3pc take down woes

[kiltedcelt]

Man! So, I've been working on this 3pc recurve using a Binghams plan. I finally got my limbs done but had a bunch of hassle there with one limb that had a little bit of twist because I didn't grind it to shape cleanly enough. Also, I used their jig to get the limb bolt holes drilled in the riser and in both cases somehow the pins ended up not lining up properly, so I ended up drilling a new set of holes for the limb pins. I guess I'll have to fill the other holes in. I finally got around to shaping the riser as well. The riser is white oak (seriously heavy, dense stuff), with a center I-beam section of ash. I probably can do a little bit more grinding with the old rasp to get the riser whittled down some more, but man - that thing is heavy! All the bows I've made up until now were a handful of board bows and a couple BBI R/D bows. Those of course were WAY lighter than this recurve is shaping up to be. Honestly, I think I'll finish out this bow but seriously, to my thinking there is WAY too much hassle building a 3pc T/D. I thought I'd save myself some grief by not having to try to store over sized bow forms for one piece bows, but man - never again! I see so many really beautiful looking 3pc bows, but I think the other factor for me is that I'm doing all of this stuff in my apartment. When I need to make a mess with one of my power tools I have to drag it outside onto the landing or the walkway beside the apartment. So, I don't have the shop facilities you guys have which makes things harder for me. Maybe some day when I have some real shop space I'll try a 3pc again. The main thing I don't like is there's too much engineering. I like my bows to be simple to make. So, for me it's going to be back to all wood and I'll be making myself a new BBO r/d and a Hill style BBO with a slightly reflexed profile.

[Greg Szalewski]

The first one is a slow process and lots of learning by error. Sound like you have change the riser to make less mass. Don't give up.

[TimZeigler]

yeah, your experiencing the woes of all 3 piece builders.  I'm on number 5 and still haven't worked out the kinks.  The binghams jig although pretty decent still leaves alot of room for error.  Most will mark and drill the bolt hole, mount the limbs, run a straight line tip to tip, then drill the locater pin thru the limb pads.  Just cover up holes with an overlay.  There are others that put alot of time in building jigs that work great and don't require you to drill thru the limb, but they also have ways to make there limbs and risers spot on prior to drilling the holes.  If your off a little on each side, you'll compound the issue by double when done.

As far as riser mass, weight and comfort is in the eyes of the shooter.  Take off the wood that doesn't belong there, and when you happy with the feel and look, then your done.  Each wood will have its own properties so not all designs work for all wood types.  Thats part of the fun of it.

Post some pics, lets see what ya got.

[Mike Most]

If you like the glass concept, you might try one of their one piece longbows, They are significantly easier to construct, light in the hand and fun to shoot....

I've made a couple of takedowns and dont take em apart....so I stay with the one piece my 2 cents.

Mike

[milehi101]

I have built several Bingham 3 piece takedown longbows and used their drill jig with good results.  The set up of the jig needs to be correct and I drill all the holes with a drill press.  I have built extra limbs for the bow I have now and drilled the limbs using the jig and they fit perfect.

[Pennsyltuckey pete]

The Binghams jig is only as accurate as you set it up.  Don't give up! To set it up accurately I put a thin piece of steel between the limb and the jig screws and then use a magnifying glass and a scribe to put the lines on the riser and the limb and line it up with the jig.   measure and check it 5 times. then come back an  hour later and check it again.  With my 52 year old eyes it is the only way! I have gotten good results using my regular hand drill this way.  Drill press is nice but not required.

pete

[Joey V.]

The 3 piece is easier than a one piece and let me tell you why I think this.  Simply if one piece gets screwed up say like your one limb you ground wrong just make a new one for that limb...  If you badly jack up a limb on a one piece you now have a great walking stick.  Bingham’s jig is not great because of design and the fact that if your riser is not PERFECTLY strait and square on all sides the tips will not be strait to each other at all.  A tiny difference means a ton.  I scribe my center lines with a thin razor blade and metal ruler never use a pen like in his videos the thickness of the pen tip can and usually will cause issues.  as for your shop you need one for sure it would make a build easier because you will concentrate more and take ur time. I started with the Bingham system and them created my own tweaks to build what I consider to be a great bow. This process costed me thousands of dollars and a ton of curse words later but it was worth it in the end.  My 3 piece R/D bows are in the top 10% for speed with the rest of the professionals and they are DEAD in the hand. Keep building them you will get it for sure. As for the Jig I created my own but for now drill the limb bolt first, straiten the tips, Clamp and screw down and drill through the limb pad and into the riser and it will be perfect.  If you want 2 sets of limbs then it get tricky to match the holes up. I also build muzzloaders and use Inletting Black to mark the stocks so I know where to carve out for inlays.  If you put inletting black on the riser pins and limb bolt area and touch the new limb to the black paint you now have a perfect drill point reference.  
Good Luck keep building them...

[jess stuart]

Don't let oversized forms keep you from building a one piece recurve.  The very first bow I built was a one pc, used a half form.  Glued up one limb and glass about half way up on the riser.  Turned it around and glued up the other limb.  I put the belly splice where the grip cut out would be, on the back the splice was removed when I shaped the riser.  A full length one pc. built on a very small form, the limbs naturally matched perfectly.  Believe it or not that was how the instructions said to do it and they stated that is was a superior way to build a bow. The oven was much smaller also, it had a cutout in one end to side the form and bow through to heat cure the glue.  

I guess I am really saying that where there is a way there is a method that will work.