tip overlays and limb fade

[Justin Falon]

How do you fade your tip overlay material into your limb?  I always get a "bump" on mine and am wondering how you guys get them to gently fade into the limb.  Thank you.

justin

[TNstickn]

Sand them first to a taper just as they would be finished, makes for less sanding/shaping. I also started using smooth on to glue them on with. It helped get that seamless transition without sanding the glass much. Never had any problems with epoxy or super glue except the transition was never as smooth as I liked. Takes a little more time setting up, but the results are worth the wait.

[bjansen]

I agree. I just went to smooth on for the same reason.  I previously used 5 minute epoxy.  

The steps i take to get seamless tips are as follows:

1.  Glue the overlays on with smooth on, while the limbs are slightly oversized.

2. Rough sand with the belt sander (rigid oscilating to get somwhat close.

3.  Finish sanding by hand with 100, then down to 220.

then reduce limb width (it helps if you accidenly round the edges of the limb at the fades.

best of luck

[Bob Sarrels]

These guys are right,  you are gonna have to get into the glass just a bit to get a really nice fade.  Its not a proble if you are really gentle.  Less proble on the overlay than the tip because at that point  on the bow the limb is really not working.  Be more careful on your tips and take them down as close to finised as possible before the glue up.  Smooth On. yes yes

[manfromthepast]

I used to use the same chainsaw file that I use to cut in the string nocks.  When I got into the Smooth On ooze out between the glass and the overlay, I would wrap the chainsaw file in 100 to 220 grit paper depending upon how close I was to the glass and proceed more slowly.  Longbows are a lot easier than recurves just because of the difficulty of properly supporting the piece in the right position.  I now use a Dremel to do the rough work and then switch over to the sandpaper wrapped chainsaw file.