Happy Father's Day - I finished my bow today. I decided on using the Massey finish, thinned Devcon epoxy. I got the bow all sanded, 400 on the wood and 600 on the glass. Here is all of the stuff for spraying the finish. I use the Zerostat to neutralize static on the bow to keep down dust.
![](http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u230/cupcake1000/Bow%20Build%20Along/finishstuff.jpg)
I have a couple of Paasche Model H airbrushes and am using a large, no. 5 tip. I have a pretty fair amount of experience spraying a lot of different stuff for the last 30 years but I must say I had a bit of a hard time with this finish. I started out hanging the bow vertically in my "poor man's" spray booth.
![](http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u230/cupcake1000/Bow%20Build%20Along/spraybooth.jpg)
The first coat I did not thin enough and had a few problems with runs. Not a big deal, sanding with 320 & 400 wet got it smooth. Next I decided to hang it horizontally. I had a better mix this time but had fish eyes; I must not have cleaned the bow well enough after sanding. I wiped it down with denatured alcohol. More wet sanding. Than I thought maybe if I switched thinner from acetone to denatured alcohol I might get better results because of slower evaporation. Wrong, I got a lot of orange peel and switched back to acetone after shooting the belly limbs. More sanding.
Then I used acetone to wipe the bow before the fourth coat. This time I got a bit of sand scratch swelling. Anyway, wet sanding with 400, 600 and 800 after this coat I was happy and did not put on another coat. After a bit of steel wool (0000) and paste wax it looks pretty sweet.
![](http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u230/cupcake1000/Bow%20Build%20Along/finish4.jpg)
It seems to be a pretty good shooter. The brace height wants to be up about 8 inches. This seems high for a longbow but it is pretty heavy R/D. Here she is at full draw.
![](http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u230/cupcake1000/Bow%20Build%20Along/fulldraw2.jpg)
It is 51lbs. @ 28 and weighs in at 1lb., 12oz. I had a blast building this bow and am now hooked. I am starting to think about the next one; after the fence gets painted and...
Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoyed it.
Kevin