Trying to finish one. Tillering suggestions appreciated.

[Crittergetter]

     this is good stuff!  I definitely need to improve on my tillering skills and will learn from this! Thx guys!

[mwosborn]

I just spent the last hour or more reading a bunch of old posts dealing with this topic.  Sorry to the guys that have been through this 100's of times!  It seems that there are several varying viewpoints on the topic.  I enjoy reading them and trying to learn from them!  I particularly enjoyed this one...from 2009...

 http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=000604

Several of the names I recognize - a few that I do not.

As for my current dilemma - not sure what I am going to do.  I think I will just ponder for a few days.  Once wood is gone it is gone...and I am getting very close to the weight I am after.

Jeff - I will check my measurements on my tree.  My vertical line may be off a bit relative to the cradle.  In addition, hand placement, release, etc. may contribute to hand shock or lack thereof too - lots of variables to deal with!  My goal is to get it shooting "relatively smooth".

My next one - I am going to try and build a bow with a shorter lower limb and see how it works for me.  I think I am hearing that if I am going to try and tiller from above center I should have a shorter lower limb.  If I have equal length limbs maybe I should stick to tillering from center and then adjusting for arrow placement as I near full draw.

I appreciate the comments and help everyone has given!

Mitch

[Echatham]

Jeff... I sure do appreciate you man.  Yes.  my last couple bows have been symmetrical because i was consistently getting more set in the bottom limb.  im done with that now.  I just reread my old thread where we got deep into this stuff... My confusion is lessening haha!  It really takes experience to understand this stuff.

[Echatham]

Mitch... Sorry for hijacking your thread     i personally dont mind reliving this discussion... Though jeff and roy and others might.  I feel like i understand it better after every time we talk about it.  here is the thread i was talking about.... Maybe youll get something out of it.

 http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=010444#000000

[George Tsoukalas]

Roy, usually the top limb I think. I like the limbs even or bottom slightly stiffer at full draw.  also tend to heel the bow handle. Jawge

[Echatham]

This should really be a chapter in TBB 5.

[Roy from Pa]

Jeff and I don't mind offering advice on tillering. It's just the way we do it, George and others do it their way. It's hard to tell someone how to tiller a bow when they have their own routine. But it's all fun and interesting to learn others opinions.
Honestly Mitch, you are heading in the right direction. And the pull rope doesn't have to travel the line exactly, it could drift left a tad, but following the line is the main goal. If the bow is close to the line and your target weight, why not stop and maybe lower your arrow shelf and call it a bow. Then make the next one with a shorter bottom limb.

[Roy from Pa]

This is the swap bow I just sent to D. It's tillered for split and is symmetrical. It's the bow that the top limb was stronger on the tree from the start, and yes that kind of surprised me, but I made the lams for the top limb a tad thicker than the bottom limb. There in could be the answer. It has a -3/16th tiller, and Jeff told me had I made the bottom limb shorter, the tiller would have ended up prolly even.

   

But at full draw, the tiller is perfect and there was zero hand shock with this bow.

   

[Bowjunkie]

Nice Roy. I guessed wrong on that one... but you through me off by grinding the top and bottom lams different thicknesses. That was a bold move though. I like it.

[Roy from Pa]

Thanks Jeff. You and I talked about making the top limb a little stronger a few months ago when we were having our little private tillering discussion..     It was just something I wanted to experiment with and it worked very well. And had the bottom limb been an inch shorter like you suggested, the tiller would have been very close to even. I ground some Osage and Walnut lams yesterday, and I left the top core lams 1/32nd thicker, so we will see how the next bow build works out.

There is a lot of proof to me now anyway, that an asymmetrical bow is the way to go compared to a symmetrical bow.

[Echatham]

Well ive laid my trilam out to be 1" shorter on the bottom.  Will report results when i can

[Roy from Pa]

Atta Boy...

[mwosborn]

Sounds like good advice Roy!

[Roy from Pa]

Cool Mitch. It will get better for you tillering this way, and making the bottom limb an inch shorter will really help the tillering process. I have a pattern that I lay my bows out from. I start with a 12" riser and build the limbs out from that. The center of the riser is the center of the handle, " 4 inch grip area ". Then 2 inches above and below the grip area is the flares. And 2 inches out from the flares is the end of the riser, or fades where the riser ends and the limbs start. Then depending on how long a bow I want, I measure from the flares out for the limb length to the tips, and I make the bottom limb 1 inch shorter than the top limb.

[Bowjunkie]

My bottom limbs are 1 1/2" shorter than the top. Handle center 3/4" below bow center accomplishes this.