How much can you sand glass limbs?

[J. Cook]

So I started my first refinish on a T/D. I got all the finish off the riser and it has turned out great with about 6 coats of wipe on poly so far. On the limbs, I was scared to sand too much and risk reducing weight or affecting tiller. However, now that I've done a few coats of finish on them...I can easily see that I did not get all of the old finish off.

How much is "too much" sanding on glass limbs before I start changing the characteristics of the bow? I'd rather have ugly finish than lose poundage or mess up the tiller. Thanks for any help!

That's a pretty hard question to answer. Is the glass .030 or .050, or what?

You can get a majority of th old finish off sometimes by scraping with an old dull knife.

Bisch

[J. Cook]

I honestly don't know the thickness - I want to get all the old finish off, but was worried that in the process I'd be risking losing weight.  I guess my question is how much can the glass take before they start to lose poundage or even possibly tiller?  It's my first refinish, so I'd rather be too conservative than too aggressive.

The riser looks awesome, but like I said - once I started to put finish on the limbs again I can see easily that I didn't get all the old finish off.  Just wanted confirmation that I can indeed keep sanding until all the old finish is gone and not damage my limbs?

Idk how to answer exactly how much you can sand off? If you get to sanding it, you can spray it with alcohol to check if you got all the old finish off. The alcohol will make it look like it has finish, and show you where you still need to sand some more. The last one I refinished, I lost about 1/2# of draw weight.

Bisch

[wingnut]

Sometimes it takes very little sanding to change the tiller on a bow and other times it takes a ton.

You just have to be aware and check it when you get it stripped and sanded and before you put another finish back on.

If it moves a little just sand the other limb a bit, exercise and check again.  Not real hard to do.

Mike