Laminated recurve build along

[OH Longbow]

I have received so much knowledge from all of the posters on here, I thought I would try to contribute something.  This will be my fourth bow.  I have built one in each of the previous three years.  The first was a recurve.  The next two were longbows.  This one will be another recurve.  It will be black glass with a red elm core.  The riser is charcoal Dymond wood.

 

First, I draw a centerline completely around the block.

 

Next, I use a template to draw the riser shape.

 

 

Now, its time to square things.

 

 

 

Stay tuned for more.

John

[OH Longbow]

Now that things are square, it's time to start cutting.  This is the first time I've used my bandsaw in about 8 months so, I was a little nervous.

 

 

 

There's more.

John

[OH Longbow]

Now here is something I thought was neat.  I temporarily traded a friend of mine.  I gave him my longbow form and he gave me his recurve.  Along with it, I got this template.  It is used with a router to true up the riser.  He made this.  He is a woodworker/master craftsman.  I swear, I think he could build a house with nothing more than a router and a rock...you need something to pound nails.

Here is the template.

   

Put the riser on the template and line up the centerline.

   

Screw it in place.  I had to drill a small pilot hole.

   

Then, clamp template with riser to my makeshift workbench.  It was designed to sit in a vice but, I don't have one.

   

As you can see in this image, the riser protrudes from the edge of the template.  It is this material that we will be removing.

   

It is designed to be used with a template cutting bit.  I don't have one and didn't want to pay more than $40 for a 2" bit so, I used a standard 2" straight cutting bit with a 1/2" shank.  The cutter head is also 1/2" in diameter.  This allows me to chuck it a little long and use the shank as the bearing.  It glazed the template a little but, it's barely noticeable.

   

Now, I'm off to the disc sander to fix something.  I'm not a skilled router operator.  As I was doing this step, I allowed the router to tilt ever so slightly and it gouged a little.  A few passes with the sander and it is good as new.

   

Stay tuned for more.

John

[OH Longbow]

Now, to drill the hole for the locator pin.  This will hold the stack steady on the form while I'm putting everything together.  The wasted portion of the riser block was brought back into action for this step.  It did a wonderful job of holding the riser level and plumb while drilling the hole.

   

I think I drilled a 1/4" hole.  It was just big enough for my high tech locator pin(cil).

   

Next, I'm laying out all the laminations.

   

I stack the first piece of glass and the tapers.  I them tape them to hold them in place while I drill a hole through them.

   

It's off to the drill press again.

   

I don't want to hear any crap from the safety geeks.  I know my fingers were too close to the bit.  I'll do better in the future.

I then taped the shiny side of the glass with high temperature masking tape.  I actually taped it before I drilled it.

   

   

Then, everything went into the oven to warm, including the Smooth-On.

   

Stay tuned.

John

[OH Longbow]

Now it's time to do a little prep work.  I roughed up the glue sides of all the pieces with some heavy grit sand paper (something like 60, I think).  I also drug a hacksaw blade across the glue surfaces of the riser to rough it up a little extra.  Then, I took an airhose and blew everything off and finished with a course brush.

   

It was at about this time that I realized that I didn't have anything to use as a pressure strip.  I looked around and found an old roll of flashing that I had from when I built the house.  It was too flimsy so, I cut four, 2" wide strips.  I stacked them on top of each other and taped it well with the high temperature masking tape.  I made two straight passes on the full length and then spiraled another pass down the length.  I think it worked fairly well.

   

Now, I had to lay everything out again and clean it off again.  This time, I laid it in the order that it would be assembled.

   

It was then that I noticed the Smooth On cans.  One was significantly dented and the other was slightly.  This is the fourth order from Bingham's and the fourth time the cans were damaged.  What do they do, have the UPS man kick these from Ogdon, UT to Southeast Ohio?

   

Now to mix the epoxy.  I have been saving a few old containers despite my wife's efforts to throw them out.  Also, they have handy little scoops in them that I just knew I would find a use for someday.  Here they are in action.  I mixing in a big plastic lid.

   

   

   

There's still more.

John

[OH Longbow]

Time to start gluing it up.

I used shims to do the mixing and spreading.

   

   

And now, it's finally in the form.  I sorry there are no pictures of putting it in the form but I had epoxy on my hands and didn't want to handle my camera.  I previously covered my form in tape and then a couple layers of plastic wrap.  After building the bow, I held tension on it while my wife and daughter helped tape it in place.  I covered it with another layer of plastic wrap and laid the pressure strip on it.  Next, the pressure hose.  I then used rope to bind the hose to the form.  I double wrapped it.  I, personally, like two piece forms but, since I was borrowing this, I couldn't be choosey.  This last picture is a composite of 4 different images.  They didn't line up perfectly but, you'll get the idea.

