Not sure if anyone is interested but I started an attempted repair yesterday on a bow that was busted completely in half. Thought I'd maybe show some pictures if anyone wanted to see it. I don't actually have start to finish pictures so I'll talk you through the beginning story.
It all began a fair number of years ago. Probably back in about 2000 or so when I got brave and for the first time decided I'd try buying something off e-b-a-y. It was the first time I'd used any sort of on line auction site and I was a bit nervous. The purchase was a mongo size Herters target recurve. Not sure of the model but it's about 72" long with a huge rizer of Brazilian rose wood and white glass. About the size of something like a Bear Tamerlane. It was supposed to be a bow for my wife to shoot. When the day came and the UPS truck pulled into the drive, I was there to meet it. The driver came out of the truck not with a tube or long skinny box but instead, a whimpy box bent into a perfect "V" shape! Uh oh.... That's not good.
Well, turned out that there were several problems besides the obvious. First, the box was really lame. Just a single layer of cardboard and no packing of any kind. Second, the bow had been drilled for an insert right in the skinniest part of the grip. There was simply too much wood missing there. The break started in the radius of the shelf and split down through the handle about 5 inches and followed the grain out one side. Total breakage, useless bow.
The seller refunded my money and didn't ask for the bow back so I thought I'd glue it back together with some titebond and hang it on the wall. I also made a walnut dowel and glued it into the spot that had been drilled for the insert. Yea, I know I should have used epoxy but I went with what I had. I wasn't really planning on shooting it at that time. Then I got to thinking that after all, titebond is supposed to make a bond stronger than the wood isn't it? Maybe I could shoot it after all???? After the glue was dry, I took it out and shot it a few times and at one point I heard some cracking noises so that was the end of that. On the wall it went.
A short time later I was thinking of some sort of repair option I might try. Since the riser was already glued, I couldn't do anything to improve the glue joint. What else was there? Then one day it hit me. What if I could insert laminations INTO the riser perpendicular to the original break? But how?
In the end, I clamped the bow to my table saw with the blade fully retracted. Then I started the saw and cranked the blade up through the riser of the bow making a plunge cut longways in the riser cutting through from one side to the other side. Next, I moved the bow over about a half inch and did it again then a third time and I was about out of room for cuts. Now, I figured all I had to do was buy some laminations the thickness of my saw blade and draw the radius on them, cut them out and glue them in place! Instant laminations.
Problem was getting laminations. Getting off my but to finish wasn't too high on my list either. Back on the wall it went for about 9 years.
A short time back, KennyM posted about some bows he was building and had a link to his website. Since he is from here in MO same as me, I got to looking around and found that he makes and sells laminations for bow builders. I contacted him with some questions and we pm'd back and forth a bit. In the end, it was arranged that I'd go up to his place in north central MO and watch him glue up a bow and he'd take a look at my repair project to see what he thought. That was this past Wednesday. By the way, I gotta tell ya, Kenny sure seems like a real nice guy and he's got a real nice selection of woods for lams and a nice shop with all the cool machines to build them. We measured my saw cuts for width and then hit the scrap bin for pieces I could use. We settled on some canary wood for the contrast with the Brazilian rosewood and it was also going to match the yellowed finish on the white glass pretty well.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera so I don't have pictures but suffice to say we did like I said and drew the 5" radius to match the 10" saw blade and cut/sanded the pieces to fit and when Kenny mixed the smooth-on for his bow, he mixed a little extra for my repair and we did both one after the other. We clamped up my bow and wrapped some plastic wrap around it so I could get it home without getting glue all over the car. When I got home, I put the bow on top of a space heater and covered the riser and heater with two big bath towels. This is the point where the pictures will start but I still have to load them. Be back in a bit.
Topic: Unorthodox bow "repair along" anyone??? (Read 881 times)
