Originally posted by fujimo:
nice lookin bow, canopy- i really like the boo belly and back- i will certianally be building one of those in the very near future. how did you do the colouring around the nodes?
how well does boo resist the compression on the belly.
how did you get it to come in close to your required draw weight- i assume you had to pre tiller the boo befor glueing up.
sorry---sooo many questions.
wayne
Fuji-
Coloring around the nodes was playing around trying to get some sort of camo effect going. After the first couple of coats of finish, I hit it with brown spray paint. Then I sanded that off until I got to a pattern like you see. Then added some more coats of finish. I was pretty happy with how it turned out.
I think the engineering properties of bamboo in both tension and compression can't be beat by any wood. I'm not worried about the belly at all any more.
As for the tillering, I had it to a good tiller but a little light before I found the defect in the upper limb. So I figured I'd use that as a starting point. I mapped out the thickness along both limbs of the bow. The lower limb was a bit stiffer and had the best tiller curve, so I figured I'd use that as my target thickness with a little extra (30 thou I think) added in to put some weight back on. I ground the bamboo down to a thin taper, and measured it at the same spots as the bow. Subtracting that from my target thickness profile I had dimensions to grind the belly of the bow to.
When I glued it up, the tiller was fairly good and I had gained 12 lbs or something like that. I lost a few pounds tweaking the tiller by working the sides a bit, and ended up at 57 lbs. Target was 55. After shooting it in, it read 56 lbs, so that's what went on the bow and I'm
claiming success. I want to make one for myself now, but maybe a few inches longer. I'll probably use the same method, although I plan to clamp the bamboo up the fades better.