   

I put it in the oven and let it bake.  

It's now 1:00 AM and I just went down and shut the oven off.  It baked for 5 hours.  Tomorrow morning, I'll let the air pressure off and then when I get home from work, I'll unwrap it and see what I have.

I was speaking with a high school friend of mine.  I told him that I had just put the bow in the oven and would not know what I had until I pulled it out.  He said that is just like his wife's cooking.  I don't think she was around when he told me.  lol

Dang! It's after 1am.  I have to get up in four hours!  Ughh...tomorrow will be fun.

L8R,

John

[limbcracker]

Thnaks for sharing, I picked up some good tips I can use making my first glass bow. Kirk

[ChristopherO]

How did I miss this?!
Great build along.  The one glaring idea that shines out is your use of aluminum coil stock.  I've been meaning to go purchase a pressure strip but no time and little mula has kept me from it.  BUT, having built a number of homes in the past and recently trimming out my brother's place in aluminum I've got all the pressure strips I need!  I'll slice the metal to the proper width and length, and using the brake, will make the necessary folds for the stiffness.
Thanks for the heads up.
Hocking Hills is such a pretty place.  Great trails for hiking and horse riding, too.  The hunting looks awesome over there.
BTW, how did the bow turn out once out of the oven?

[Dmaxshawn]

We need more pics I'm wanting to see the outcome of this one.  Its looking good and I like your buddy's router idea.

Shawn

[OH Longbow]

Remember, before putting too many folds in the aluminum that it has to conform to the shape of the form.

Hopefully, I'll be posting more pictures this weekend.  My real job keeps me from working on it during the week.

One of my shooting buddies started making his the other night.  I took some pictures of his build also.

I turned the oven off after about 5-5 1/2 hours and left the bow in the form and in the oven so it would cool slowly.  The next morning, I let the air out of the pressure hose.  When I got home that night, I pulled it off the form.  It looks good but, I haven't checked it thoroughly.  I removed all of the epoxy boogers that I could remove by hand.  Saturday, I'll put the sanders to it.  

The Hocking Hills are great.  I've lived in this area my entire life.

L8R,

John

[Talondale]

What about using vinyl clad coil trim (used to wrap wood when doing vinyl siding) for a pressure strip?  Anyone know if this would work well?  Nice build along.

[Robertfishes]

Talondale, I think the aluminum part of the trim is only .019 and not likely stiff/strong enough to do the job? also the vinyl part may soften from the heat and become a problem??? I have some 1/16" x 1 1/2" x 36" aluminum I was thinking about using.  I have been using the  galvanized metal pressure strips from Binghams, they work very nicely.

[ChristopherO]

I've used the vinyl covered coil stock in the past on houses.  Put some under a lamp to see if it can withstand the heat.  If so you should be good to go.
The Yankee Ingenuity of OH Longbow was to sandwich 4 strips together to get the thickness and strength needed.  One of these days I'm going to get all my tools and forms put together.

[OH Longbow]

Finally, I got a chance to upload some more pictures.  Since I wasn't able to get any pictures of the bow in the form when I glued it up, here are some before I took it out.  It shows how I used the rope to hold the hose.  And before anyone says anything, Yes, those are wheelie bows on the wall...mine and my daughters.  The change over is happening slowly but, trust me, it's happening.

 

 

I let most of the air out this way.  Then, I take a valve core remover and let the rest out.  While the valve core is out, I roll the hose and then reinstall the valve.  This makes the hose lay nice and flat and is easier to store.

 

Here is a shot of my homemade pressure strip.  So far, I have removed the rope and the hose.  As you can see, I used plenty of tape.  My wife and daughter were very helpful in helping me get it taped nice and tight.

 

Next, I cut all the tape.  I then removed the tape and plastic.

 

Here she is in all her glory...boogers and all.

 

 

Tomorrow, I'm going to start cleaning the epoxy off it.

[OH Longbow]

Here's my buddy starting to work on his.  He is building the same bow but, wanted accent stripes in his riser.

 

 

 

After putting it together, we used two pipe clamps to hold it.  The only problem was it wouldn't fit in the oven and lay flat.  I used two clamp lights with 100W bulbs, surrounded by aluminum foil.  I let it bake for about 6 hours before turning the lights off.  The next morning, I took the clamps off.  It looks like it turned out pretty nice.  It still needs to be cleaned.

