Bow Build Along.......let the fun begin

[initialimage]

Mike brings up a good point about the metal straps.  I did round my corners but they don't show in this picture.  Here is another one where you can see them.  I rounded the corners and lightly beveled the edges.

 

These are little details that I'll try and post as I go but forgot to mention.  Glad you guys are here to keep me on my toes.

My hope is that by the end of this I'll encourage someone to build their first bow.

[Crooked Stic]

Yep I can see it now.  

[kcbrown]

I like the side stop idea, I have only done one but the lams I had varied a bit in the width.

[kcbrown]

I know I have looked at our 5 axis cnc horizontal boring mill and thought, man you could sure make a nice bow form on it. Just progam it, throw the form up there and let her go. Wouldnt even have to sand, it would be ready for the formica out of the machine.  

[Osagetree]

Keep it coming,,,, I'm begining to think I want to try this some day.

[Chortdraw]

Great build-along!!  you have some nice machinery to work with. It is always exciting, when I build a new form or style,to get the bow built and put it through its paces. Thanks for taking us along on this build-along.

Chort  

[initialimage]

I am about to get slammed with work which is going to keep my mills running almost 24/7 so I decided to finish up the final machined parts of the form.  I was going to use aluminum for the side stops but didn't have enough.  Since I've got a ton of plastic I decided to use it instead.  Won't make any difference anyway.  Here I am machining them.  You don't need this pick, but most people thinks it's cool when they see my mills running so imagine the table is moving in a circle.

 

The next one shows how they mount to the form and are to be used.  I made them circular as you can see and I cut my hole in them off center so I can easily rotate them to whatever thickness is needed to hold the lams in place.  They should work quite well.

 

I've got one rotated all the way down out of the way and the other as high as it will go(don't ever see having it up that high).  

The side stops are something I didn't read about during my first form and glue up.  It took me about 2 seconds into airing up the hose to figure out how important they are.  

As you can see I try to be very precise when making the form.  I have the attitude that if I'm going to make something that is to be used over and over, why not make it as nice and user friendly as possible.  The first form I made I rushed through and while it worked, I quit using it in order to make a new one.  

I've got all the spacers glued on.  I'll come back and put a couple of finish nails in them so they don't pop off.  

Something else I want to point out is that I didn't plan out my screws very well when I glued the plywood up and some ended up in spots to be cut out.  I just took them all out for the rest of the form building and now that I'm done, I'll go back and put screws back into the form to keep it securely together.  I'm just about done with the form and then I'll start getting everything ready to glue up the blank.  

thanks for looking.................

[Sant-Ravenhill]

I am looking forward to every step of the way!!

[Crooked Stic]

God idea on the round side plates.

[NorthShoreLB]

Man,...this is high tec      

[initialimage]

I'm sooooooo close now on the form.  Here is the current status.  I sanded the sides and brushed on a coat of polyurethane over the whole form.  You'll notice the thin metal strip that I'm going to glue to the form tomorrow.  I'll trim the ends to length and use contact cement on both the form and the metal strip.  

 

This next picture show the materials for the bow.  I plan to make fiberglass bows off this form but the first one will be bamboo/wood.  I've got some raw boo cut(need to get it to profile and thin it down.  The other strips are cut up vertical grain bamboo flooring(natural and carbonized).  I really like this combination, but I don't like using the bamboo flooring for my belly.  I've got some ipe that I planned to use for the belly, but it isn't wide enough.  I'm trying to figure out what to do since my ipe source isn't that close to me. The handle is walnut.  Nothing fancy about this bow since I'm not sure if I can pull it off or not.  

 

[LazerRay]

You are a lucky man, to be able to do that!!!!!

[initialimage]

I've got a little cleanup on the metal piece I just glued on and the form is done.  I sanded my metal piece and wiped it down with denatured alcohol.  I put a couple of coats of contact cement on the bottom of the form and the metal piece.  After about 20 minutes of drying, I carefully placed the strip on my form.  I had help for this so that it didn't touch the form anywhere accidentally.  When I was near the end my help took the picture.  I used a seam roller starting at the center and pushed down hard working my way from the center out.  I've trimmed the extra material from the ends with the dremel.  I'll debur all the sharp edges and I'm done with this step.  

 

Next step, prepping the lams, riser, and boo backing...............................

[Dano]

Lookin good Jeff, can't wait to see a bow come out of this baby.

[DeanD]

I am in awe of your abilities and you're only building your FORM!  WOW!

Dean

[Tom Leemans]

Hee hee flip flops in a machine shop.

[initialimage]

Tom,

I wondered if anyone would comment on the flip flops.  Gotta be comfortable right?

Form is done.

 

Put everything together to test fit and air up the hose.  So far so good.  I'll be pulling an all nighter working on projects which I hate doing but gotta keep the clients happy.  The good news is that while machines are running, I'll be able to start on the bow.  I'll prep the raw boo first and will have pictures to document that as the night goes on.

[initialimage]

I'll try and be as descriptive as I can.  I like to start off with my raw boo and determine how straight it is.  I'm not marking anything at this point.  

 

There is quite a bit of bamboo to remove and I'll show my process.  I'm sure others out there do it differently.  The initial piece is wider than it will end up and there is still quite a bit of concave surface on the inside of the boo which can make it hard to transfer lines to it. I take it to the bandsaw and angle the piece.  I cut the top edge until it almost makes a sharp edge.  I don't want to cut into the bottom of the boo so I keep it angled and it is easy to use the bottom edge as a guide also.  Hope you understand what I mean from the picture.

 

I flip it over and do the same thing.  Here is a comparison shot with a cutoff piece(original thickness) versus my piece after bandsawing.  

 

I transfer all my lines.  I like to clamp a straight edge so that nothing moves while I'm drawing my lines.

 

You want to make sure to cut your bamboo backing to finish size or just over finish size and the following picture shows why.  If you left the bamboo full width and sanded it down, look what happens to the thickness when the bow's profile is cut.  You would end up with extremely thick tips.

 

Next................more work on the bamboo backing. Pictures to follow.................

[the Ferret]

Nice tute.

If your tillering skills are as good as your bow form building skills you won't have any trouble tillering mid limb on a composite bow and certainly not on a glass bow. But that amount of curve is going to be real fun to get bending right on the composite.You might want to wear a helmet just in case ha ha.

[initialimage]

Mickey...My tillering skills will be put to the test on this one.  I'm not looking forward to it because I don't want to screw it up now that people are watching.  

I'm pretty much done with the bamboo backing.  I have a little more to tweak it but it is put aside for now.  I need to grind my lams, and start on the riser.  I need to get the lams done first because I'll use one of them to fit my riser to while on the form.

Since the last step I sanded my boo backing to my lines.  I like to go ahead and get it to size because you can easily see the edge and use as a reference when cutting/sanding.  I use the same method as before and angle the bamboo and cut it close to the edge.  I flip it over and do the same thing.  Here is what I end up with off the bandsaw.

 

I then take it to the sander and get the back flat while watching my edges as guides to know if I'm sanding one side more than the other.

Here is a reference to an original size.  Notice how much is removed by the time it's finished.

 

One thing I forgot to mention at the beginning is node placement.  The piece of bamboo I used has fairly even node spacing but some start getting closer together from one end to the other.  Just figure out your bow length and place the nodes so that you get the most even spacing on each end.  You don't want to be careless and end up with a node near the last 2 inches of one end and 8 inches from the other.

More updates tomorrow.......................