Power Lam???

[Lewis Brookshire III]

Im going to be building a couple BBO's soon and I have a couple questions. I have seen a couple build alongs where the was a double tapered power lam glued in between the Osage and boo at the handle.

- What advantage does a power lam offer?

- How long should a power lam be?

[hickstick]

stiffens the handle section so the working section of the limb is limited to the reflexed area....

adds a cool accent

I think mine was around 15-18 inches..but that was over a year ago....I could be wrong...

[Lewis Brookshire III]

Thanks for the quick reply. Another question, can you use any wood? Like put in a peice of Bocote to go with the Bocote handle i am gonna use? And how high do you make the lam in the middle?

[mmgrode]

You can use any hardwood you choose to...bocote works well.  As Hickstick said it stiffens the handle section so your handle laminations won't pop off and adds a bit of contrast and dimension to the bow.  3/16" to 1/4" in the middle tapered to a knife edge on the ends(very important) works well for a standard r/d or reflex, but other dimensions can be used depending on design.  Good luck, Matt

[Lewis Brookshire III]

Awesome, I am planning on trying a 58" NTN R/D BBO with a Bocote Handle so the Bocote power lam I think will help and will add soem extra "Fancy" to the bow too!

[Jeremy]

A much easier way to do it is on the belly side.  Not as cool looking, but much easier to pull off, clamping-wise.
May last couple were 1/8" thick and 14" long.

[Lewis Brookshire III]

Yeah I have seen them on the belly side and might wind up doing that but as I was searching some threads today I notices someone glueing it up between the boo and osage and wondered about that.

I have glued up some kinda intricate glass bow stuff so I think I will at least try the sandwich lam and see what happens.

[Scott E]

Chech out dryad's hunter bow it has the power lam in between the osage and boo. It sure does look nice.-Scott