Wedges

[monterey]

For one of my upcoming projects it looks like some very thin short wedges will be needed in the last five or six inches of the limb tips.  Does anybody offer those?  I'm not set up to grind or make them.

[walkabout]

what tools do you have? i might be able to help with how you would get them done.

[tim roberts]

Bingham's here in Ogden, Utah can grind them.  I think he charges $45.00 an hour, and it sounds like a few minute job?

[Jason Scott]

I'm sure KennyM can make them and get them to youe in a few days.

[monterey]

Walkabout, I am limited to a bench grinder (stone), hand drills and saws, a bench top drill press and a bench top band saw.  The band saw is near useless!

I thought about just cutting tips from .001 tapers but that is not realy economical.  Then again, maybe it is!?

I'm setting out to replicate a recurve that has incrasing thickness in the limb tips.  Interestingly, there are no wedges or inserts so apparently the lams were ground that way.

[walkabout]

depending on if you have the raw wood to do it you could rough cut a tapered piece then use a sanding wheel in the drill press to final taper it. i just did some tapers but used a band saw and a belt sander, then had to tune the taper by hand with some rough grit. if the tapers you have arent gonna be useful then they might be alright to cut. if you do cut them youd have scrap to be able to work with later for more wedges.if the bandsaw is useless its probably a blade or needs tuned, i had to tune the one here before i could use it so i know how that feels. good luck though, keep us posted with any questions or if you need further explanations.

[monterey]

Thanks, I appreciate all the advice!

[Bob Barnes]

http://kennyscustomarchery.com/index.html
-I'm pretty sure that Kenny is selling them now for a good price...
Bob

[OkKeith]

Mike,

Before I had a bench top belt-sander I did wedges by hand on sand paper.

I would use a table saw or some such to get the length and taper made up from a MDF block (scraps usually worked). I used the MDF because it was stable and easy to cut. If your wedge will be 8" use a piece 8"X4" and close to the width of the wedge. If the wedge on the fat end will be .125, mark one side of the block and cut the angle.

Take the wedge stock and reduce to just fat of the final thickness. Use the two sided duck tape to attach it to the angled side of the block.

Use a level to make sure your work surface is level, and then staple some 120 grit sandpaper to the work surface. Wedge material down, level on top of the MDF block... sand until level in both directions.

I did this for two or three bow builds then bought the sander, still use the block and level method though.

OkKeith

[monterey]

Keith, thanks for that description.  I'm going to give it a try.