"pushing my limits" bow buildalong - Cosmetic suggestions?

[ChrisS]

Phew! Flattened and sanded today. I'm really happy that nothing catastrophic happened.

 

I have a question. Does anybody know if urac works with horn?

[Lewis Brookshire III]

Dude, this is gonna be such a cool bow!!! I love the way the bow looks so far. Keep us posted, Im pullin for ya on this one.

[ChrisS]

Thanks ROH, I'm hopin she doesn't blow! I have the limbs bending, though it isn't even to brace height yet. I'm a little worried about the cracks in the horn. I'm also worried that I made the base of the curves too thin while I was tillering last time. I guess we'll find out.

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edit: Oh and I forgot to say that urac will work with horn. I emailed wingnut and he said it's as good as anything else out there.

[Luke Vander Vennen]

I have no experience with horn, but from what I've read those cracks should not be much of a problem. Also, if you're worried about the tips, you can smooth them out and glue on a few thin pieces of wood for underlays. You will probably have to heat bend them with that angle.


Nice work!!

[ChrisS]

Ah, I didn't think of that Luke. I'm definately going to narrow the curves and tips down, I left them wide at 3/4" up til now. If they look weak I'll try an underlay.

I upgraded my tiller tree (again). I got tired of trying to guess if the limbs were equal or if they were rotating around the small pivot. I put a platform up and squared it against the wall.


Up until now I've been using a long string because it reads 50# at brace height and it's been very difficult to string.  The string would slowly stretch out from a 6" brace to flat against the belly hehe. I had to make a new shorter string for it.

Which leads me to the first bracing... I'm pissed.  Anybody who is reading, tell me if you've ever seen this before, because it came as a complete surprise to me.


Long string:
 

braced:
 


Arg! I'm going to lose a lot of weight getting the limbs even again. I hope I don't blow my target weight.

I guess I relearned that lesson of putting a short string on it as soon as possible.

[Lewis Brookshire III]

Thats weird, I have never had tht happen. I dont understand why the short string would mess the tiller up that bad.

[ChrisS]

I thinned the right side down a bit, but it is still about an inch stiffer than the left side when braced.

... just to add to the madness, here is what it looks like when pulled:

     

Now the right side is weak!          

So the right is an inch stiff when braced, and an inch weak when pulled. I'm going to have to make lunch and ponder this for a while.

[Lewis Brookshire III]

Thats very weird. It looks like they are bending pretty evenly though. Maybe the last 1/3 of the left limb near the tip is a little stiff but thats all I can see from the pic.

[ChrisS]

I think the problem had to do with the sinew. It's still there, but not as bad. Upon bracing, the right side will still be 1" behind the left until I exercise the limbs. After a few pulls to 22" or so the limbs are even at brace height. Weird eh?

Does this look better Lewis? I've been trying to work the limbs even again, but it's slow going. I'm at 50# with 26" of draw. I don't have much more to work with. I'd like to stop at 50# at 27" to account for finish sanding.

 

Ignore the vertical lines for now... the bow isn't exactly centered on the platform in this pic.

[Lewis Brookshire III]

Looks like it is bending even, but the right limbs still looks weaker than the left. That is if your lines in the background are sqaure.

If anything I would say that the last third on the left limb is still alittle stiff. But I would be very careful at this point since you are so close to your weight already. If you go really slow it should even the limbs up a little more.

[Luke Vander Vennen]

your right limb is a little bit weaker than the left, but if I'm seeing that right, you'll just have a bit of positive tiller, and thats not a bad thing. Make sure you exercise the limbs a lot, could that be part of the problem of the tiller going wacky on you like that?

[ChrisS]

Yea, I've been exercising the limbs about 30 times when I remove material. It's still happening.. limb is stiff when braced and weak when pulled. Would you happen to know how much 1/8" of positive tiller translates to when fully drawn? I can't go by the braced profile.

The lines on the wall are right, the left is stiff. I wanted to get the tips taken care of before finishing up the tiller.  I glued up some underlays and thinned the tips to 5/8". I think they turned out nice    

 

Just have to put tip overlays, shape the handle, and finish tiller and I can take 'er to the range! Yay!

[Lewis Brookshire III]

Looks awesome I cant wait to see what it looks like when its all finished. You need to include lots of close up pics so we can admire all the hard work you have put into this one!!

[AZStickman]

I've never seen sinew cause what you are seeing but then two weeks isn't really a lot of time for curing your sinew even in a hot box..... I let my sinew jobs cure at least two months  in my garage in the summer which gets up over 120 F ........What are you measuring for a brace height 4" out from the fades on each limb?.... Terry

[ChrisS]

The sinew has been drying longer than that. I applied the last layer on the 3rd of October, so going on 7 weeks today. It's been crackling on pulls to 26" for the last few days which has been freaking me out.

My problem has been spread over multiple posts... so it's probably a bit hard to follow, sorry about that. Here's the situation all in one place:


 
This was actually the last pic I took. The profile is just after being unstrung from the exercising for the pics below.


 
Here it is braced. I exercised the limbs back to 22" of draw 30 times and then a few times all the way to 26". 4" off the fades the upper (right) limb is 4-13/16 from the string and the lower (left) is 4-15/16. So 1/8 negative tiller on the top according to braced profile. I measured the bow while not on the tree... the platform messes with the string.


 
And pulled to 26". Now the top limb is 1" weak.

Something keeps bugging me about the full draw pics. It *looks* like the right limb is coming off the riser at a steeper downward angle, but I've done all kinds of line drawing and measuring in photoshop and it indicates only a 0.5 degree difference in limb angles at full draw. The reason for the 0.5 is that the upper fade is bending slightly.. I can feel it if I grab the fade while pulling back with the other hand.

What would you do? So far I've been ignoring the braced profile and working on the drawn profile.

[ChrisS]

Originally posted by ReviveOurHomes:
Looks awesome I cant wait to see what it looks like when its all finished. You need to include lots of close up pics so we can admire all the hard work you have put into this one!!

Just not too close, or you'll see all my mistakes! Luckly urac blends in really well with black walnut  

I wish I had used a denser wood for the riser though. The upper fade bends and I think the limbs weight more than the handle does haha.

[AZStickman]

That's lookin Great......Terry

[ChrisS]

Ok.. now the question is, how much more should I let the upper limb bend for shooting split finger? Normally I'd do the 1/8 positive on the upper, but the braced profile is unreliable. At full draw maybe make the upper bend 1/2 inch more than the lower?

[Dano]

I think prematurely shapeing the handle may have caused you all the greif in tiller. To me the limbs look great, maybe a little too even, shoot it in and see how she feels, and maybe loosen up the top limb.

[Lewis Brookshire III]

I agree with Dano. I have never finished the handle until its totally tillered and shot a little bit. I would go shoot it some and then come back and take a look at it. The limbs look like they are bending really good and even now.