Draw weight at brace? THANKS!!

[Schmidtster]

Hello, I am in the process of tillering my BBI, right now with the string tight on the belly I am drawing about 11-12" at 55lbs. I'm shooting for anything between 45 and 55. I want to brace but it seems awefully difficult to brace it being around 50lbs. What should my poundage be at brace height approximately? Should I get it down to around 40 at brace?

[Pat B]

Low brace it to 3". If it is still too strong for you to brace, remove wood until you can. Don't pull it any farther than 12" until you can brace it.

[macbow]

I just had some guys out building bows this last week.
Same question came up.
If it's too hard to brace the bow it's probably too heavy yet.
One of the guys after getting the bow to brace pulled it to 28 inches to see,what it weighed. Instant crysals 4 inches from the riser. Had to start over with a new glue up.

[Schmidtster]

Well I got back at er and took some wood off and got it braced to 3" that looked pretty good had some string alignment issues that I took care of and went ahead and took it down a little more and braced it to 7.5". all is well kept on tillering it out and am now sitting at 50 at 21.5 only a few more to go but these last few inches have me nervous haha. "unfortunately" I'm taking off to Yellowstone for a week and than off to hunt elk so its going to gather dust for a while I will keep you posted and hopefully have some pics for your critique. Thanks again

[macbow]

To bad you have to go on vacation,and,elk hunting.    
Most of my backed R/d type bows are only braced from 6 to 6 1/2 inches.

[Schmidtster]

Good to know I will lower my brace a bit, when I get back at it.

[Bowjunkie]

Are you measuring to the belly or back of the bow? Just saying... you guys should make sure you're measuring the same way.

[Roy from Pa]

Before even trying to brace a new bow, you should floor tiller it and get some sort of a nice bend in the limbs. Then get the tight to the belly string on it and work it down the tree till the limb tips are bending to about 6 inches, while looking for any problem areas. Then brace it to a 3 inch brace height and tiller it till the limb tips are bending to about 9 inches while looking for any problem areas, then brace it to a 6 inch brace height and tiller it on out. Anytime you remove wood, you should exercise the bow about 30 times on the tree, to no further than you had it pulled to before. If all looks good then pull it another inch further 30 times. Keep moving down the tree in one inch increments at 30 times each inch till you reach your draw length.

[Schmidtster]

Thanks Roy I am measuring my brace to the handle where the webbing of my hand sits, after I had made this post that's exactly what I did I had it bending quite nice on the floor and long string than strung it tight to the belly and followed those steps until it was braced I will try to get some pics up after looking at them today I can see a flat spot on the right limb I need to work out

[Roy from Pa]

Good deal, Nate. If it's bending and still hard to brace, then it needs more wood removed, Slowly I will add:) Do you have a gizmo tool? If not here is a link on how to make and use one.

 http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000075

[Schmidtster]

I do have a gizmo and have been using it but noticed mine is 4" not six like it says on how to build it, don't think it matters much. Another question I have is do you unbrace your bow every time you take wood off or can you leave it braced?

[Roy from Pa]

I leave mine braced if there is enough clearance for the tools so I don't cut the string. But at a 3 inch brace that is tuff. But I do use a tillering stick to increase the distance from the string to the belly at a low brace height when removing wood.