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

[Bradford]

This bow is for one of the younger kids.. so only  shooting for around 22lbs or so.  Figure it is worth trying to fix it first.

So I peeled up as much of the de-lam that would come up easy.  Then sanded it.. not easy..

 

Mixed up a little epoxy and turned the oven back on.  Jammed the glue in there real good..

 

Clamped it up and tossed in back in the oven.  We shall see.  I really hope it is salvageable.
Any thoughts from any one????


Moving on to the next bow....


Went ahead and marked up the next riser.

 

hard to see the pencil marks on the walnut.  The I cut my fiddle back maple to length.. and line it up.  I just put dots of glue (tightbond 3) and set the riser block on top of the accent wood.

 

Set some weight on it.. and wait till tomorrow to make the first cut.

 

Then took bow #3 and started some basic shaping.  I use the belt sander to sand down the limbs to shape.  Easier than using the bandsaw.

 

Here it is after..

 

Then I do use the bandsaw with the "fiberglass" blade and cut the window and form..

 

And that will just about wrap up my night.  I will pull the bow out of the oven in a few more hours... hoping that the repair works.

[KellyG]

Bradford,
tough break I think you figured it out though. I like the sound of the wrap you posted. I dont have any ideal if it will work. Only one way to find out. You would have to put a few hunderd arrow thru it yourself to see for sure.
I can't wait to see what you do either way I get to see you do it and will learn along with you.
Thanks for sharing sorry I am not much help,
Kelly

[Bradford]

Yeah.. I think the wrap might do it.  It's fairly closed up and the fade is still glued.. So now with the new epoxy.. if I was sand down about 2 1/2 to 3" of area top and bottom of riser (so it matches).. then do a layer of epoxy.. wrap it with leather lace.. I really think at only 20lbs.. and only around a 25" draw.. it will hold up for quite a while.

Your right.. only one way to find out.

Needless to say I will be building a better form this week before next weekends glue ups.

[KellyG]

bradford,
could you just replace the wood dowels with rebar, or some other metal pegs.
Kelly

[Bradford]

That, or I thought of just putting in 1/2" dowels instead of the 3/8".

[fedora]

This is an awesome buid-along.  I have a 4.5 YO daughter I want a bow for.  She sits on a bucket everyday and watches me shoot and ask for her own bow.  I may try to build her a laminated board bow. Brandford do you build kids bows to order or is just a hobby for you?

George

[Bradford]

I would love to build you one fedora!  That is my ultimate goal.  I am really pumped!  The local hunting store wants me to bring some in to the store for him to consign!

So pm me or email me and let me know what you are thinking of!

[R.W.]

The dowels in your form would be easily replaceable with lengths of 3/8" steel rod, or 3/8" x 6" bolts.

These would not break under the tension of your bands. (Unless you have some REALLY strong bands     )

I utilized bolts in my form, as I was concerned about dowel breakage, when I first built it.

[Scrub_buck]

I am preparing to try building a form for a summer attempt at a lam bow.  Has anybody tried big lag screws or maybe even bolts through the form for the bands?  At least they wouldn't break??

Just a thought.

[Bradford]

You can Scrub.. would not hurt.  But the metal bolts will get hot if your oven is doing 170.  I can hardly touch the c-clamp.  So I would worry a little about the bands being on the hot metal.  1/2" dowels will work fine.. I have used them before.  I just happen to have the 3/8" dowels laying around and decided to use them.  I will up grade to the 1/2" and all will be well.

[Bradford]

Okay.. so cleaned up bow #3 (the problem child).. this is what it looks like:

 

 

 

Does not look to bad.  I then traced my patterns and made my rough cuts.  I think I will be able to salvage it.

 

 

I did my laser light for centering and it did twist a bit getting loose.  I will post those pics later.  But because this is the lighter weight bow, it wont be a problem.

Also got the first fiddle back glued up. .will do the second part tonight.

 

Things are comming along!

[red hill]

Wonderful thread, Bradford! Keep up the great work and Merry Christmas!
Stan

[Bradford]

Thanks red!  

Okay.. so here is the pic of bow #3's limb after center line is found:

 

You can see how much it moved around from that band comming undone.  Nice thing is, you can fix stuff like this.  I always try to build my bows a bit wider than plan.. this is why.  Corrections can be made if need be.  Some of them come out just fine and others need a bit o help.  So after a grind down:

 

Looks straight again.  Now this was a good bow for this to happen to, again because it is for one of my two younger kids.. so less pounds is needed.  I used the same lam stack as the other bows and figured I would achieve target poundage by thinning up the limbs...

