What is your bow building and tools little tricks

[Loren Piper]

I never met a bow builder old or new that didn't have some trick in the bow building field that he would pass on to others if it was use of the tools or the making of his own bows I would like to hear some of them.  

[George Tsoukalas]

Most if not all are on my site.    Jawge
 http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/

[Sam Harper]

Using the disk part of my belt/disk sander to radius my arrow shelves is one of my favourite tricks.  I don't know how many other people do it that way.

 

[Dano]

I wish I had some tricks to share, I try to stay away from power tools as much as I can when building a bow. I found early on that power tools will run a selfbow pretty quick.  

[Pat B]

Patience!!!!!

[Mike Mecredy]

One thing I've found that hleps me out when a scapper is too big and 60 grit is too slow, I use those replacement, snap off, box cutter blades as a scraper, cheap quick and leave behind a "polished surface".

Also lots of rough rat tail files of different diameters.

[Loren Piper]

One trick that has worked fine for me is on fire hose take a 1inch pipe and cut a little wider then the hose and cut down the pipe about a 4th of the pipe opening, and put some gasket cement in the hose end and double the end and slide it in the pipe then put in the vice and squeeze it tight then use a large hammer and finish smashing it flat and that makes a nice seal.

[Eric Krewson]

I made these pads for my vise jaws. They work better than anything I have used before and were really easy to make. I copied the one leaning against the vise using wood and leather.

 

[Billy]

Eric, you always come up with some cool,homemade gadget!
What about your tiller gizmo?

[stickmonkey]

This is a great post. I have seen several nice jigs used by folks to cut risers and the arches in the riser blocks using a bandsaw and router. Kenny M has a link to his site that shows how to route a form from a template you make. Same thing can be done for quickly roughing out a riser from a billet.

[Loren Piper]

A friend of mine made a bow oven out of a old no good upright freezer he took the motor and coil out and laid it on its back and added three  lites and a therm. and it workes better then my plywood one and runs cheaper, didn't cost a fraction of what my wooden one did and out performes mine.

[Loren Piper]

I don't know about the rest of you guys But I have picked up some helpfull hints so far.  Thanks Guys Pipers Bowruff

[monterey]

My power tools are limited to a bench top single speed band saw and a bench mounted drill press.  I found that trying to cut glass lam limbs to shape on the little high speed band saw would destroy a blade in several inches.  So, I took a hack saw and bent both ends at a 45 degree handle and use that and a fine tooth blade to cut out the limb shapes.  Recently I found a hack saw that allows the blade to be set at fixed angle of choice and will use that next time around.  Meanwhile it has served well in my back pack as a bone saw.

Also, with only the drill press and a drum to sand with, I started using course files to take the limbs down to final dimension.  I use them as though they were a sanding block running them up and down length wise along the limb edges.  

Many of my methods fall under the category of tool abuse!  

[BigJim]

I use stretch wrap instead of using kitchen plastic to wrap my forms and then the glued up bows while on the forms. It stays put and doesn't get in the way. It can be purchase at home depot or lowes for about $7 per roll. You'll be surprised how many uses you will find for it.

Bigjim

[Shakes.602]

Is that one of those Questions that  "If I Told   Ya, I Would HAVE to KILL Ya...."  :rolleyes:    would be Categorized Under??  :confused:        

[Dooley]

I glued pads of 10 ounce leather to the clamping surfaces of all my "C" clamps and the jaws on my vise.   Works great.  

[Loren Piper]

Shaher.602 Don't you have a trick or two pass on to fellow archers they have shared some with you.

[Shakes.602]

Yeah, I just Might at that!! Mr Krewson sent me a Priceless Tiller Gizmo along with his knowledge from reading Posts he is Involved In!   And  Patience, Patience,   Patience!!      UNLESS  You  LOSE  Your "Patience" and Chuck them across the Garage!!        My Memory is Failin' me Now........ It Does That More & More Everyday!! Good Thing I have a Library of "How To..." DVDs!!! Dean Torges is My Personal Hero!! Along with WingNut, YellarGnome....  

[Loren Piper]

Well here is a tip you might use to remove epoxy from your hands take fine saw dust and dish soap and clean your hands

[kennym]

WD-40 works well on epoxy on hands before dry. Just don't use it near your bow supplies!LOL