Trad Gang
Main Boards => The Bowyer's Bench => Topic started by: BMorv on March 20, 2017, 10:43:00 AM
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I'm in the process of tillering this R/D yellow heart/bamboo bow. It has retained a good bit of reflex and I'm having trouble getting it to a low brace (3-4"). It has more reflex than any of my other bows and I believe it's because I used heat as well as glue to induce the R/D. I was able to get it braced at around an inch then I got the limbs moving out to 18" as seen in the picture. I then shortened the string and tried to brace it higher and there was no change in brace height.
Is there a trick to bracing bows with a good bit of reflex? I shortened the string twice and it kept the 1 inch brace.
Also, as you can see in the picture, the right mid limb developed a twist when pulled. The tips line up pretty well with the handle at the low brace. Should I even worry about this twist?
Any comments on the tiller thus far are welcome as well. This is taking on a shape that I'm not used to.
(http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q488/bmorvant1/IMG_2611_zpstwqg9msd.jpg)
(http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q488/bmorvant1/IMG_2615_zpsyf7bdv8z.jpg)
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That looks like trouble. You do have way too much reflex there. You could try heat to get some of it back out as you've got nothing to lose by trying.
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Well that's not good news.
After looking at your tri lam build alone it inspired me to set up my form like I did. I guess I went a little too much on the reflex.
You don't think it will pull some of the reflex out when I tiller farther or get it to higher brace?
I'm scared to heat the bow again after it has been glued. I used Unibond 800
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It will pull some reflex out when tillering, but I don't think it's going to work out. I've heated bows after glue up with unibond, no problems. Concentrate the heat "Mostly" on the belly side and a little on the boo side, like 80% to 20%. All you can do is try to save it.
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Does that look a little better? I was able to take out about an inch of reflex. I tried for more but about half of it came back.
How long should I wait before pulling on it after heating?
(http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q488/bmorvant1/IMG_26181_zpsd5kalxl3.jpg)
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It's a little better but the problem is all your reflex starts at one spot. It should have a slow gentle transition into reflex. All you can do is try to tiller it and see what happens.
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I would be careful in the fade area you may end up with to much bend there. To bad about the twist, I have built some nice tri-lams only to find out later that they twisted like 20 degrees.... I hate that.
:scared:
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Yeah that makes sense about the reflex in one spot. Of the failures that I had on this type of bow they have all been right in the spot where it transitions to reflex.
Wolftrail, I'll look out for the fades. It does have 1" deflex and I pre bent the handle to achieve this, so it may look like more bend than is actually there. I do have a power lam so hopefully that will help.
Did you do anything about the twist, or just lived with it?
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I got this one tillered out to 28". It came in a little under weight at 45 lbs. I would have liked to get the outer 1/3 working more but it was pulling nicely, and I could tell it would be under weight so I left it. It shows a negative tiller but it pulls in a straight line for even limb timing as Roy does. Surprisingly, it hasn't taken that much set.
Do you think I should try and work those outer limbs more or can I just leave well enough alone?
(http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q488/bmorvant1/IMG_2624_zpsfy5sqk0b.jpg)
(http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q488/bmorvant1/IMG_2622_zpsix2iyxpv.jpg)
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And I forgot to mention that I believe when I re-heated the belly to take some of the reflex out it heat treated that area. I could tell that it was stronger than the surrounding areas. That is also partly why it retains reflex at draw.
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Shoot it.
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Almost sounds like the guys from around my area: "Choot' Em !"