little help with small bow poundage

[Bradford]

So I attempted a kids bow yesterday and she failed today.  I think my main problem was to thick of lams.  I am making a 48" recurve - 1 1/2" wide.  I have a form made and put dowels in it for holds.

I cut up and "lam'd" up a piece of Hickory for the back and a piece of Maple for the belly.

I had a hell of a time getting pressure to squeeze everything together.  The Hickory was .110 thick and the maple was .80 thick.  I took it out of the press today and there was huge gaps in the fade area.  So my next train of thought is to use thinner lam's and go buy some inner tubes instead of hemp string for better pressure.

At 48".. 1 1/2" wide.. all wood.. anyone have an idea of the stack height to hit say 20 lbs.  My youngest can pull my bow which is 28lbs but struggles a bit.  So figured if I can hit 18 to 20, he will be good.  Might back it with fiberglass cloth.

Thanks for any advice.  This is my first attempt at a one piece.  I have successfully built 4 take down recurves.  But I use the air hose and all the stack heights are available.  Trying to make this easy, but man.

[Mike Most]

Hey Bradford,

This is what I did, for a kids bow, and there are many ways but this worked for me.

Red Oak 48 x 3/4 mainly plain to quarter sawn. sliced a 1/8 strip from the left overs, with the edge grain I flipped it up and glued it down on the back of the bow, (I used 9 clamps and titebond 3)

I profiled the bow proportionately from Sam Harpers site.

I then tillered the belly with (of all things a butcher knife)

Using Eric "Gizmo" I got 22# at 18 inches and a nice D bow shape, I glued a little 3/4 handle on it and wrapped it with suede leather (all ready for Christmas)

I am working on a 54 inch piece 1 inch wide.

Good luck
(all information gleaned from this wonderful place)


Mike

[Loren Holland]

here is the link to the 48" bamboo backed hickory i did.

 http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=004180#000000

When you say. that your bow failed, what do you mean? the gaps upon glue up? did it break? because there could be whole multitude of different things going on.  what size was your riser?  even if its a short draw kids bow, don't forget to shorten the riser proportionately or you shorten the already short working limbs.

i tillered mine to 15 lbs, but if you want a twenty pound bow you should be able to get it out of starting with a 3/8" hickory, especially if you back it like i did. in fact after the boo was on there i took quite a bit of hickory off.

[John Scifres]

Make it 1" wide and 54" long.

[Bradford]

Thanks for the input.  I just made a new form last night for a 54" one piece recurve at 1 1/2".  I figure this way I can make high poundage adult bows and lower poundage kid bows with it.

The gaps at glue up failed Loren.  It did not break, because I never got it strung.  So many gaps at the fades, the recurve and on the handle.

I just broke down and ordered a bunch of fiberglass from Binghams.  They seem to be the cheapest.  I really need to figure out how to make that stuff myself.

I still will try to make an all wood bow with this new form.  I like the idea.