L8R,

John

[wihill]

Great post!  I like the idea of the riser side mounted with the template to route off the excess.

And I think the open top form (while not your favorite) is still darn cool.  

Can't wait to see the gem in those boogers!

[OH Longbow]

Finally, I have a chance to continue posting some photos.

Here it is with all the epoxy still on it.

 

Here it is afterwards.  As you can tell by the photos, I moved outside for this step.  Please don't take any shortcuts on this step.  Take your time and go slowly.  You don't want to get into the wood.  You just want to remove the epoxy.  Wear a respirator and use your dust collection system.  I don't have one since I destroyed my shop vac so, I did it outside with the prevailing wind at my back.

 

Now its time to peel the old tape off and re-tape.  I wish I had used the blue painters tape.  This stuff was really stuck on.  I took my time and it did come off.

 

For the re-tape, I used the painters tape.  It is a lot easier to remove.  I didn't have any 2" tape.  I used 1 1/2" on the belly of the bow but, as luck would have it, I ran out.  I then pulled out the 3/4" for the back.  I had to make 3 passes in order to get the coverage.

 

Here it is completely re-taped and ready to cut the limb tips to length.

 

Here is a jig for marking the limb tips.  The top of the jig is the cut-off line.  The bottom is for the the string groove.

 

Here the limb is after being marked.  I marked both sides of the limb and made sure they lined up before cutting.

 

Here it is, cut to length.  It's getting closer to being an actual bow.  I used a hack saw to cut it.  I could have used the bandsaw but, it would have been a little clumsy.  The hacksaw was just as quick.

 

More to come.

John

[OH Longbow]

Now, its time to mark the centerline.  In order to do this, I use two different methods and cross check them.  The first is with my scribe.  I used to work for a master carpenter right after I graduated from high school and periodically for a few years after that.  This is one of the first tools he advised me to buy, right after a hammer, nail apron, WOODEN rule, and a steel tape.  I set the scribe at 1" and then move it along the length of the back of the bow.  I then flip it over and mark it again.  The lines should be in the same place.

     

     

The second way I mark the center line is with the use of a laser.  I mount it to the top of my power rack and shine it down onto the bow.  

     

When using this method, I first mark two center dots, one on each end of the riser in the area of the fades.  I then put it under the laser and line the two dots up with the laser.  This then gives you the entire center line of the bow.  I then make a mark every couple of inches, continually verifying that I haven't moved the bow.  Upon completion of this, I use a straight edge and connect the dots.  This method works best on a long bow because it lacks the radical curves on the end of the limbs.  If the recurve bow is not perfectly flat, it will screw up your limb tips.  The center line on the flatter portions may be correct but, as the limbs turn verticle, they'll be off.  

When I laid the bow down, it confirmed that my pencil mark was correct.

     

After marking the centerline, its time to mark the outline of the finished limbs.  I didn't care for the pattern my friend gave me so, I used posterboard and traced the limbs of my current recurve.  Just line up the centerline and mark away.  I then flip the pattern and re-mark the same limb.  This will negate any differences in the sides.

     

Now its time to go to the bandsaw.  Make sure you put your crappy blade on.  But, don't worry, if you forget, you'll now have 2 crappy blades...lol

     

Now, here it is looking more like a bow.

     

With the respirator on, I start to sand again.  This time, I sand it to the limb outline on both sides of both limbs.  I start at the riser and work towards the limb tips.  This also evens out my saw cut. Here's one with my dog in the background.  His name is "Arrow".  It's actually short for Aragorn, from the "Lord of the Rings".  My wife and daughter named him.  I said "Great!  We'll call him Arrow."

     

[OH Longbow]

Its now time to put a string on it.  Actually, I should probably do some other things but, I'm getting anxious to see it strung.  First, I file string grooves in the edge of the limb.  If you're going to do this don't file them across the face, just the edge.  Use the marks you made when using the limb tip jig from one of the previous posts.

 

I then used a stringer to put a string on it.  It didn't look too bad considering this is the first string it ever wore.

 

Here it is from the side.  Man, I'm glad I save the waste portion of the riser block.  That thing is handier than pockets.  It makes a darn nice bow holder.

 

Now its time to determine which limb will be the bottom.  For this I measure off the center line.  I decided on 9".  I doesn't really matter as long as you use the same measurement on each side.

 

 

Measure the distance from the string to the riser at the marks you previously made.  The stiffer limb (the smaller measurement) will be the bottom limb.

 

 

[pditto613]

Great build a long keep it coming