the building of my first lam-recurve... Its done! pics p.4 & p.5

[dutchwarbow]

it's a whole new project for me. Some new things are;

- the powerlam
- the laminated recurves

I want this bow to end up drawing ~55#@28", with a length of 58-60"ntn. The recurves should have such a curve in it that they make contact with the string at braceheight. It should keep a net. reflex of more than 1".

I decided to go for 2 lams, so I could make them thinner and put more recurve in them. The powerlam would be between them, giving more contrast then between the boo and ipé.

this is what I started with;

 

I cut all parts to length, marking the centre of them on the SIDES, and position one of the boo's nodes exactly in the centre. After that I'll trim the wider lams to the desired width, using the other lams as template.

 


 

 

 

 

[dutchwarbow]

Now I do a little bit on the front taper, to make he laminating easier, and the recurves more even. I use one of these lams as a template for the boo, wich I cut with the jigsaw, mounted in my workmate. AFter that, I reduce the boo with my drawknife, and continue with the beltsander. For this bow, with more extreme curves, I want the boo to be real thin.

I use my newest(sharpest) belts only for boo and softer woods, like maple, as harder woods like ipé dull them real quickly. For these, I use older belts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dutchwarbow]

 

[dutchwarbow]

Now for the powerlam and the ipé lams. It's obviously there's some work to do. I start with the core lam, wich I want to be real thin(1/8"). This makes it easier to shape around the powerlam. The belly will keep most of it's thickness at the handle (exept from roughening up the glueing surfaces, but it will be tapered to 1/8" ends aswell. I do this by hand, floortillering them to check if I've correctly tapered them.

the powerlam is shaped by pressing it on the beltsander with a low angle, using a hard, flat piece of wood to press it down. Otherwise you cant get straight, and paperthin fades.

I use my older belts for the ipé, but for the maple powerlam I use a new, sharp belt, wich I also use for boo.


 

 

 

 

 

[dutchwarbow]

before the glueup, you want to roughen up the lams, and make the fades of your powerlam even better.

I use the beltsander for both, sanding the lams at an angle to create a better glueing surface.

as these lams will be bent pretty far, I round the corners of the belly before the glueup, to keep splinters from lifting. Always do a dryrun before you glue it up! The one I did in this picture wasn't as extreme as the glueup I actually did, though.

 

 

 

 

[dutchwarbow]

Finally! everything's ready for the glueup. the more complicated your glueup is, the better you want to prepare it. I lay the handle pieced and the powerlam on a piece of plastic foil, wich I'll wrap around it once I put all parts together. This works quickly, keeps your rubberbands clean, but the most important thing is it keeps your lams in place while wrapping.

I like to wrap a bow up-and down, wich I usually need 4 innertubes for, wich are tied together. I wrapped them real tight this time, but I often use a little space between the wrappings.

luckily, the bow left the form in one piece, and everything's looking good! 27hours after the glueing up I removed the wrapping and the foil. I'll continue working on it tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


more tomorrow!!!

Nick

[Dano]

Great start Nick, I like the shape of the curves.

[SteveD]

Very nice.Nice work

[Pat B]

Cool Nick.  Looks to be a real shooter.

[sulphur]

how did you get it to dry with all that plastic wrap on it??  Looks very cool!!

[ChristopherO]

Good work on it all, so far.  Be interesting to see how much set the limbs take in the tiller stage.  My R/D Boo bows took a set but that was due to inducing too much from the get go.  That was with osage, never tried Ipe, yet.  
Your hand sander clamped in the B&D workbench is the exact set up I've been using.  It works but oh for a good table sander, again.  Mine needs work.

[dutchwarbow]

thanks guys!

the tons of pictures I still have to post scared me a bit, but I finally found the time to continue.

Sulph, It just works. The wrapping keeps all lams together, and makes the actual rubber-band wrapping much easier.

Christopher, this works pretty well indeed! bought a 36" table sander, but it's powerless with it's 375watts. Really need a better one!

[dutchwarbow]

well, after unwrapping I needed to remove the glue, get clean and smooth, so I could check the gluelines. A plane works excelent for this  


 

 

 

 

 

 

[dutchwarbow]

As you see, the gluelines at the powerlam were pretty bad. Filled them with superglue, but I'm afraid I messed it up. I'll continue, and see what happens.

after the planing, I decided to work on the fades. Roughly cut them with a jigsaw, then continued with my anglegrinder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dutchwarbow]

I then continue with my anglegrinder, untill I archieve the desired shape. After this, I glue up my tipoverlays, using superglue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dutchwarbow]

now, before finishing the overlays, I reduce the width at the outter limbs,again with my plane. Then I work on the tips, using the anglegrinder, then the a 40grit sanding belt, and an old beltsander-belt. With my tile saw, and then my chainsawfile I make the nockgrooves. The corners are then rounded off with some sandpaper, in this case a old beltsander-belt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dutchwarbow]

for some reason (probably because I didn't want the nocks to splinter) I put a coat of superglue on the tips. At least it looks good! hehe.\\

I decided not to show too much of the tiller, but I used a sharp scraper for it. with the stave clamped in my crappy shaving horse, I work on the belly.

 

 

 

 

 

[dutchwarbow]

before much more work I wanted the handle to be a little smoother,and the boo to look a little smoother. I used the sanding band for the handle, and the scraper for the boo. There's a beautyfull surface below the rind!

and as a cliffhanger; the braced picture!! braced at 5" here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nick

[Dano]

Nick, with the tools you have to work with, you do great work. I love the profile of this bow.

[ChristopherO]

That is coming along nicely.