New to glass, need help.

[Luc M]

Hi,
I have not made anything other then selfbows, and I would like to try something with glass lams.

This will be a very simple bow. completely flat. no reflex or deflex.

I what I'm planing is having the bow be 1.5 inch at right after the fades, then tapering to 3/8. It will be 64 inches long and pull hopefully 65 pounds at 27.5, with a non bending 8 inches in the middle.

I plan on putting .05 glass for the back then a red oak core then birch for the fades/handle and then .05 glass for the belly.

Now I have some questions,
-Firstly, would this work at all or am I missing something?
-How do I tiller with glass? all from the sides?
-Do I do all my tapering with the core piece (red oak)? or do I taper the glass too?
-How do I decide what taper I need on the core before glue up? All trial and error?
-Can I use wood glue like TB2 for the glass, or do I need some epoxy?

That's it for now. Hope its not too many questions at once. Thank you .

[Robertfishes]

Luc, call Binghams Projects and order their longbow plan and DVD,it covers all your questions. I think you will be happy with their plans. I have built 3 recurves off of their plans but no longbows. I used Smooth On for the whole bow.

[ChristopherO]

Luc,
looks like you are thinking along the lines I've been lately.  I picked up some .050 glass at Cloverdale to tinker with and eventually plan on a project similar to yours to get the feel of glass lam bows.  
I really doubt TB will be a good glue for this application, though.
I'm guessing that .050 glass lams will really stiffen up a bow quite a bit.  I would love to know how flexible the core will need to be before applying the fb, too.
If anyone else has any suggestion please chime in.

[Loren Piper]

.050 will give you a strong bow and don't use anything but smooth on for the glue and sand the sides of tne limbs to tilter the bow starting out I would build a little lighter bow then work up I would use E Glass to start with not S Glass S Glass is 25% stronger then E Glass I make both and know the glass bussiness.

[kennym]

Roberts idea for Binghams DVD is very good.

1...This will most likely work,just go slow ,think it all thru. Going with a proven plan for the first few is a great idea before beginning designing. Don't ask how I know! LOL

2...Go with .002 per inch taper at least for a 1.5" wide at fades longbow,if narrower you can go .003 and some use .004

3...No taper needed on the flat of the glass,taper the core the .002" per inch or whatever you use,then of course taper the limb edges to 1/2" or so wide at tips...

4...Just what you are doin here,ask lots of ?s


Here is an example of a .003" per inch taper in a 64" d/r

 

 

 


Less taper will bend more at fades,more taper will bend more towards the tips...

5.... Smooth on all the way IMHO


Here is how I make forms,actually the form for the bow pictured above..

  http://kennyscustomarchery.com/Bow_forms.html  


Good luck and keep us posted!!    

[sulphur]

check out this build along.
 http://www.geocities.com/salampsio/glass1.htm
for a straight bow use two .001 lams and a parallel core.  the core can be two lams or 1 thick one.  Truthfully i would suggest reading up some more before starting a fiberglass bow.  there are tons of good build alongs on this site and the leather wall.  here is the first one i did. fhttp://***********.bowsite.com/TF/lw/thread2.cfm?forum=23&threadid=179003&category=  

apex predator does some good ones too!

[sulphur]

lets try that again.

  http://***********.bowsite.com/TF/lw/thread2.cfm?forum=23&threadid=179003&category=

[Luc M]

Thank you for the replies, now I know where to start.

Seems a little more complicate then what I first thought, but with the help of the great build along posted by Sulphur I think I'm ready to give it a shot.