Bow Building - I glued it up !! UPDATE PICS
 

Guys.......

Well - I glued it up today.......My R/D Longbow / Hybrid whatever ya wanna call it ! man it was a little stressful being my first one... a laminate got out of place but I believe I am still ok its near the tip.... Seven laminates, AND the 2 riser overlays was a little much for my first try but hopefully things will turn out ok... I think it will......

Ill keep ya posted and get some pics soon. I have to turn off the oven in a little while and let her cool down...... I can wait to pull it out !

Tom

RE: Bow Building - I glued it up !!
 

Make sure you post some pics. Wish I could make a bow but I' m not a wood worker in any stretch of the word.

RE: Bow Building - I glued it up !!
 

I cant wait to see pics. I want to build one this winter, and want to know what to expect. Hope she' s a looker when your done.

RE: Bow Building - I glued it up !!
 

Ok, your killin' us, you' ve had plenty of time to get her out of the oven. :D:D
This is like Christmas, waiting to see what ya got. [:-]

RE: Bow Building - I glued it up !!
 

Yes, eightwgt the glueing of the laminations always seems stressful or to get my blood pressure up. Its a gooey mess, the laminations all want to slide this way and that. I' d being pulling my hair out at this point except I' m already bald!
I always tell my wife If I suggest making another bow, just shoot me. I made my longbow last summer and I' m already thinking about making the same bow except heavier with a wider riser so a regular bow quiver can be added.
I think the glueing is the big pain because you have a time limit to get the job done. You can' t just say I' ll finish tommorrow. Which now you can take your sweet old time.
And CTBowhunter, you don' t have to be a woodworker to build a bow(but I' m sure it helps). Just have determination and take the process slow. I suck at woodworking, I' d rather be making it out of metal, yet I' ve built probably a half dozen bows. And the longbow I have now is the sweetest shooting stick bow I' ve ever shot and I' ve had some big name bows in my thirty years of bowhunting.
So, eightwgt good luck with finishing your bow off.
Dan

RE: Bow Building - I glued it up !!
 

eightwgt, are you still with us? Speak to me!

Dang! Hope the boy is alright. I remember the heart attack I had when I pulled my bow out of the oven.... Eightwgt, there really IS a bow inside that gob of glue!

:D:D:D

RE: Bow Building - I glued it up !!
 

Arthur Im still here - I have been calming down since my glue up ! Man i was SO SO upset after I did it becuase the Bocote veneer slide out on me some but Im going to be ok I belive...... it looks pretty good - my fadeouts could have been tighter though - Ill never use plexiglass again for the pressure strip under the hose..... but I think it will be ok......Im not really sure what gap size(glue line) is considered to much at the fade out....

Anyway - Ill get a pic of it up later... I just started cleanin edges last night, tape is still on... im cleaning her up to see what I got tonight.... start layin out my limbs..... bein a Bowyer can be tough - now I know why they charge 700+ for a nice recurve or longbow !!

Tom

RE: Bow Building - I glued it up !!
 

My friend, the one who let me use his form and hot box, uses a heavy rubber strip on top of thin aluminum for a pressure plate and it makes some good glue lines.

Don' t worry too much about the slid veneer. You can eliminate a lot of glue-up booboo' s by doing some ' creative layout' .

There are at least a dozen mistakes on mine that stick out like a sore thumb. Well, to me anyway. Nobody else seems to notice them. I can' t wait to make another one so I can do a better job of it. ;) Good luck!

RE: Bow Building - I glued it up !! UPDATE PICS
 

Here it pulled and cleaned up a lil

Ill keep posting as I go..... and keep my fingers crossed

RE: Bow Building - I glued it up !! UPDATE PICS
 

Good luck the rest of the way. That is one heck of a lot of reflex in those limbs. Should have a lot of early-draw pull to it. Looks like a smooth-pulling, fast bow is in the works. Keep the updates coming.

RE: Bow Building - I glued it up !! UPDATE PICS
 

Joe

Yes it does have a lil Reflex / Deflex to it huh ! I got the design from Dale Stahl.... He has been coaching me.....and gave me the form pattern - we traded off - He is building a duplicate of the CNC Router I designed - a large 4X8' machine.... so we are exchanging help.

Question for Bowyers - How do you guys like marking your centerline, and then marking the limbs ?? Im looking for all my options because I have to work around a couple of boo-boo' s.... and trying to get the most of the bow afterwards.....

Thanks guys

RE: Bow Building - I glued it up !! UPDATE PICS
 

What I did was first determine what was the max. limb width possible on each limb. Since often a lamination may have slid out of place a tad. I marked a line at each side of the limb(by the tip end of the limb) where I' d have to sand down to for the widest limb possible(determined by how well my laminations were lined up). I measured the distance between these lines to find out which limb I would end up with the least width. I then put a mark dead center between the lines on this limb. I got the bow to lay down on its side, as level as possible,(I had to sand some hardened glue drops off) on a very flat level surface. I then took a block of wood and drilled a hole in it so a black marker " sharpie" fit in the hole tightly and straight. I then planed the block of wood down so the felt tip of the pen was dead on to mark I had on the dead center of the narrowest limb. Then I slid the block of wood across marking a line the entire length of the bow. This I used as my center. I then laid the limb pattern on the new center line and marked the limb to where I wanted to sand down to. I' m by no means an expert at this, but this is how I did it. But since a few of my laminations slid a bit, my limbs ended up being a bit narrower than I wanted, hence the bow is a good 5 pounds lighter than I wanted. But its a nice shooting bow.
Dan