Bamboo backed Osage tri-lam build-a-long

[Buck Buckley]

got it tillered and horn nocks on this afternoon, will be posting it tomarrow evening

[Buck Buckley]

We got the belly lams cut and planed down to 1/8". Cut the fades out on the riser. From the center of the riser I measure 2 1/4" from each side this gives me a 4 1/2" handle.Then from my 2 1/4" mark I I draw a taper down to the end of the riser.It will look like this
 

[Buck Buckley]

I lost a couple of pics when my batteries went dead.I t was showing how we fit the belly lams to the fades, I will explain it. First you want to make sure that you have a real smooth transition from your fades on to the center lam. Once you have that mark your belly lams 6" up from the end and taper them to about 1/16". I just usee the belt sander.  Then Take a couple of spring clanps and clamp the Lam on to the fades and see if you get a tight fit. You might have to sand a bit here or there. After you get a good fit,what we will do is take a heat gun to the lam while it is clamped to the riser so it will take the shapeof the fade. It takes stress off of it and it also makes it easier glueing it up. When your ready to glue it up use the blocks that you cut from the fades and use them to clamp the lams in place on to the fades. We are going to make another one this weekend and I'll post the pics of it.

[Buck Buckley]

Here is a pic right after we had taken the clamps off it.
 

[Buck Buckley]

When we glued the belly lams on we left them 1 1/2" wide. Now I am going to trim it all up on the band saw, I stay about a 1/16" away from the bamboo so that way I can lay the limbs on the belt sander and sand it up to the bamboo.
 

[Buck Buckley]

Got all the glue off and everything sanded to the bamboo.My tips are 5/8" wide. Now I will taper them to 1/2" I start the taper 6" back and draw my lines, then just lay the tip in the belt sander and sand to the lines.
 

[Buck Buckley]

Tips are done now I'll draw a line about 1/4" in along the length of each side of the limbs on the bamboo so I cn trap the back of the bamboo. I use a rasp  for that.
 

[Buck Buckley]

Now to the belly,I'll draw my lines the same way on the belly. I might go a little wider with my line or narrower depending on how heavy the bow comes out of the form.
 

[Buck Buckley]

Now I do the overlays  I cut two pieces of deer antler 1/4"x2".I mark the tips of the limb 2" and sand a bevel down to the belly lam.That way you dont have all the overlay sticking up and it helps to take a little more weight off the tips.
 
 
Sand the bottom of the antler real flat and glue them on. We have been using super-glue gel and it has worked great. Never had any come off yet.
 

[Buck Buckley]

All thats left is to cut a string groove in the nock and then start to tiler it out.Here is a pic of it all cleaned up before tillering. and a pic of a static tip one that my dad was working on that I tillered out.
 
 

[Buck Buckley]

Put the long string on it and it was a lot stiffer than I thought it would be.When I tiller all my bows I like to get the whole limb working all the way to the tips. When its braced you have that nice rounded profile. The last one I made for myself I left the tips fairly stiff and tillered it mostly in the mid limb area and it came out real nice, has that reflex /deflex look when braced. Thats what I wanted for this one.Here is what I am hoping for. ill post some more pics of my bow later.
 

[Buck Buckley]

First pull with the longstring was about 14" when I hit 50# When we get a bow off the form. Ilike to be able to pull it to about 20",Then I know that I will be pretty close to getting a string on it at about a 2-3 in brace. I only had a 1/8" belly lam to work with on this one, not a whole lot of room for mistakes. I took some more off from the fades to mid limb and started to get it to bend. Got a short string on it and am at 50# AT 22" with a 2" brace. right limb is a little stiffer yet.
 

[Buck Buckley]

50# at 25" right limb starting to bend to much after the fades, going to start taking alittle more off twords the outer limbs.
 

[Buck Buckley]

Here it is at 28" 50lbs. still needs a little work. Will be working on it Wed and Thurs doing the final tiller and cutting out the riser and shaping it along with the nocks

 

[horseapple]

Maybe its the picture but I'm not liking the look of the severe bends at midlimb, from there to the tips is not bending at all.

JD

[Aram]

Outer third looks scary to me too! That's why I'm watching this thread. Tillering R/D bows is still a big mystery to me.
I guess the outer limbs, when they take their fair share of stress will look flatter than on a straight longbow. Are there any tricks to knowing how much each part bends or is it just intuition/ experience. Also, a long string will make the tips look stiffer than they are. Right?
Thanks,
Looking good,
Looking forward to more,
Aram

[Buck Buckley]

I did end up taking to much off in the mid limb area, and not enough in the last third. I wanted to leave the tips fairly stiff, but not that much.Sometimes when your tillering everything seems fine. You stop come back to it and you see something different. When I posted this it was the first I saw the pic and could really see how much it was bending in the mid. What I am going to do is start to get the last third of the linbs bending more. Post some pics of it tomarrow .

[ChristopherO]

Buck,
Thanks for the build along.  Your pictures and captions are invaluable.  I am in the slow process of tillering my second R/D bow.  It is too stiff and I am considering trapping the bamboo backing.  Your pictures of that AND of the trimming of the last 6" of the tips are just what I needed to feel confident to do what I thought I should be doing.  Great!

[Buck Buckley]

Did a little more work on the tillering. Got theouter third of the limbs bending a little. Looks alot better, lost 5# doing so.45# at 28" now. The whole key to tillering I think is getting your thickness of your lamination or your belly wood at the proper dementions before you glue up. This one was way to heavy to start. The demensions I used worked fine for a 66" bow, but for a 60" it was way to stiff to start with. The more wood you have to remove and the more you have to tiller the more you have a chance of getting a hinge or fret in the belly. Probably should of had a taper of 3/16 to 1/16 on the mid lam and kept the 1/8 on the belly. That will be in my notes for the next one.
 

[Buck Buckley]

Tillering is done now to lay out the handle, you can lay it out on the bamboo before you glue it up and cut to shape then, or like I do I do it after everything is glued up. I draw a centerline through the handle length wise. Find center of the bow and mark it.Next I measure 2 1/4" off each side of center. That my handle. From center again measure 4 1/2" off each side that will be the end of the fades. At the end of my handle marks I mark the width on each side 1" overall. Then draw my lines in. Should look like this.