2024 Bow Swap Progress Thread - Open

[Mad Max]

Tonight I got the width profiled and the bow has been cut to length.  I also took a sneak peek at the spalted tamarind veneers on the belly.

Looks cool

[Kirkll]

Lots of good looking stuff going on here....

Quote from: Kirkll on February 20, 2024, 08:45:28 PM
I think you may be right about this fossilized bamboo having shorter woven fibers vs vertical grain with elongated fibers...... But..... Under glass this stuff has proven to be excellent material so far and has decent test results vs the action boo i've used for so long.

Posted by: Jon Lipovac
That makes me wonder if your limb didn't let go on the Belly as there wasn't any glass holding it down from buckling under compression. I think the glass spreads out the pressure over a longer surface area and won't allow a pinpoint fracture or failure.

Actually i wend back and did a frame by frame look at the video and the last lam to snap was the belly, and there was no buckling... I've got a lot of experience with carbon belly bows buckling and shearing the bond from the belly lam. i'm quite certain its the back is what came apart on this last one....

I've got a complete change of attack i'm planning now, and i'll save it until i got limbs bending without fireworks next time to post photos....

Right now i've got a customers bow to concentrate on for a week or so.      Kirk

[Jon Lipovac]

Kirk,
Good to know. Looking forward to what you find out.

[Buemaker]

Rough shaped riser and tip overlays. I am not doing any more with these until I see if the bow will hold together. There is a lot of work to get to this point before you start to bend it. With a glass bow you feel certain that it will hold together, but with an all wood bow it is always a bit

[dbeaver]

Bue I'm green enough to still wince while putting the first string on at brace height.   They earn my trust by the time I'm shooting a few test arrows but I'm uneasy in the beginning

[Jon Lipovac]

That’s looking fantastic Bue.
Great work and always love seeing pics of your shop.

[kennym]

Lookin great Bue, Do I need to send some sawdust for that floor?  Your shop is always immaculate!

I put some overlays on this one but no pics.

I'm getting kinda attached to it so may have to go to plan B for the victim...

[Buemaker]

You should have seen it after I ripped  lots of Ipe lams on the circular saw. That dust is greasy and stics to everything and clogs up filters.

[kennym]

What's Roy always say? Didn't happen without pics...

[Crooked Stic]

Well I ain't got no pitchers bur allI like is writing on the bow and spraying it.

[Jon Lipovac]

Well, late this afternoon I dove into these heavy limbs just to see how much weight I could take off of them. Ended up dropping 13# off of them and I don't feel safe going any further than that.

For reference.
1- I narrowed them up, A LOT, down to 5/8" at the base of string grooves and roughly 1.125 at the end of the butt wedge. Still fairly stable and tracking good. That netted me 4#
2- I sanded about .008 off both the belly and the back for a total of .016 off the working section of the limbs. That netted another 9#

Any further than that and I'm afraid I'm gonna get too thin on the glass without knowing it.

Off to start another set of limbs or I've got another bow that is about half done that I know would hit weight. It's a looker too. I might be able to flush limbs with that one. I've never tried that before.

[Crooked Stic]

What did you use to sand the glass.? I have seen guys use a pneumatic drum on a grinder type setup. I would be afraid of not getting it even .

[Jon Lipovac]

Stic,
That’s my fear as well.
I use adhesive backed 80grit on a wide block so I can hold it as square to the limb as possible. The narrow does of the block on the back and the wider side on the belly.

[Crooked Stic]

That is the way I do it also.Seems to take forever tho. You can about 4 lbs, off pretty easy with aggressive corner rounding. The fade tiller on my trade bow came in about 7/8 stone on the bottom limb. Sanded the belly glass for that.

[Jon Lipovac]

Looks like I’m gonna ditch the original plan and start up again with a different bow that is 50% done and hits weight perfectly.
Bonus is that it is a much better looking bow IMO.
Bocote and Curly Maple with footed veneers and back and belly. I think I’ll try some full overlays that run up the butt of the limbs and limb overlays. I like the looks of those but never tried it.

[Crooked Stic]

When you do the butt overlays just be sure that part of the Limb has no flex,  if it does then you may have a pop-up problem where they fade in.
Don't ask 

[Kirkll]

Well, late this afternoon I dove into these heavy limbs just to see how much weight I could take off of them. Ended up dropping 13# off of them and I don't feel safe going any further than that.

For reference.
1- I narrowed them up, A LOT, down to 5/8" at the base of string grooves and roughly 1.125 at the end of the butt wedge. Still fairly stable and tracking good. That netted me 4#
2- I sanded about .008 off both the belly and the back for a total of .016 off the working section of the limbs. That netted another 9#

Any further than that and I'm afraid I'm gonna get too thin on the glass without knowing it.

Off to start another set of limbs or I've got another bow that is about half done that I know would hit weight. It's a looker too. I might be able to flush limbs with that one. I've never tried that before.

You should run those heavy limbs you brought down 13# through the chronograph bro…. Those typically turn out to be the hottest thing off the bench. 

Btw…. When you are borderline sanding too much glass. Use calipers as you go, and hit the edge of the limbs with spray lacquer . You can see that glass thickness easier.

I use a palm sander with 80 grit for sanding glass to drop weight, but don’t recommend it to others because it’s real easy to screw up a limb. The type of palm sander you use makes a huge difference though. The low profile air sanders have the best balance and control, but I use one of those low profile Mirka electric models successfully.    Kirk

[jess stuart]

One of these three risers just might be for my victim.

[Crooked Stic]

All I got today is a sealed riser.

[dbeaver]

Looking phenomenal Stic.  Wouldn't it be nice if that was headed to the east coast