Also finished up the glue up of bow #4 riser:

 

This is going to be a cool looking bow!!  My goal is to glue this one up on Saturday.

I did some final sanding on bow #2..  Used the mouse!  WOW.. what took me hours to do by hand, took 10 minutes!  Awesome tool.

 

So it is now ready for the pink minwax stain I picked up.  I tried it on a scrap piece and it looks good.  You brush on the stain, then wipe it off.. You get a pink hue but still see the grain.  I will post pics later!

Then did some more work on bow #3.. got the window cut out and started sanding the "trench"

 

This bow is looking good with that blood wood.  No stain for this bow.. I like the red and light maple contrast.  And with the black glass this one should really pop.  I am still going to add some leather lace by the fades.. I think it will fit this bow really nice for an ole timie look, plus add some extra strength.

Then glued up the face accent bocate to bow #1 redo..

 

So moving along.  My bow strings came in the mail the other day.. so I have everything to finish up.

Thanks for everyones input and encouragement!  this is a lot of work but very fun.  Plus I am learning some neat tricks to help speed up things without loosing quality.

[KellyG]

Ok Bradford,
I get confuese to easy so that is 1R  not 1L. They are really looking good. Your kids are really going to have a great christmas.
Kelly

[Bradford]

Hey, I like that!!!  Yes from now on it is called Bow #1R!...hehehe.  Great way to help keep track.  Thanks.

The goal of these gifts is to get them the heck out of the house and off the darn video games once and a while!  I think they will likey!

[KellyG]

I know it will. My son (16) love to hunt. My daugher(14)not so much. She loves to fish. I was picking on her and made a joke that if I found a lime green bow would she hunt and she said yes. I think she does not know you can make bows any color. hehe. I just want to get her to shoot in the back yard with my son and I. She will shoot BB guns, so I think a bow will work also. I know you will get them out of the house. make it a game who ever can shot x target get does not have to do the dishes or what ever. Next thing you know you are always doing dishes, wait that back fired.
Kelly

[Bradford]

LOL.. that's great.  Yeah, my daughter is 17 and loves to shoot.  They all ask to shoot my bow in the summer time after I have been shooting for a while.  I think she will shoot more now that I made a bow for her and the poundage will be more her fit.

A couple of my kids are dead ringers man.. makes me mad..LOL... I work my butt off to get an x!  Then the middle son walks up and 'twack'.. an X.
It's cool!  Lot's of fun.  I am going to try to make a course around the property this year with like 4 or 5 different targets.  Should make it fun.  Although that means buying arrows all the time.

[KellyG]

Heck get to makeing them too, that could be fun you get a bundle of those non spined or weight. The get some of the pretties feather you can and paint and let them have at it. I would love to see what he little one might come up with. LOL

[Bradford]

I thought about doing arrow.. for the kids at least.  I personally don't like wood arrows.. I find the carbon just shoot so true.

So did some staining last night on bow #2..

 

Looks pretty good.  Was a little dissapointed that the stain did not cover evenaly.  I think next time I will use a dry rub... colored charcoal ground up.  But, this is not to bad.  I lightly sanded it with a super fine sandpaper.

Then I heated up the purple heart with a heat gun to bring up the purple.  Be carefull when you do this.. the wood shrinks.. I had to fill a couple of small gaps with super glue.  I left the gun on a few spots just a hair to long.

 

But overall I think this bow will look really "pretty" when I put on the tounge oil.

Also did some shaping of bow #3..

 

 

Man that blood wood is hard!  The shape is not exactly what I normally like, but because I had to cut off some of the bad glue areas, but it will work good for my younger kid.  It is almost looking more like a stick bow because I made the handle so skinny.

[Bradford]

So, I am not 100% happy with bow #3.  So I am going to set that one aside for right now.  I happen to have 1 extra set of glass.. so I will see how everything else is coming along and decide a little later if I will re-do a bow #3.

I got new larger dowels for my form, so need to get those in.

I got the riser cut out for bow #4.. I love the looks of this.  The walnut and maple have a great contrast.

 http://s383.photobucket.com/albums/oo273/timberwolf177/5%20bow%20build/?action=view¤t=100_1942.jpg

Then I started the trench and some shaping of bow #1R.  Got tired fast last night, so did not get as much done as I wanted.

 

I started getting wood together for bow #5.  Got some limb lam's cut up and was deciding what pattern to do the handle in.  I have zebra wood for this one.

I think I will hit my deadline, just got to keep at it.  I don't think I am going to use Phelonic on the tips for the rest of these.  I don't for see us using fast flight strings, so no reason to.  Very time consuming shaping that stuff.

Thanks to all for following along!