Christmas - 5 bow build along.. Dare you to keep up...LOL

[Bradford]

Title says it all.  I have 5 kids (don't know what caused that till later in life..hehehehehe)..

Since I started building bows a couple of years ago I have been watching my kids enjoy them.  So for christmas this year, they are each getting their own.  I usually build take down recurves, but decided for the kids, one piece recurves would be the way to go.

Each one has it's own design and woods!  so this should be fun.  I got number one in the oven now.. so here are some pics of the work and follow along.  Hopefully I can get them all done it time!!!!!

[Bradford]

Thought you might all get a kick out of this pic to start with.  This is my Grandfathers archery club from the 50's.  He has passed now, but my grandma gave me the photo when she heard I started building bows.

 

What a great pic.. wish I was alive back then.  Seemed like a simple way of life.  I know they still had there problems, but technology did not add to them.  O well, on to the work.....

First off went to the local Hardwood place up here in Northern California.  I live the foothills of the Sierra Mountain range just below lake Tahoe.  Beautiful country.  Makes me want to build stuff.  Picked up a chunk of hard Maple.  4" wide by 1 3/4" thick and 10 feet long.  Only 30 bucks... what a deal.  I had some 2x2x2' exotics left.. Bocate and Purple Heart, then hoped on line and ordered some Zebra Wood, Bloodwood and fiddle back maple.. You will see!

I got 3 20" blocks for handles out of my 10' then used the rest for the lams.  Set up the band saw and started cutting away.. cut up 14 - 1/8" strips of the hard maple at 1 1/2" wide.

[Bradford]

 

Here is the lam grinder I built.  Once again standing on the shoulders of others.. I found this baby on line.  Works great.  I take the 1/8" strips and grind them down to .50 or .60.. or what ever I need.  I bought a tappered lam a ways back from Binghams and use it as a template to do tappered lams as well.

Then I lightly glue my exotic wood to the maple blank where I am going to joint the two..

 

This pic is of the purple heart I am gluing now, but did the same thing with the Bocate.  Then on to the band saw to cut my pattern.  With the 12" bandsaw I easily cut threw both pieces at the same time to ensure I am getting the same cut.

 

[Bradford]

Then I clean up everything with Acetone.  So the Bocate, black glass accent and the maple. Stir up some Smooth on and let er' dry.

 

 

Then I take it and belt sand everything smooth

 

Alright ready to cut it up on the bandsaw.

As I had posted before, cutting thru the fiberglass will ruin your blade.. so sick of buying blades.. but will figure out a better way.

Here is a pic of the form I designed.  A big thanks to Swissbow for the ideas and templates to get started then made a few changes to fit my needs.

 

I then cleaned everything with Acetone again and layed some seran wrap on the form.  Put masking tape on the fiberglass and glued it all up.  I put glue on each side of each piece.  Rather waste a bit of glue than to have a bad glue joint.

Then got some rubber bands and inner tubes and got it all attached.

 

Here is my cheaply built oven.  Insulation boards from home depot.. 12 bucks each and 3 100watt light bulbs.  I throw a digital temp gauge in it so I can see where I am at, but works great!!!!

 

So it is now baking away in the oven and should have more pics of bow #1 tomorrow.

Hope I can help someone else with there build as I have learned so much from you guys on this site.

Thanks!

[J. Holden]

Wow, have fun and thanks for posting pics.

-Jeremy  

[hova]

im watching...you taking adoptions?

[xstatic1971]

Go Go Go!!!!  Sounds like a busy December!

[KellyG]

"I got number one in the oven now" thought you said you already had 5  
this is great cant wait to seem all finished and together. Hope to see PICS of them been shot on Xmas too.

[Bradford]

No adoptions...LOL.. 5 is enough.. Hey, wasnt' that a tv show.. ohh, 8 is enough... anyway....

Lot's of fun!  Epoxy looked good and hard when I turned off the shed power at 8pm tonight.  Can't wait till tomorrow to unwrap and start shaping.  That's my favorite part.

