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

[KellyG]

Congrats on the Anniversary, I am over 17yr mark myself. I can't wait to wee you put that new wood too use.

[Dave Bowers]

Looking good

[Bradford]

It's so pretty.. there is a tear in my eye! LOL

Thanks all.. yep, 19 years.  Having 5 kids probably helped some.  It is a thing these days.. all our friends are on thier 2nd marriage.  My wife says I can leave, but she will hunt me down.. soooo.. good enough for me.  I'll stay!  LOL

So I got an email for more info on my home made lam grinder.  Here is a few more pics of it...

 

 

 

 

So nothing to fancy.  Bought a 4x4 piece of 1/2" MDF.  Cut it up to fit the belt sander.  Used glue and a nail gun to put it togther.  Then used a piece of Hicory for the table piece.  You don't want anything that bends or your lam's will not be even.  I used an eye bolt for the adjuster..

The sander sits on the top of the wood at the bottom.. make the supports wider than the sander.. then the table is on a hinge and fits right inbetween all the goodies to hit the sander section.  I use springs to give some resistance to the bolt for adjusting.

I will run my lams twice.. one time one direction, then flip it over and do it again before I adjust.  This just insures that it is all even before I move on.

Hope this helps.

[Bradford]

Okay.. got some more done finally.  
Got the other nock finished up and strung it up!

 

The extra time to laser light and center paid off.. NO twist even with the form giving me a bit o hell.
So what I have read worked!!!  AWESOME.

 

This one is going to be for my daughter.. it is pulling around 35lbs.  I might have to lighten it a bit by sanding the edges a bit on the limbs.  We shall see.  Nice tight draw and feels even.

I love how light weight these bows are compared to my take down bows.  Lot's of fun.

Then I made my self a sanding stick...

 

Took a piece of hickory and cut it down to 7/8" wide.  Then used some contact glue and glued the paper to it.  This works great for the window and shelf area.

Did lot's of sanding on the handle then moved on to the other handles..

 

 

[Bradford]

I had glued the blood wood to the maple the night before.  I just put a few dots of tightbond and let it dry over night.

Draw up my patterns and a way we cut..
 

 

Take it nice and slow.  This is a one cut deal.  You mess up and then it is a real pain to make the pieces fit.

I LIGHTLY sand and try them..

 

There might be a little of a gap here and there, but that is why we do an accent piece.  That help absorb the gaps.

So got that part glued up and under the fire place and got bow #1 hand rebuilt and glued and it is under the fire place also.

So bow #2 almost there.. bow #1 being redone and bow #3 is now under way.

I just ordered strings from a guy on **** and ordered the rest of my glass from Binghams.

More work tomorrow night!

[KellyG]

bradford,
Now how many is that so far 2 righ hand and 1 left or was that just 1 of each so far. Either way looking good. Can't wait to see them all toghether.
God Bless,
Kelly

[Bradford]

One left hand and one right.  I put the left hand up for now.. will finish that one after christmas.

Almost done with the right hand bow.  Just need to finish sand, stain it and seal it.

Got the riser put together for the redo- of bow #1 and the riser put together for bow #3.  Got some of the wood cut up for the riser of bow #4.

All the wood lams have been cut and ready for all the bows.  I have the glass in the shed for bow #3.  Waiting for the order to come in for the fiberglass for bow 4, 5 and 1 redo.

[Greg Szalewski]

Great build along. I have picked up a few ideas from you. Thanks for sharing.
I feel your pain on making the lefty. I know someone that did that same thing.;^)

[Dave Bowers]

Man they're really coming along nicely  

[Bradford]

Thanks guys.  I tell you, it is hard to be at work all day when all I do is think about getting home and working on the bows.. every day I come up with designs and ideas.. not enough time and money to try them all.

Glad to have given you some ideas Greg.. that is how I got a lot of mine.. just by internet searching and this forum espacially.  Then the good old trial and error.

I was just looking up tools to put on my wishlist this year!

[karrow]

great looking bows! i really like the left handed one. hehehe. your kids will love them

[Bradford]

Yeah... I like the left handed one also.  That is why I was glad I still had some more of that bocate wood left.  Those grain lines in it are awesome!

[Bradford]

So got the other part to the riser #3 glued on last night..

 

Now it is ready for sanding and cutting.  I love how it looks like such a mess right now, but in about 15 minutes worth of time it will look like a nice riser.

Then sat in front of the tv and started finish sanding.  I use rasp, 60 and 80 grit paper to get into shape.  Then I bust out the 100 grit to get the heavy scratches out.  Then I worked with a small piece of 150grit.  It is really coming along.  Next step will be the 200-300 grit then finish.

 

 

I plan on having another one (maybe two) glued up this weekend.  I have the glass for one more.. hoping the glass for the others come today.

