I'm an idiot......

[DRR324]

Long story- short version....
Many years ago my uncle was making laminated long bows and made one for me.  It WAS 60#@ 28, and closer to 70 at my almost 30" draw.  Well, time has gotten to me and I haven't be able to get it to full draw for awhile.  I decided to try and shave the limbs a bit and lower the poundage- aiming for 52#.  After reading lots of posts, my goal was to remove just a touch of wood and see where it put me.  After sanding for a couple hours and finally reaching the wood- I had an OH Sh*T moment when it hit me... the layer I just removed was actually a glass layer.
Needless to say- but what do I do now???

[hova]

make yourself a board bow , lol...

seriously , im sure someone here has had to do this before , and will have some great advice , just hang in there!


-hov

[BenBow]

Man you have a tough one there. Did you sand the glass off the full length of the limb? About the only way I can thing of to fix it would be to build a form to match the limb, get some new glass and put the limb in the form and glue it up like you would if you were starting from scratch. You'd have to heat cure the smoothon at a lower temp say 120 degrees and then it may or may not work. BTW is it a takedown or one-piece?

[jess stuart]

I think BenBow is right.  I have added another layer of glass a couple of times when a new design missed weight by a bunch.  They have held up and shoot fine.  I normally use .040 glass and added .030 to increase draw weight.  If you try you should rough up the exposed wood lam real well.  You might want to use a thinner glass in order to drop some draw weight.  Good luck if you decide to try.

[Apex Predator]

Good luck!

[DRR324]

Its a one piece- straight limb, no r/d at all.
I'm going to try and check poundage, but guessing 25-30 right now, how much weight will .040 glass add?  You guys don't sound too positive about this.  I'm not a bowyer, just a guy that really wanted to hunt with this longbow....

[John Scifres]

Yes, Dave, I agree     You are an idiot.  I'd almost have to try adding a piece of glass just to see what happens.

[Mark Smeltzer]

Not a good situation at all you may be out of luck.

[KellyG]

Now I am just curious, but what difference does it make to add glass if he has it down to wood now. didn't it start out that way. I Have never built a bow of any type just so I don't understand why he can't just add glass now.    

[Apex Predator]

Don't draw it without another piece of glass on there.  You will damage the wood core if you do.

[Loren Holland]

KellyG. problem is that to laminate glass to wood you have to use certain epoxys.  these are mostly "baked"to cure. because you bake them, you assemple all the pieces in order, and glue all at once. any seperate pieces use a different glue that doesn't require baking, because if you reheat, you might cause a delamination. Dave'
s problem is that now he needs to add glass, without causing the rest of the bow to come apart or weaken, thus the comment to heat it to a lower temp when curing...

what about the glue bowgrip100. it is advertised as not needing to be heated. i am using urac185 (for an all bamboo, but it works on glass too, right?) right now,and haven't used a heatbox, i just let it sit for at least 10 hrs instead of only 3-4.

[hova]

why not heat it up , separate the pieces ....oh wait , just build a new one i guess...


maybe you could salvage the lams and bits enough to reform it...


0hov

[DRR324]

You guys are killing me here.....  
I was contacted by TWOTRACKS, and have a call into him.  He's only an hour and a half from me. Hoping he has an idea....

[Roy from Pa]

LOL Dave. Don't feel bad, lots of us have done dumb stuff too:)

[Sal]

The bow lost over 30# of weight, you may have taken more than just glass.  I think resorcinol doesn't need to be baked.  Some of the early 50's bows have the distinctive purple stripe of resorcinol, so it does work on glass.  Considering all the trouble, I would actually recommend that you make it a wallhanger.

[jsweka]

I gotta ask...What did you use to sand off a complete layer of glass?  Surely you didn't sand by hand.  That would take forever and a day!

Not to trying to scare you or anything, but did you wear any sort of mask or filter?  That much fiberglass dust wouldn't be too good for your lungs and many a bowyer has had to quit their craft due to the ill effects of fiberglass dust.

[DRR324]

Sal, I haven't strung it or anything to check weight, just hand flexed the limbs...
jskweka- yeah I was using a power hand sander- no I didn't wear a mask, but I did have a big fan mounted above my head blowing right on my face to keep the dust going down.

 I'm still having a real hard time with this- can't believe I was that stupid...  I'm still hoping it can be salvaged.

[Roy from Pa]

LOL Dave, it's something you will always remember. I am right handed, yet I have found myself making a left handed bow, more than once:)

[jess stuart]

The times that I have added glass to one of my bows I used smooth on, just cured at a lower temperature.  I have heard horror stories about bow grip, have never tried it myself.

[whistle]

Sal, is the man…He has built some awesome bows!!  This is Clark from mojam.. I think I would try to salvage the bow by making sure I had sanded the glass evenly on both limbs, use ea-40 (smooth on) and glue some laminate bamboo stips.  The really thin ones that they sell at 3river.  What do you guys think? Did you remove it from the belly only?