Bowyers-tools/techniques for profiling the back of a riser.

[Holm-Made]

How do you guys profile the back of the riser to fit a one piece form.  I'm talking a radiused riser section and not a straight one.  Does anyone use a jig?  Roller guide on bottem of a drum?  Chad

[Jason Kendall]

Chad, you use a profile sander of course!  

Actually, I just use my spindle sander to take it down to my line I traced off my form. Brandon Stahl made a big vertical belt sander into a profile sander with a bearing on the bottom of one end drum so he can just clamp a riser in a jig and roll it along the edge, perfect fit every time! I have a big 89" JET and am going to try and convert, maybe if Brandon sees this he will post a picture of his. I have tried a drill press sander with a wheel on the bottom and it works ok but not great.

[shaft slinger]

i use the robo sanded in a drill press and a plywood jig, it works but is slow going.
   what Jason said is the way to go

[shantam]

i use a table router with a huge ballbearing.
my riser is on a jig which runs along the ballbearing.
takes a minute or to to finish.

shantam

[Holm-Made]

Shantam, does the router "tear out" wood or does it leave a clean cut?  Chad

[shantam]

i does leave a clean cut.
the survace is way to smooth to glue it up,
but a few strokes with 40 grit paper will rough it up preaty quick.since i going to shape a few risers today i can make some pics if you want to.

shantam

[Holm-Made]

I'd sure like to see some pictures.  Thanks,  Chad

[madness522]

Shantam, I would really like to see pics also.  I'm am gearing up to build a long bow and looking for any and all ideas everyone has.

[shantam]

ok,i`m allready charging the batterys of my camera.   :D

[elk ninja]

Lets see some pics of your jigs, etc.
Mike

[shaft slinger]

me too      

[Holm-Made]

Looking forward to the pictures.  

I have a 2" router cutting bit I use for making forms.  Gives me the heebee jeebees just looking at that wicked thing.  Chad

[shantam]

here we go.
the first pic shows the tablerouter with the mounted ball bearing and the Planes head.
     

no we have the jig itself,which is plain simple but fits perfectly in to the bowform.actually that was the hard part of the whole operation.please note the 2 screws with the iron plates and the wooden stopper on left.
     

the next picture showes the start point of the shaping process.you need to press the jig towards the ballbearing untill it stops turning.then slowly move the jig with the riser from right to left.

     

the last pic showes the wooden stopper and the end of the process.
since the planes cut from left to the right,those knives are trying to shift the riser from left to right,no matter how tight you can get the screws or how many you mount on the jig.
without the stopper the riser will slide.

     

i hope this was a help for someone

shantam

[Jason Kendall]

I'm with Chad, very scary! Where did you find a bit that sixe to work with a router? I have seen them for 1" jointer spindles but never a router.

[elk ninja]

Looks like the same concept as a robo sander.
Mike

[Rigs]

I ended up going to the Robo sander due to getting tearout using a patterning bit with my router.  

I do use a template that holds my riser after I get it close with the bandsaw...

Happy hunting,
Jason