Building a Laminated Recurve Bow with Home Depot Supplies.

[Someguyincali]

Well, I'm officially addicted to bow making. I got started with a few PVC bows, then made a few red oak longbows.  I lay awake at night thinking of ways to make bows.

I don't have a specific design in mind and don't know what the draw weight will be.  The boards before bending are 48" long.  This is an experiment and I have no idea how this will turn out but I am having fun building it while learning.  

I chose bamboo, red oak and alder as the wood for the limbs.  The riser is made from Red Oak, Alder and Walnut.  Here some pics...

   

   

     

Here I cut a concave curve on the back of the riser.  The limbs will curve slightly into the riser.
     

   

     

   

This is the point that I am at now.  Once I get the tips bent I will glue everything up with Titebond II.  I know there are better options out there for glue but I'm trying to do this with material readily available at Home Depot without spending too much.

[mwosborn]

Having fun is good.  Looks like it bent nice for you.

[Someguyincali]

Here's the glueup.  One thing I learned, I was grossly unprepared for the number of clamps I would need.

 

[KenH]

Absolutely nothing wrong with TBII for gluing up wood-wood composite bows.  Best of luck on the rest of the build.

[wood carver 2]

One of the laws of woodworking: you will never have enough clamps.      
The bow's coming out nice.
Dave.

[Someguyincali]

Just made the string for the bow.  It's a flemish twist with 6 strands of 44# masonry string.  I found a way to twist this in about 3 minutes.  

 

[Someguyincali]

Rough work done, now to sand and carve the handle and shelf.

 

[Someguyincali]

Well today is a sad day. The bow broke. I strung it for the first time after getting a pretty decent tiller. But when I drew it to 20 inches the bamboo developed a splinter and the limb snapped near the riser.
     

Also I learned firsthand what "overpowering" means. The bamboo overpowered the red oak. The red oak compressed as much as it was capable an then buckled. The bamboo was more than capable at that point.
   

I'm wondering if the stretchability of bamboo is more suited to the compressibility of alder instead of red oak.

I have another strip of bamboo left so I am going to taper the sides and belly slightly and recurve it without laminating it to anything.  The cut the riser down a bit and will glue it to the new bamboo.

[Someguyincali]

Here is the new bamboo glued to the riser:
 

[fujimo]

trap the back.
I know alder is really brittle- and fragments quite dramatically- have used red alder for furniture etc, its a great wood- for furniture that is!!- do you know which one it is you are using
I think your fades are too steep, and you are getting an abrupt change of compression/tension forces right at the end of the fade.
have a look at "little ben"'s bows on here- he build some pretty radical recurve/hybrid type bows- and he has that fade thing down pat.
you almost need to emulate the wedge in a glass take down bow- where the tip of the wedge actually is working, and the further you get up the wedge the more static it becomes
 http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=012112#000000

[Someguyincali]

Awesome! Thanks for the tips and the link.  I will try Ben's design a little closer on my next bow.

[fujimo]

or just build a bend thru the handle bow   :D  .
I love 'em!
I think it was john scifers that built a nice short osage recurve, that bent through the handle- and I have seen pat b build a few too- they were self bows ( from a single stave!)- but the idea is the same

[Someguyincali]

Alright here is the bow with just the bamboo.  It draws 10# @ 20".  Perfect for a little kid.  Now I will carve the handle.  Perhaps for my youngest two year old.
 

[Nezwin]

I would hazard a guess that your working limb length is too short and your bamboo is too thick.

Pairing bamboo with red oak is rarely a winning combination and I'd suggest you'd want to maximise your working limb length to avoid load concentration. I wrote up a bunch of notes on location of neutral plane/pairing timber properties/trapping limbs here -  http://www.ozbow.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15428

Better luck next time!

[John Scifres]

My wife is an art teacher in an elementary school.  She tries hard with the young artists to emphasize process over product.  This is really tough in our society but it has substantial merit.

It is good that you are practicing the process with inexpensive materials.  Once you get that part down, move on to better supplies and you will get a better product.  Just don't get disheartened along the way.

It is rare (nearly impossible) to achieve a superior product with inferior materials.  But you can certainly have fun along the way.

Thanks for taking us along.

[fujimo]

x2