My First Tiller

[snibbling]

Hello, My name's Scott and am a future master bowyer! Actually not to sure about that last part     :D    

I registered for this forum back in December, and thought that its finally time for me to introduce my self. I had never had anything post worthy until now. I am 25 and live in NJ. I am new to bow making and am getting into this as a hobby. Over the past 2 month's I have slowly been gathering all the necessary tools and learning the most I can, and making the needed jigs.

I have finally made it to the tillering stage. I took this picture today(3/17/12). I am making it from a piece of Red Oak that I purchased at Home Depot. I was able to find a piece that had very nice and straight grain so I am going to attempt to complete this build with no backing.

Below is a picture of it on the tree I made, pulled to 18". I took this picture just for the sake of taking a picture- also wanted to get a feel for how it worked. Have not yet started the tillering process, I still need to complete my gizmo.

   
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[psychmonky]

Scott,

Welcome to the site! There is a ton of info here and literally centuries of combined experience. I wish I would have found this site sooner.

As for the tiller, your background is a bit "busy" so my ADD is going haywire, but the right limb looks a bit stiff. Also, you should shape that riser a bit so that you have a gradual transition between the riser and the limb. The more experienced guys can explain it better, but the abrupt edge you have on your riser now concentrates all the force of the bending limb right there at that one spot rather than dispersing it gradually up into the riser. Like I said, hopefully someone who really knows their stuff will chime in with a better explanation.

Don't pull any further than you have to...once you spot a problem, fix it before pulling further.

Good luck! Red oak with no backing can be fickle.

[mwosborn]

Hi Scott - welcome. Agree with psych on the riser.  Also a picture of the back of the bow will help the experts make suggestions for tiller.  A pyramid vs. a parallel will be different.  Enjoy the ride!

[PEARL DRUMS]

You may as well rasp that handle back off and make a bendy handle bow. Start with 3/4" thick boards so that you have the fade build up you need. Have a look at most of the other bows on here and you will see. Or go to the many build-a-long websites. As is, your riser will most likely pop off regardless of the glue used.

[red hill]

Welcome, Scot. You will indeed learn a great deal here.
I have to agree the others.
Check out 4rest trekker's "so you want to build a bow" build-along. It's the best I've seen.
Stan

[snibbling]

Here is my progress so far after some tillering with the long string.

In the first picture, I have the bow pulled down to 20". It still needs work. I can see the right side of the bow is a bit more stiffer than the left. I think it might be time for me to start tillering with a short string?

The middle picture is my bow unpulled. The set on the tips right now are about 7/8" at the bowyer knot, and 6/8" at the flemish knot. Give or take an eigth- the floor I measured on wasnt perfectly level.

The last picture on the right is the back of my wood. Took the best picture I could.

The bow is 67" in length. It used to be 70" but after I started cutting the nocks, I realized that I did them backwards! Had to cut 1.5" off each end. My draw length is about 31"

           

[SteveD]

Hey Scott. Looks like the outer limbs need some scraping. Also looks like you can go to a short string and get it to brace height.

[OzarkMatt]

Hi Scott, great work so far. You should take a rasp and dish your fades a little so that they transition very smoothly into the limb. Also, do you know about the ol' block of wood trick? Basically, take a 4" pice of wood and run it along the belly of your bow. Watch the gap between your bow and the wood. If the gap increases, your bow is bending too much there, if the gap decreases, your bow is too stiff there. Hope this helps