Have not passed thru for a few days and saw the questions and will to answer and show a few more pics.
This is the material I use:
This is a 1/4" by 2" by 12" piece of poplar as sold by both Home Depot and Lowes. This is precut and finished wood that you will find low to the floor in bins along with other similar pieces and sizes.
This is a piece of oak 1/4" by 2" by 48" and is also sold in those same bins. You do not have to buy oak and cut these. They are pre-cut.
Below are some pics of the handles (about 7" long), the pin nocks, and the "pyramid" profile sawn into the limb.
I select the oak for the limbs to be flat sawn and as straight grained as possible. A perfect piece of wood would need no backing, but I select for "ok" wood and back them. Just my way of doing it.
The handles are three layers of the poplar lammed with TBIII. I shape the fades before glueing to the bow so as not to harm the limb with the drill press mounted drum sander. They would glue onto the limb easier if you will trust yourself as I do not! In order to get the thin part of the handle tightly glued to the limb, I bridge it with a small block of pine about two inches long and clamp the piece of pine in place with one end on the limb and the other about 1/2 up the fade (sorry, no pic for that). The handles are centered on the limb.
When the handles are set, I snap a line on the back of the bow to exactly place center and then mark one point on each side of the center at the tips. The width between those two points will be the width of your limb tips. Eg., 3/16" on each side of the center line at the tip will make a 3/8" wide limb tip. Next draw straight lines on the limbs from the tip width marks to the outside edge of the limb wood. I place the wide point of the limb about 1/4" to 3/8" further out than the fade. Probably not necessary but I think it may put less pressure on the glue joint between the handle and limb.
Next you cut the limbs out cutting just to the outside of your line. Once they are all cut you can bring them down to the line with a belt sander, the drum sander (keep it moving or you will end up with scallops) or a small hand plane. I use the small hand plane and find it to be the easier way to get to the line without errors. Once they are shaped, you can radiusl the corners a bit with sandpaper.
Next I glue the paper bag backing on with TB III, wrapping it a bit around the radius and let it dry thoroughly. Once it's dry, file in your string nocks at an equal distance from the center of the bow. Then put a string on it and measure or eyeball for the stiffest limb and make that one the bottom limb. Once you know top from bottom, you can put the shape into the handle with a drum sander. The poplar shapes quickly. Once the shape is in you can cut the sight window and arrow shelf and then clean it up and radius the shelf and the handle to match the deep point of the grip.
I used a MinWax finish/stain combo for the bow above. It came out very dark! :eek: They really don't need any stain I guess. My next time around will be lighter. Next I put on two coats of Varathane clear polyurethane finish with each allowed to dry for 24 hours.
The white handle material is just heavy pure cotton string. I took a long chunk of it and soaked it good in water and then wound it on as you see it. All the while wrapping as tight as possible. Once it was dry, I saturated it with the polyurethane with two coats with 24 hours between coats.
These have not been out in the rain so I'm not sure about durability when wet. Given enough time one of the kids will leave one out in the rain for sure!! :rolleyes:
For the older kids with longer draw lengths (I have drawn these to 25" without problems) these would make good small game bows with proper miniature broadheads. Probably you would need to make those yourself.
For many years I have made only flemish splice strings but lately built an endless loop jig per (loosely :eek: ) Rob Distefano's tutorial with video. The endless loop strings are easy to make and easy to hit correct length too. I don't have the link handy for the tutorial but it should be easy to find.
Not sure if I over explained or under explained this, but if something is not clear please let me know. There are probably many easier and better ways of making these so if you have any good ideas, please post them!!
Edit: Had to move two of the pics into the next post in order to get it to "stick"
Also, the tillering is all accomplished by the "pyramid shape. The sides of the limbs are straight from the fades to the limb tips.
Topic: Kids board bow (Read 993 times)
