fiberglass damages

[coachA]

Is it possible to repair fiberglass? I have a an old bear bow that is a great bow and it has a thin peice of fiberglass that has broken loose on the back of the limb. The laminations are NOT sepereating! Would it be possible to fix it or if it cant be fixed could it be shot still? I will try to get some pics of it put on here in the next day or so.

[coachA]

The peice is about 1/16 to 1/8 of inch wide, about 8 inches long and about as thick as half a finger nail. I runs down the back of the limb.

[Bjorn]

Fixing glass on the back generally is far more successful than on the compression side. Some Locktite 420 ought to do the job.

[coachA]

Can it be fixed if it is on the face of the bow?

[Bjorn]

I have had very little success fixing glass on the front (face) of the bow. It usually pops back up again. Maybe send an email to bowdoc?

[oldbohntr]

420's the stuff.  Yeah, the compression side is worse than the back side.  My guess is that a long sliver like that will have sort of a long lever arm to want to keep pulling away again.  On the other hand,it's a bigger glue surface, so....  Have had some success fixing cheaper recreational bows for newbies and kids by actually removing that sliver (cutting it off)and pouring 420 into the gap. Not a cosmetic solution, however.  

The most dramatic one I had was a 57# Bear Cub from the mid-fifties.  It was missing a chunk of glass on the back side....about 4" long x 1/4" wide and nearly the full depth of the glass lam.  As a test I poured 420 into the gap-it soaked in of course-and then I put a piece of shrink-tubing over the hole, so that the ends of the glass fibers wouldn't be able to raise.  The crazy idea worked! Didn't look too bad from a distance: black shrink tubing on black glass.  I shot a couple hundred arrows from it and then sold it for $25.  It was a very good shooter.  The guy that bought it sent a picture about two years later of himself and a deer he killed with it! You never know until you try.