Suggestions for thickness tapering bamboo on bench top belt sander

[kiltedcelt]

Hello all,

I'm getting back into making all-wood bows after a hiatus of a couple years. I'd like to do some stuff with bamboo backing, as I fell in love with that whilst working with a couple of bamboo-backed ipe bows a couple years back. Anyway, I used to just buy the stuff already tapered from a guy I knew, but he doesn't appear to be in business anymore. I was thinking of just buying the bamboo slats from Frank's Cane and Rush and putting a thickness taper on them myself. I have a Hitachi 4x36 bench top sander. It also has a side disc - 9" maybe? Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone has used a sander like this to grind thickness taper for either belly blanks or backing pieces, and if so, what sort of jig did you make? Seems like bamboo presents some special difficulties because of the rounded edge of the rind-side. I know of a guy who has even used a hand-held belt sander to put taper on his 'boo but that seems dicey at best. I'd prefer to ruin as little bamboo as possible. Suggestions welcomed.
Thanks

[Echatham]

Ive only done this once... But it worked well.... I used an electric hand plane.... Basically a hand held joiner.... And hold the bamboo on a piece of foam pipe insulation.  Make a pass on the last 8 inches or so... Then the last 16" and so on  tapers it pretty nicely.  I used that process to taper all the lams in my trilam thats in progress now.

[kiltedcelt]

Thanks for the suggestion Echatham. I think I came to a similar solution. When I used to be able to go to the park district wood shop, the guy that runs it helped me make a sled that we would run through a thickness planer to put tapers on bow blanks. I think I can make a similar sled for bow blanks and bamboo backing and simply have it be stationary, ie. clamped to a workbench which would allow me to run an electric hand planer over the blanks/backing strips. I'll build something up and give it run through and if it works I'll post it here.

[LittleBen]

Tapered sled only tapers the workpiece if the cutting/sanding surface is stationary. If you're holding it in your hand it won't make a difference whether its on a tapered sled or not.

I've done it on the belt sander a couple times and theres not much too it. Just grind away, measure frequently and try to develop a nice even thickness taper.

I've used the hand planer as well, but usually finish up with the sander to make a nice clean gluing surface. I've had problems with the planer pulling up grain in areas.

[John Scifres]

http://web.archive.org/web/20080302181542/http://residents.bowhunting.net/sticknstring/hbbb1.html

I've done it with both a handheld belt sander and a stationary one.  Just take your time and stick with a 120 grit or so belt and you should be able to handle it.  If you cut your backing to shape and then make the side thickness a bout 1/16" then it naturally tapers it.