I'm just a beginner myself. I've participating in the building of two, and made two by myself... one a success and the other I blew up through a stupid mistake. However, I can tell you what I've set up and what proved most useful. I'll feed you a couple of links that will maybe help, but listen most to the more experienced guys :^)
Sounds like you have a bandsaw, hopefully one that is big enough to handle resawing to make your raw lams. Generally, most of the 14" ones will do that. Use a 1/2" or larger blade for resawing, and a good fence system. Of course you can buy the lams, but to me, that's the funnest part of it all.
A 6x48 belt sander if pretty vital... course belt. I just got a 50 grit and it's great.
A spindle sander, preferably oscillating, though a good big drum on a drill press will get you by.
A table saw for cutting riser blanks. I use a Delta contractor saw... nice tool.
A planer is real handy, too.
To me, my most important tool that isn't in most shops is an overhead drum sander. I tried the Performax 10-20 but didn't like its setup and got a Grizzly Baby Drum sander and really love it. I'm finding that if I'm patient it will also do the work I might do with the planer. Most importantly, it will grind your lams.
I've seen setups on this and other sites where guys built an adjustable rig to sand lams to thickness with the belt sander, but I think it takes more finesse as it doesn't have the self feed of the drum sanders.
I just posted a set of pix of my shop tonight... go to the Bowyers Bench section and look for the thread "New Shop Pix and Today's Work"
A form is, of course, vital. I have one that was given to me by JD Berry (who taught me the layup procedure) but recently built my own. Here's a link to that:
http://dickwightman.com/archery/bowyering/buidlingform/buildingform.html I have a ton of information, including that showing my screwups, on my site. Go to:
www.dickwightman.com Select the link: "Archery Activities" Then on that page there is a link to "Bowmaking".. or maybe "Bowyer Activities"... You'll find it. It's got a lot of links, some to huge pages, but explore around and see what you can get from it.
There is an active bowmaking community here if you click into the Bowyer's Bench secton, and also on piratesofarchery.net under the heading "Bowyer's Gallery" All of the guys on both sites are incredibly helpful. Up at the top of the Pirates site there is a section of "Buildalongs" with lots of step by step stuff, bow making and form making.
I've probably given you way more material than you can absorb without a lot of study time, but I can tell you once you start, it's a hoot and a half. I sold 2/3 of my bow collection to finance all my new machinery and don't regret it a bit. Once you've built a successful bow, you will lose all interest in buying bows, so the cost kind of evens out.
Hope this helps, and if you want to talk further, my email is:
[email protected]It's a big field... from the simplest of longbows (my own thing) to the most complex of state of the art super fast bows.
As I said, I'm a beginner, but lots of guys helped me and if I can be of help to someone to pass anything on, I'll feel like I'm only returning the favor.
Topic: getting started (Read 542 times)
