the sander to grind it down to the line. I also keep up with the thickness with my calipers to make sure my tapper lines are true as I grind it. I also use the calipers to insure my limbs are flat so when I glue on the belly lams, I will have to have a perfectly smooth matting surface. As Im doing this, I floor tiller it to a smooth arch, this will help me bend it into the R-D shape and make tillering a bit easier.

Here is the cut out core when was all done.




Oh, let me digress. Some thing important about the boo, I forgot to mention. When you cut your boo, you want to make sure your last nodes on either end. line up at equal distances on the two limbs. Here is a pic so you can see how my last nodes end up equal on each end of the core.


The nodes do not have to be on the ende exactly, it just happened with this piece of boo.