Nice one KellyG... hehe.. NOT THAT OVEN.. we fixed that problem.  LOL
Will do on the Christmas day shoot.  Hoping for good weather that day.  We are getting a bit of snow tonight.
My mom asked me what I wanted for christmas this year.. I said a 3D target!!! Yeah baby..

[Dave Bowers]

Man I love build alongs  

[Bradford]

Alright.. more done.

Pulled it out of the oven and sanded off the excess epoxy on the sides and removed the tape.

 

 

Not to shabby.. I taped it back up to protect the fiberglass and so I can draw lines on it.

First off I threw a laser light on it to check for straightness..

 

Looked good.  Just a hair off.  My form split a bit down the middle.  Not sure why.  Maybe the oak was not 100% dry like I thought.  So I need to re work the form a bit or build another one with MDF.

[Bradford]

Then found a string to throw on it.  It is about 2" to long which is perfect for the first string up.

 

 

I put the scale on it and it seems to be pulling around 28 lbs.. perfect for the older kids.  Strong enough to toss arrows but not so hard as to wear you out after 5 arrows.

So next step was to make some cuts and start with the shaping.  After I got to a certain point, I epoxied a piece of Bocate on the front.. so now she is drying till tomorrow!

I found a bit of a limb twist on her after string up, but very small.. so can be fixed with some tiller and nock finesse.

 

 

See you guys tomorrow night!

[jess stuart]

Looks like a merry Christmas at your house.  The kids will be very happy, of that I am certain.  Dad might be a bit tired though.  Really nice build along, thank you for sharing with all of us.

That is a real nice looking design on the bow as well.

[Bradford]

Thanks Jess..

I might be a bit tired at the end.. but dang, I love working with wood.  I started building my first guitar.  On hold until after christmas.. but that has been fun also.  I also want to try my hand at knife making.  How cool to have a maching knife with your bow...SWEET!

Just picked up an old Rockwell lathe. big boy.  I think I need to make a pool cue or two and a couple of chess sets.  Dang.. I need to win the lottery so this work thing can go away...hehehe.

[KellyG]

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

[Swissbow]

Very nice job ! I bet the kids will be very happy at xmas. Looking forward to see more from that one and the other four still to come.
Thanks for the build along.

----------
Andy

[Bradford]

Thanks for the compliments!!  So much fun.  I don't do well sitting around watching TV.

Okay.. so did not get a lot done tonight, but got some done.

First started building the second bow's handle.

I had lightly glued the purple heart onto the bottom of the maple.  I use Tight Bond 3 and only apply about 5 dots.
Then to the band saw to cut it up.
 

My favorite blade for this got hashed cutting thru fiberglass, so I had to use another blade.  It cut's okay, but leaves marks.  So I had to do some LIGHT sanding.  To much sanding and the two pieces will not match up.

I cut a piece of white fiberglass from the lam piece and sand it down on the smooth side.  Then cleaned everything up with Acetone.

 

Mixed up some smooth on snot and applied..
Then I set it on the side and slowly go back and forth with the c clamps.

 

Then all the way.  I wipe of excess epoxy to check the fit and I lift it up and check the bottom to make sure it did not slide up on me.  It usually does so I give the smaller piece a couple of wacks with a mallet to keep it level.

 

Since I had some glue mixed up, went a head and got the tips on the first bow cut and cleaned.  I like shapes so cut a piece of the Bocate in a shape I liked then cut some Phenol in another shape.  Roughed up the surfaces and cleaned with Acetone...

 

 

 

Then I set all the pieces around my fireplace for drying tonight!  I need to make a mini heat box for the risers.

We shall do some more tomorrow night!

See ya tomorrow!

[Dmaxshawn]

Looking good

[DVSHUNTER]

I'm really liking this one. Nice job so far. I really like that tip idea.

[Pac'em out]

They're coming along real nice.  Please keep posting pictures.  Your doing a great job.  Tim