This was my second attempt at a glass bow for the kids. The specs are 42" long reflex/deflex longbow modeled after my Navajo Caddo. The limbs are two parallel laminations of .0325" curley maple under .050 glass. The handle is kingswood and maple. The tips are kingswood. The bow is 1" wide at the fades with a straight taper to the just under 1/2" tips. The bow pulls about 20# @ 17".
Here is my story:
I started with making a form from a scale drawing of my 62" Navajo Caddo. I glued a 1/16" piece of aluminum stock to the profile to ensure a flat even surface. Holes are drilled about every 3".
Next I bought a 1" x 1" x 12" kingswood turning block from the lumber supply and traced the form profile of the handle section to the wood and cut it out with my band saw.
Then I sanded the handle with my 3" thickness sander. I flipped the sander up on its side to use.
Here is a pic of the sanded handle section. Note how it fits well on the form.
Here is the glue up. I used bow grip 100 since I have no heat box. Mix it until it is like yogurt and glue wet to wet.
I let the bow cure for at least 12 hrs. The temps in the garage were about 80 degrees. Here is what it looked like out of the form.
This is the back portion of the handle section. It is 8" long and 1/2" thick cut to shape on the bandsaw and sanded on the drum sander.
Here is the handle glued up, shaped and sanded.
more to come
Topic: Kids Bow Build Along (Read 723 times)