[John Lipinski]

your daughter is going to be really happy! that looks like a great bow. Can't wait to see all five of them finished!

[joekeith]

Wow....lookin' good    .  The kids will love 'em.

  Thanks for doin' the build along, it really helps watchin'.  It helps seein' the same thing, basicly, done 5 times.  It takes me about that many times before it sinks in  

[Bradford]

Had a christmas party to go to last night.. but look what came in the mail yesterday!

 

Been real pleased with Binghams service these last couple of orders.  Been real quick.  So now I have all the glass I need to finish up.

Here is the risers I was working on.. I don't go crazy sanding them right away.  Since there is so much cutting and shaping, no need to remove excess material.

 

I needed a few more rubber bands for the press so went to CVS and picked up a couple more inner tubes..

 

These are 2.99 ea and work great.  I am sure other tubes work good to, but in my area it is just to easy to run to CVS rather than a bike shop.  So I use my scissors and cut out the stem and cut along the edges.

 

And Wah...lah... two bands per tube.

 

Then I cut and sand the riser I am going to lam up..

 

Put it in the form and check for accuracy.  Don't forget to check the front and back.. you might not be square on the bandsaw or sanding.  I have a few small area to re-work.. so I lightly sand the high spots and get it to fit the form pretty darn good.

 

I use an excess piece of wood and feather up the fades.. nice and thin.. ready for glue up!

[Bradford]

Clean everything with Acetone.. I will repeat this step over and over so you all remember to clean.  Better to over clean than to have a de-lam problem!

Mix up some snot...

 

I seen guys on here use a spreader.. I found that using this metal roller holder works awesome.  I picked it up in the painting area.  It is for those small foam painting rollers.  I find when spreading the snot, it does not build up behind the shaft because of the round shape.  Easy to clean and reuse.  I likey!

Spread some epoxy (aka.. snot)

 

I glue up the two long lams on the bench.  Then glue up the riser.. put those in the form and lightly clamp it down.

 

Not to much pressure.. want to be able to move stuff around.  Then add epoxy to the lams on one side of the bow and get those rubber banded in place.

 

I have some rubber bands that I picked up from an art store.. they work great for the initial band.. not to tight but snug.  I can still move stuff around before final banding.

 

Then bind it up good with the inner tubes.  This being my third, I now know where to apply extra pressure to get a good clamp down.  Get it all done and throw it into the heat box..

 

Now time to eat some lunch and get the next bow ready for glue up tomorrow morning.

Nice thing about final sanding is I can do it in the house in front of the TV late at night.  I just tell the kids I am building these to sell them.  So we are all good.  When I finish one completely, I will hide it in my shed and say I sold it!

[Bradford]

Well, after "lunch".. went back to it for a bit longer.

Here is the bow out of the oven and un-banded.

 

no movement at all.. which is a good thing.  No spring up.  All the lines look good thru the celaphane.. but we shall see when we start sanding.

While the bow was in the oven, I set up the lam grinder and made some shorties for a handle and got two more bows limbs ready to go..

 

Here is the set up ... Caro walnut and maple..

 

Glued that up with epoxy and thru it in the oven with the bow...

Sanded up and here are the limb veners I made for this.. love the grain.

 

 

So the handle will have stripes over all, but then a cool pattern with Fiddleback maple.. I think this one is going to be really awesome.

And to think the idea came from what I had laying around in the garage.  I am building a guitar out of Caro walnut right now and had some left over.. this was the only way to make it into a handle..

I think it will look trick as all get out when cut and shaped.  We shall see!!!

So I have everything ready for another bow to go into the oven tomorrow!  Cool!  That will be 3 baked.. 2 to go.  (Yeah, yeah.. 4 baked if you count my left handed ooopppps..)

Time to kick back, watch some christmas shows and do some final sanding on bow #2.

See ya all tomorrow!

[KellyG]

Can't wait til tomorrow, I bet the way that wood will fade into each other is going to make a purty bow.
thanks for leting us follow along

[Bradford]

Well.. had an interesting day.

I sanded off the excess glue of yesterday bake and took the tape off.  (By the way, two passes with the tape does make it easier to peel off).

 

 

So all good here.  Re-taped and did the laser centering.  This one was almost spot on.  Very nice.  Marked everything up and moved on to the next bow..

Got everything put together and thru it in the oven.  Had to run some errands, in which one of them was to pick up a new toy..

 

I was up late last night hand sanding bow #2.. and man did my fingers hurt.  So I remember some one mentioning the "mouse".. I think this was a great buy.  Comes with convex and concave attachments.. nice point.. this should make some fast work of finish sanding.

Anyway.. to the interesting part:

I took the bow out of the oven.. and ..
Why is some of my bands off????

Take it out and found out that one of the dowels broke and allowed the bands to get loose.

 

and the result:

 

So bummed!  Sooooooo...