Fixing riser gap?

[simonlongbow]

Hello Everyone,

I am from the Netherlands and new to fiberglass bow making. I purchased Bingham's recurve kit but wanted to make a different kind of recurve. Now, when doing a dry glue-up with the airhose, there is a small gap between the transition of the fade to the limbs. The fadeout is pretty smooth. Could I have left to much space between top and bottom mold at the fade (1")? How to fix this? Can I put a little spacer between the hose and the top mold to push the fadeout more?

Thanks a lot. I really admire all those nice projects to view here,

Simon

[Moen]

Try a spacer. But if your hose is "flat", i dont think it will help much. The fadeout must be "paperthin"

[strungstick]

Try to add some spacer blocks of various sizes to see if that works first.  You could also add a supplemental clamping system at the fade outs like inner-tube bands.  The problem I have with this system is that you can't see if the gap is tight as you add pressure (the bands get in the way).  Make sure your fade out transitions are smooth and very thin.

[simonlongbow]

Well, thanks a lot for the fast awnsers! I will try to make my fades a little thinner and more gracefull if it is possible. The spacer blocks can be of wood? Do they have to follow the topmold curve a little?
Thanks,

Simon

[Russell S.]

when sanding the fads, it really helped me to back it up with a 2X4 i got them thin enough to see light thru for the last 1/2 and inch or so.  Look at some of APEX's builds that is where i got the idea from.

[strungstick]

No, they don't have to follow the curve of the top mold, but a little curve will help the hose bend without putting a kind of "kink" in it.  I had one longbow form that I always had to use spacer blocks on no matter how I did the fades.  I changed my longbow forms over to clamps because of wanting to better control the clamping pressure in the fade out areas.

[simonlongbow]

Ok, thanks a lot for the input and help.
I just glued up my first glass bow with the advise from here. I made the fades more thin and gradual and used some little wooden blocks as spacers to make de hose more flat at the fades. Tomorrow I will see the results!

Thanks,

Simon