CRACKED LAMINATIONS

[S.newman]

I milled my lams yesterday and noticed one of them has about a 4/5 inch liner crack on the butt end of the  taper .....i know this will be covered in ea40 when glued but should i be worried about failure latter on under the glass ,,,this particular section will be under the riser and i don't see it being an issue but im positive someone in the group has ran into this issue and wondering how they navigated it....also another question would be do you guys mill all your tapers and parrels then set them on the shelf to be ready when you need them or do you make them every time you make a bow? ..seem these tapered lams are the thing i struggling with most because i don't have a drum sander anymore so made a vacuum table tappered sled  for my cnc to get exact repeatable numbers .. i plan to buy a new drum sander next month  to avoid cracking anymore lams ...
thanks for any info and help really enjoy being in the group
steve

[Crooked Stic]

If the cracked lam is between other lams or even under the glass you probably won't have any problems. The pice over it with the glue in timing it together. I recently did two recurve with cracked Osage. I filled the cracks with CA before grinding no problems and adds character.

[kennym]

I have a bow that's probably 15 years old with osage veneers. I didn't know the cracks were in the veneers til I pulled the tape. The glue squeezing out made about an 1/8" crack on both limbs. No problems. Where yours is cracked I don't see it will be a problem either. I would make sure you have something holding sides to prevent it cracking further out when you put pressure on the bow layup.

I like to grind my lams fresh, for me or to sell, so I make them as needed.

How smooth is the cnc finish btw?  Good glue adhesion I'm guessing.

[S.newman]

heres a picture of what my setup is for tapers or Parrell lams at least until I get my new drum sander ...works good and finish is great possibly lightly sand before glueing just to rough up the surface a bit  but isn't the right tool for the job in my opinion but I'm not waiting any longer I want to build my bow ha-ha ...learned a hard lesson the other day when I had a nice drum sander lined up on FB marketplace but was about 1hr away so I planned to make it there Tuesday to pick it up,, I  had been chatting with the seller for 2 days about the machine so Monday I posted my old delta 1836 online for cheap just wanting to move it to make room for the new one sold within 3 hours  ,,,well Tuesday i messaged him for an exact address and I was already heading that way , then no response for about 1 hr so while sitting in parking lot 1 hr away he text me back saying his wife had sold it to his brother in law and that he was sorry.....so i was out some money for letting my drum sander go for pennies thinking it would be replaced and now cant find another one online so ill just wait till next month to buy a new one ...o well shit happens I guess .....adapt and overcome is what has been burned into me so that what I did
now back to bow stuff
new bowyer here and was wonder about veneers is there any wood types I SHOULD avoid putting into limb veneers?
is there any wood types I should avoid in riser building?
thanks for the helps

[Kirkll]

My situation might be different because I anticipate building 30-40 bows each year. But I pre mill my core tapers ahead of time in bunches of 20 pcs. And keep them stacked up tight so as not to have them oxidized….but… I always freshly sand everything prior to lay up.  I keep rough cut lams from the table saw bundled up and setting on a shelf at all times.  Mostly bamboo and maple is my stock core materials.

Veneers that I have milled and are saving for future use are stacked tight and I use a cover lam both sides and tape the bundle. I have used veneers I milled years ago with no problem. I just touch sand them lightly with 120 grit or 80 grit by hand to open the pores again. This is real important using any oily wood veneers to lightly sand them prior to lay up.


What materials can be used in your risers safely depends a lot on the shape of your riser, length, and draw weights being built. How you shape the back of the riser, and the grain configuration of the wood itself will dictate whether overlays are needed to cap any end grain… this is true even using very dense hardwoods.

Using lighter weight nut woods and fruit woods like curly maple or walnut or western cherry can be used if you properly reinforce the riser using footings or I beam construction. The lighter weight hardwoods are very sensitive to compression issues if the riser flexes too much, and often cracks appear at the back of the shelf.

.02 cents worth….  Kirk

[S.newman]

that make alot of sense kirk I will definitely be keeping an eye on the end grain and that was my thought already about roughing them out and then just finished sand them to finish dimensions just prior to glue up
im hooked so ill probably be building many bows in the future which may lead me down the road your at with building a little bit of stock pile of roughed lams/tappers
i appreciate all the info

[Mad Max]

If you are just making a few bows I make mine as needed