How do you cut window and shelf on a laminated...

[barley40]

Looking for suggestions on bandsawing out the sight window and shelf. I've done it, but there must be some hints and kinks out there. Seems like it oughta be straight forward but.......

[Jason/Woody]

I'm curious about this as well.  I will be monitoring this to see if any hints are given before I do mine, hopefully tomorrow.

[walkabout]

use relief cuts to help guide. personally i wouldnt go near the bandsaw for that purpose, i prefer to use a coping saw to cut them. hardest part though would be the curvature of the front of the riser, although one can make a block of wood with a relief area in it to help combat this. i use this method for clamping staves in my bench vice, just a scrap block i hold against the drum on my sander to groove. makes things a bit easier.

[NightHawk]

way I do it is by using a hacksaw. I draw out my sight window then I make a bunch of relief cuts to the line I've drawn, then at that point you can either use a wood chisel and chisel the relief cuts out or I use the bandsaw to cut along the line I drew, then sand the saw marks off the sight window. just my 2 cents

[Apex Predator]

I draw it out on all sides, hacksaw to the line, chisel, and rasp it out.  Be careful with the chisel!  Don't draw it in as deep as you want the final product, cause you will lose some to the file/rasp.  I make twice as many cuts when doing this now.  This build is older.

 

 

 

 

[Furtaker]

I do it the same as Apex.Just use a good sharp chisle and rasp the rest.

[T Folts]

I just use my band saw.

[mater]

Ive always just cut them on the bandsaw also. I use a metal cutting bandsaw with a 10/14 wavy tooth blade.  Mark

[Jeremy]

I do/did it like Apex.  Now I have a bandsaw, but I'm still leaning toward doing it that way on the next one.

[strungstick]

The Bandsaw works just fine.  Mark it well and follow the lines.  I hold the bow off the table to allow me to cut it at the angles I need and then follow that up with a good file to clean things up.  Use an old blade that you would cut glass with as this will of course destroy a good blade.

[T Folts]

I am cutting a all wood riser and cut outside the line and use a file for my final depth.

[Jason Scott]

I use a hacksaw to make the shelf cut then use the table bandsaw to cut out the site window to the shelf cut. A metal 14 teeth per inch blade. Fiberglass lam bows.

[Swissbow]

I cut it out with an electrical jigsaw. I don't go over the line, because the rasp will take away some material.

 

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Andy

[red hill]

Apex has it, chisel using little, light taps with a hammer.
Stan

[D.A. Davis]

I did mine like Apex, but instead of having 5 cuts, I had about 25 cuts.  It made chiseling much easier.

[jess stuart]

I cut my sight window in before the glass is glued in place.  I wrap the cutout in plastic wrap and put back in place, I have always been able to get them out after glue up without to much trouble.  Only problem is it predetermines which will be the top and bottom limb.  I usually cut a couple on inches off the thick end of one of the tapers, buy using that lam in the top limb it will make it a bit weaker.

[Sixby]

Bamdsaw with bimetal blade takes about 5 minnutes total. I mark the dead center of the riser and cut 1/8 past that. I cut down to 1/4 before the shelf. Then cut across to that and remove the chunk. then I cut 1/4 back from the sight window down to the shelf leaving a 1/4 x 1/4 square piece intact against the sight window. I then very carefully use my grinder to rough radius in the radius taking out the piece in the radius area that I left. You do not want a square cut at the sight window , shelf jnnction. Once I get that roughed out I use the grinder to radius the front of the shelf and the back of the shelf. be sure to keep it square to the window. Never hold a piece of work above the bed on the bandsaw as someone described. The percentage of bandsaw accidents are caused by the saw grabbing a piece and kinking when someone is doing that. Very nasty things happen. fingers go flying , tendons get cut ect.

Now I get my trusty dremel with a little drum sander and carefully shape the area that I just roughted out , making a perfect radius in the shelf to sight window. This is super important. Total elapsed time is about 20 min to complete the cut out and shape and rough the shelf and sight window in. Final sanding takes my sight flat and square with a long board with heavy grit and then fine sanding and I end up 3/16 past center cut. Of course you can go dead center or 1/8 past or whatever you want. On heavy poundage bows I go center cut. cutting the sight window before you shape the riser is easier since you have flat , square edges to work with,. Steve

[Loren Holland]

I use band or hack saw (depending on thickness of riser) to make relief cuts, and then cut out the shape of the window, stopping short of the line. I use the dremel to clean it up, then sand. I found that the grout removing bit, has teeth like a rasp, and works like a charm. I then draw the arc of the shelf radius and shape that with the dremel too.  some folks use a disc sander and rotate the bow around  it, but when i bought my combo belt/disc sander i didn't buy a model where the disc cleared the motor housing (don't do that if you are shopping for one).  I not only radius the shelf, but i angle the shelf slightly, higher to the outside and lower to the inside. this helps keep the arrow on the rest.

[gudspelr]

A lot of interesting replies-stuff I'd have never thought of...  I've only done it once, but I just used the bandsaw, back side towards the table.  Still had tape on both glass surfaces and cut outside the line.  Then a lot of filing/rasping to get my desired shape.  Didn't have any problems with the glass and the bandsaw.


Jeremy

[levibear]

I made a jig for my router table using a stright bit the bow clamps into the jig. I remove the material  in 4 passes