My very first riser build (ILF)

[8leg-lover]

Hi gang,

I just got into the ILF game and could not find a riser that I really liked or could afford. I am a hunter and wanted to have a setup that would fit the bill. I love the idea of being able to swap out limbs from recurve to longbow, different weights, etc. I like shorter bows so I thought I would go with a 15 inch riser. I already had two sets of T******H recurve limbs (45's and 50's). My initial goal for this riser was for it to be very functional and hella strong. This being my first one, I didn't know how pretty I could make it.

I apologize in advance for not having a lot of pics for this build. I didn't think about documenting it until I got started.

Here's my first pic. This was my initial glue up. Let me fill you in on the details. Most of my material came from Big Jim's Bow Company. I started with a 2x3.5x18 inch brown/black actionwood riser block, a 72 inch piece of Gordon's composite core-tuff glass (.030), and a few pieces of 1/8 inch black phenolic.

   

Here it is after I pulled it out of the oven and ran it through the planer to clean it up.

   

Here's a close up of the phenolic and glass. I may have over done it, but like I said, I wanted it to be strong. I didn't want to mess with doing an I beam so I stacked it up throughout the length of the riser.

   

[8leg-lover]

Next I used my radial arm saw to cut the 17 degree angles for the limb beds. I cleaned this up on my belt sander and made sure the cuts were square. Now I was ready for some more glass and phenolic.

 

I made a form out of a 2x4 to help get a good glue up. My first glue up turned out awesome so I didn't want to screw it up now.

 

 

I added a piece of cardboard on top of the glue up to make up for any imperfections in my form to make sure I had a nice, tight joint.

 

[8leg-lover]

After this glue up came out of the oven I cleaned it up again using my portable thickness planer.

 

Next it was time to install my ILF hardware. I got these from the big auction site. They were $30.00 and I was impressed with the quality. I made a DIY router table and attached my Porter Cable to it with a 3/4 inch channeling bit. I used a piece of angle iron for the fence and a wood block for my stop. I screwed the makeshift table to my work bench for stability. I must say this was the one part of the project I was most nervous about. The ILF hardware had to be perfectly straight and inline from end to end. I took my time to get the fence square and in the perfect position and then clamped it down. With each pass I only removed about an 1/8 inch of material. Once I got close I started test fitting the ILF hardware. I continued making passes until the ILF piece was perfectly flush with the riser.

A WORD OF CAUTION HERE: When routing the opposite side (the side to the left of the router bit). The opposite side of the riser has to be routed with the same side touching the fence as the first side. This insures both ILF's are in perfect alignment. Be very careful to have good control of the riser while routing from the left. The bit will be spinning the opposite way in relation to the fence and will want to throw the riser away from the fence. Taking your time, making shallow passes, and a sharp bit will help with this. Sorry about the next two pics, my computer wouldn't let me rotate them for some reason.

 

 

[8leg-lover]

Mission accomplished!!

 

Here I was figuring out the best way to secure the rest of the phenolic for the final glue up. I needed 5/8 inch of material built up at each end to have the proper height for my limb bolts and ILF threaded sleeves.

 

I drew out a rough idea of how I wanted the riser profile to be and took out some material to get a better clamping angle on my wood blocks. I also drilled and tapped the riser for the limb bolt inserts, epoxied them in, and screwed the ILF plates in place

 

At this point I wanted to see how the strung profile was going to look. I put the 45's on and brought her to a 7 1/4" brace. I was getting excited!    

 

And at 28". An interesting side note here: My 45's and 50's are identical limbs other than weight. The weight rating for both sets are supposed to be gauged off of a 17" riser. So I would expect the 45's to come in at 50 lbs or so. They are 45 on the nose at 28". The 50's showed 55 at 28" which is what I expected. Anybody have this happen?

 

[8leg-lover]

Time for the final glue up! I clamped my keeper blocks in place, and glued up three pieces of 1/8" phenolic, and one short piece of 1/4" phenolic on each side to give me my 5/8". Got everything in placed and put it in the oven.

 

Got it pretty close to being shaped here.

 

 

 

[8leg-lover]

Finish sanded and ready to spray!

 

My finish of choice. I love this stuff for bows!

 

Now I get to see the real beauty of what I made!

 

 

[8leg-lover]

After the finish dried I made a string and put on the 45# Black Max limbs. I set the brace height at 7 1/4". It's 56" tip to tip. The tiller was even so I left it alone for the time being. I went outside to 15 yards and let fly three arrows.

 

It looked like I had the right spined arrows for it so I went back in and put soft Velcro padding on my limbs and added string silencers. I came back out and immediately started bare shaft tuning. This setup loves Axis 500's with 200 grains up front giving me a 480 grain arrow. I bare shafted out to 25 yards with awesome results! I cannot be happier with how the riser turned out, especially being my first one. It's an absolute joy to shoot and quite as a mouse! With the short overall length it's going to be an awesome hunting bow!

This pic is my last shot at 35 yards before heading off to work.

 

I hope you all enjoyed the build.

The full draw pic.

 

[kennym]

Excellent job Carl!  

[bowhntineverythingnh03743]

Awesome job Carl! ^5

[Roy from Pa]

Very nice work..

[monterey]

Nice work!

It seems as though the bolt threads are simply tapped into the riser.  Is that correct, or do you seat a threaded insert into the riser?

[litoduk]

good job and very nice, is that shoots well: D

[8leg-lover]

Thanks for all the kind words guys!

monterey - You have to thread the riser with the appropriate tap (I believe it was 1/2")then screw in the double threaded inserts (from Bingham's) with epoxy on the threads.

[MR BILL SHORTY]

       

[macbow]

Great job making and displaying.

[Trux Turning]

Great job! Looks like a shooter.

[bigbob2]

Generally not a fan of ILF risers as they can look 'clunky' but this is seriously nice. Workmanship is top notch!        

[mikkekeswick]

Nice    Good effort on that it came out really well.
I'm just about to start designing my first three piece and have been wondering whether to use ILF fitting or the old style pins etc you can get from Binghams. I think it makes sense for me to use the ILF system from the start.

[BenBow]

Very nice and glad everything came out well for you on your first one.    

[Mad Max]

Looks good to me

Is that action wood left over from the fire , or does someone still make it?