Question about broken lams

[matt_w]

I'm in the process of making my 3rd recurve and just encountered a setback. I was going to start gluing up a bow tonight and when I did my dry run in the press, the lams snapped in half. I am using Bocote lams, parallels being .09 and tapers being .120. The color of the lams was too yellow for my liking so I used a powder dye that I got from Bingham's to darken them up a little bit and they looked great. After drying I gave them a good wipe down with acetone to make sure any residue was gone and I would say I went pretty heavy on the acetone just to be on the safe side. The lams were sitting in my apartment at room temp the past 3 weeks since I got them in the mail. My question is, what would cause them to just snap the way they did? I'm assuming they were too dry and am wondering if that would be a result of the acetone or the powder dye possibly or maybe I just got some dry lams when I ordered....I have used the dye before with veneers when using actionboo lams. Am i better off just sticking with action boo and veneers over using the bocote lams? I appreciate your help, I'm scratching my head on this one.

[Dmaxshawn]

Not sure how or why the lam would snap like that.  I used acetone on an oily wood like bocote.  It only took me once to figure out why I wont ever use it again.  It delammed after glue up.  Just a thought about your lams dont know where they came from or who you ordered them from but.  Heres something to ponder yes you had them inside your apartment but the humidity is more than likely really low in ND compared to where they came from.  that could have caused them to dry out to quickly and get brittle

As for the glue up I  would stick to A-boo cores and a bocote veneer.  Best of luck to you Bud

[matt_w]

Thanks for the help. That may very well be what happened....does acetone typically dry wood out too?

[7 Lakes]

Did they snap going up the riser or in the curve.  Reguardless, unless you have some kind of really steep angle going on they should not have snapped.  Too dry is the most likely culprit.

[Dmaxshawn]

Acetone will bring out oils from within the Lams to the outside surface.

[bamboo]

probably a grain defect--runout maybe--I doubt it was the acetone or the dye
I guess you just can't bend every piece of wood?!?
be glad it didn't happen at full draw after all that work!!

[matt_w]

Well not entirely sure what caused it but I have new lams on the way and I'm gonna get started when they get here. Thanks for the help guys. I just wanted some input on what could have been the cause and you guys are probably right on it not being the acetone or the dye. Thanks