New form...Bow FInished Page 3

[bjansen]

I just finished up this form last night and wanted to post it to see what you all thought.  Finished bow would be 58" long 1.5" wide.

I think I can guess on the thickness/weight...and if I'm off no big deal..

But what kind of taper per limb do you think I should use.  I generally use a total taper of .04 per inch in longbows, and .02 per inch in recurves....this one is heavily recurved...so maybe .03?

Thanks

     

     

     

     

[Apex Predator]

Good looking form Bro!  I'm thinking .03/inch is probably close.  I tend to need more taper than most, so my opinion may not mean much.

[kennym]

.003"/inch   looks good to me,but with the reflex you have,you might have to go .004"/inch to unroll the ends of the limbs enough to suit you.

[bjansen]

Thanks guys..Maybe on the first one i will use .004 per inch total taper per limb...see how it works..I will report back results with some pics...this bow should be about a month away.

[Apex Predator]

I would err on the side of less taper Brad.  I did that on my current hybrid build.  After initially profiling the limbs, most of the bend was right out of the fades.  I wanted more of the limb bending, so started narrowing the limbs profle.  I finally had it working like I wanted, and a side benefit is narrower outer half limbs.  I'm sure it shoots sweeter than one profiled like I originally planned.  If I had started with more taper, the outer limbs would have been much wider and heavier.  

This bow building is so cool!  Most of my best design dicoveries have been found while fixing something I initially considered a big "oops".

[kennym]

Marty is right,nothin worse to me than wide limbs on the outer end of my bows. Seems the best shooters are narrower tipped.

That is why I said .003,but you may have to go to .004, the first one off a new form is a guessing game for me!!

[Mike Most]

How long is your riser going to be before the limbs start their bending? I like the shape of that form also.

Good Luck

Mike

[bjansen]

I was going to use a 16 inch riser, which if you look at the last picture the fade would end about 1/4 inch past the second screw on the bottom half of the form.  You can very faintly see the lines I drew on the bottom half to show where it would end.

[bjansen]

Speaking of, I have some more progress to share.  I glued up my riser the other day.  I am using grey actionwood, redheart and a strip of white glass.  I plan to use grey actionwood and a strip of white glass in the lams as well.  and maybe overlays of alternating redheart/white  


I took some pics of an idea came up with to try to make a two piece riser.  It worked pretty good, but still took a bit of finish sanding to get it perfect.  I was originally thinking it would fit together as tight as a puzzle....

I was wondering how you guys do this?


 

 

 

 

[bjansen]

 

 

[bjansen]

 

 

 

[bjansen]

Although not pictured, I had to do some finish sanding on the redheart to get it to fit tightly in the actionwood.  The second to last picture is how it came out right off the router.  The final glue up shows some spaces near the ends but these will not be in the final cut riser.  

I would like to hear how you guys do this or if there is a better way (not having a cnc machine that is)

[Apex Predator]

Alot of eyballing and repeated sanding!  My jig doesn't work worth a darn, so I have been free handing each piece and then sanding to the line.

[Mike Most]

I use a band saw and free hand them, spotting them in by holding them up to the light, but I think the finish is the accent strip between the  two.

I cant wait to see the finished product.

Mike

[kennym]

I made a jig to cut with bandsaw,but it isn't 100% sanding free!!

[bjansen]

Alright. I got the bow all glued up.  Unfortunetely I did not have any .001 taper rate lams...like i thought I did, so I just went with 1 tapered lam (at .002).

I used .040 clear glass and each limb has 1 .120 (tapered at .002 per in), and 2 .060 paralell lams.  I missed a few photo opportunities, so the first pic is out of the oven, with 4 overlays added to the grip (white and red .030 glass).  

 

 

[bjansen]

Next I added some tip overlays.  I used white and red phenolic.  

 

Rough sanded:

 

[bjansen]

Now for the handle

 

 

[bjansen]

Now to see those overlays come to life

 

[bjansen]