New BBB glued up! (build-a-long)

Apex Predator · May 23, 2008, 07:22:00 AM

My next bow is glued up on the form. It is raw bamboo backed, action boo core, and action boo belly. The blank is 1 1/4" wide out to mid-limb and 66" TTT. I have almost 6" of reflex glued in and just a touch of deflex. I figure to lose a couple of inches when I take it from the clamps. I expect this boo belly to take quite a bit of set, and that's why all the reflex. I meticulously tapered both action boo pieces. They are .260 at the handle and both taper to .160 at the tips. I marked the bending section of each piece into thirds and really took my time in getting them both tapered acurately. I have been thinking of radically traping the raw boo on the back before I draw it at all. What do you folks think? I have no power lam glued up yet, and plan to put one on the belly for this one. Any thoughts on doing it this way? I glued it up this morning, so won't un-clamp and clean up until tomorrow a.m. I'm always excited to start a new one!

Next Day

Well I've learned a couple of things this morning. First, when you are trying to rip a piece of osage on the table saw, and you have this nagging feeling telling you that this is dangerous, listen! I had a small piece come off the saw so fast that I never saw, or found it. First, the immediate throbbing pain, and then the blood told me I had screwed up! It's not so bad, but serves as a good reminder that what we love can, and will take from you if you are careless. I will probably lose the nail, but the bone appears intact. Thankfully it wasn't my drawing hand! Second lesson for today is that action boo doesn't loose hardly anything off the form. I lost 1/2" of reflex when I was counting on 2". This is what I have in my newest tillering nightmare. Does anyone need a bamboo leaf spring for their truck?

The glue lines look great, and it doesn't appear to be over 100#, so maybe I can work it out.

I plan to trap the back, narrow the tips, and glue on overlays tomorrow. Right now the riser has been laminated and is setting up. I used osage/ipe/osage/ipe for the riser. She's gonna be a beauty if I can tiller her! I have some elk antler tip overlays ready, but think osage would flow better. What says by bowyer buddies?

SteveD · May 23, 2008, 07:38:00 AM

Boy, Becareful those saw love to eat fingers. Bow looks good so far. I just glued up a Hickory bamboo backed bow. Just need to cut it out and tiller.

pseman · May 23, 2008, 09:01:00 AM

You're becoming a bow-making machine! I really liked your BBI bows. Can't wait to see how this one turns out. What are you going to make the grip from? How about osage in the tips and grip?

Jeremy · May 23, 2008, 10:43:00 AM

That looks like the horizontal laminated boo?? The vertical stuff is what you need for bows. The horizontal stuff is prone to coming apart rather violently.

The tri-lam bows don't lose too much of the glued in reflex.

Apex Predator · May 23, 2008, 10:53:00 AM

That's vertical stuff. You are looking at the edge of the blank. I have laminated a raw boo back to two action boo cores. You can see the raw boo on top.

Big Dave · May 23, 2008, 03:45:00 PM

Where do you get actionboo? David

Apex Predator · May 23, 2008, 04:36:00 PM

I bought this from rudderbows.com.

Apex Predator · May 24, 2008, 09:27:00 AM

This one is coming along so far, but I expect to have some trouble tillering. Slow and easy is the plan. I made a bonehead mistake this morning. I was laying out the riser and located the shelf 1 1/2" above center. You can see three lines. I drew in the lines for the fadeouts, but accidentally used the center line for my upper fade. So now I have one 3" fade and one 4 1/2" fade. I have to think on how I'm gonna fix it. May have to laminate a new riser on. I also trapped the back and laminated a piece to use for tip overlays.

Eric Krewson · May 24, 2008, 11:53:00 AM

I was making a BBO the other day, one limb was two inches too long so I marked the long limb went to the bandsaw and made a cut. The problem was the short limb had a similar mark on it. Bone head cut 2" of the wrong limb. You are not alone!

Apex Predator · May 26, 2008, 07:25:00 AM

Here is the latest progress. I took off about 3/16" of the outer riser laminate and layed out my handle section again. It will work fine. The "C" is for center of the bow. It took a lot of careful work getting these limbs bending to about brace height on a long string. They had lateral stability issues and wanted to twist. I expected that with 6" of reflex! I would remove material from the sides until most of the twist was gone, and then re-trap the boo. I have her braced at 4 1/2" and it looks pretty good to me. I have tillered her out to 38@20 at the short brace. Now I'm worried about weight! She retains 3" of reflex just after unstringing, and then goes up to about 3 3/4" relaxed. I am pleased so far.

Apex Predator · May 27, 2008, 09:33:00 AM

I am finishing this one up. She was quite challenging to tiller, but I have hit it pretty well. She is 46@27 and still retains 3" of reflex after relaxing. She has a hint of a hinge on the bottom limb, but I decided to leave her be. I have stained the whole bow and I regret it. She was really beautiful left in the "white". I attempted to stain just the raw boo on the back, and got a little careless. I will post some near complete photos tomorrow.

Apex Predator · May 28, 2008, 09:11:00 AM

This one is about done. I still have to stitch up a black leather grip and string her up! Couldn't help but take a few photos this morning. Initially I felt bad about staining it, but it has grown on me since.

George D. Stout · May 28, 2008, 10:13:00 AM

That looks pretty darned good to me, partner. I like the stain 8^).

swampjoe · May 28, 2008, 10:36:00 AM

I'm with George, that stain looks pretty cool....

TimZeigler · May 28, 2008, 12:01:00 PM

Alright, which line do we stand in, and how much overtime do I have to work?

Another beauty Apex, keep'em comin!

Jeff Roberts · May 28, 2008, 02:51:00 PM

That stain looks sharp Marty. Is that a leather dye? Been looking and there are a lot of color variations in leather dyes. That could open up a new realm in bow camo.

Apex Predator · May 28, 2008, 03:58:00 PM

Yep. I have been using Tandy's leather dyes quite a bit lately. This one is chocolate with red wiped on over.

Apex Predator · May 29, 2008, 01:27:00 PM

Something happened to the "finished my bamboo backed bow" thread. Here she is again.

Finished my new BBB that I have been working on this week. This one is a tri-lam with raw boo back and action boo core and belly. She turned out way beyond my expectations. Bamboo bellys are known to take lots of set when backed with raw boo. This one started out with 5 1/2" of reflex out of the form and retains a little over 3" after tillering and shooting in. She is a really good performer and very quite and dead in the hand. My best shooter thus far, and that is saying a lot. Bamboo acts differently in all stages of building. It is easy to work with tools, takes a stain readily, and takes quite a bit of set when first un-stringing. The tips are almost even with the back, and then you can watch them recover to 3" reflex within a few minutes. Early draw is light, but shoots harder than my ipe bows. Should be stressed very low at brace. I was really digging the osage and ipe tips and riser and wanted to just darken the raw boo back some and leave the rest natural, because it was really beautiful. I got a little careless on my staining the back, and had to stain the whole bow. I used Tandy leather dye. Chocolate with red wiped over. The deep red is really I catching, and I have grown to love it!