glass recurve design

[harry 62]

Looking for some opinions on the pros or cons of a longer or shorter working portion of the limb . I made my latest press for a 66 " one piece recurve. I designed  the press so I can change the riser length a good bit. I have built one bow on the press so far it has a 30" riser and 18" limbs from fades to string groove. It a good bow very stable decent speed. It is fine the way it is .Just wanting to change things up a little.

[jess stuart]

I usually try to keep my riser to about 1/3 the total length of the bow.  I haven't built any real long one piece recurves but, use 20.5"  in my 60" .  It seems to have a  good balance of speed and smoothness. I would like to see a picture of your adjustable for length press. 
The very first bow I ever built used a press to build bows from 60" to 66".  The form was half the length of the bow so, you glued one limb and half the riser at a time.  One benefit of that method is the limbs were mirror images of each other.

[harry 62]

I will try to put pictures up next time the grand kids are over . What I do is build the front part of the riser on the press out of laminated wood and glass.I  follow the angle of the limbs to make a arch in the riser section of the press . Then I add the belly side of the riser after it is off the press. building r\d longbows this way gives you a lot of options on one press. But with a recurve you are stuck with one length and changes to riser and limb lengths I guess a picture is worth a thousand words.

[harry 62]

here's a few pictures

[harry 62]

a few more