introduction and tiller question.

[Inuumarue]

Well here it goes.  I'm the classic lurker, reading every post, trying to learn, and of course oogle at awesome pictures. But now it seems that I need some advice, so out of the shadowy wood-work it is.

Brief intro. I'm Adam, a material science and engineering student at Virginia Tech, also the archery club president(guess I'm in the right place).  I love to shoot, and have done so for years. But now I'm afraid the bow making bug has bit.  Pretty good set of jaws to boot.

I've made attempts at bows, a few years ago, and those ended up as splinters and twine in short order.  So now, after lurking for a few years on various forums and picking up the TBB series I've jumped back into the game.  And of course, my first (might as well be) bow is proving to be a bit of a pain.

To get to the bow, shes a hickory backed jatoba longbow.  Rectangular cross section, semi-stiff handle, 1 1/8th at the handle, 1/2 at the tips. She has a fair amount of propeller twist (most likely from the glue-up or I overlooked it in the board) which is proving to be rather stubborn. I tried to get it taken care of first, however when I changed the tiller I lost all my work, so I'm thinking I need to get the tiller right with some weight to spare and then work out the twist.

As for tiller, I think I'm a tad stiff near the handle. But to be honest I would feel better with some second opinions on her. (if the photos work)
Top is to the left.

Brace ~5.5"
 

Full draw 55#@29
 

And over lap, bottom limb is the stiffer, shadowy one.
 

I put a few arrows through her at about half draw and she has some wicked hand shock. I'm sure the twist has something to do with it, but I don't know how much of it is the twist, my tiller, or some other variable.  She also took 2 inches of set, my guess is high humidity, thin limbs, my tillering, and a few over draws(my mistake) are all playing their role in that.
 
Anyway, any advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated. I'm all ears.

Adam

[scrub-buster]

That is called whip tillered.  If it was mine, I would try to get a lot more bend out of the first third of each limb.  Just my opinion.

[walkabout]

i agree, the area near the fades needs to bend more. also the tip width has alot to do with handshock, how wide are they?

[Inuumarue]

Alright, so first third, I can do that.  As far as tips go, they're about 1/2" and rounded up a bit. the tips after the nock have been reduced considerably. I have two pictures, but its before I rounded them and took some of the mass off.

 

 

[Pat B]

Your tips should be fine. Get the limbs bending more near the fades. Ideally you want the limbs to begin bending in the fades; the transition area between the rigid handle and the working(bending) limbs.

[Eric Krewson]

Did you catch my thread on making a tillering gizmo? If you had one it woud be making some major marks on the inner third of your limbs.

 http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=001047#000000

[John Scifres]

All your bend is in midlimb.  Mark that with a big "NO" and then scrape inner third 20 times and outer third 10 times, exercise 30 times to weight and then check tiller again.  Repeat until something changes.  Adjust where you scrape and repeat until she comes round.

[Inuumarue]

Alright, tiller attempt 2. Worked around the handle, still need a bit more on the lower limb (right side)  and possibly out by the tips?  

 

I'll have to make one of those marking thingies, I've been using a block and eying the gap so far.  Shes dropped weight, 40@28, still staying at 2 inches of set. I'm still happy, first bow to survive brace, I'll take what I can get.

[Osagetree]

You're getting closer now, right still needs to catch up to the left.