Dick's Bow Swap Build - Part 2 - Final Pix Added - Page 4

[Dick in Seattle]

Dick’s Swap Bow Build - Part 2 - The Bow

For this swap I elected to start by doing the conversion project covered in the previous thread, Dick’s Swap Bow Part 1, the conversion of a 6x48 belt/disk sander to a serious bow making vertical edge sander.

With that project completed, it was time to start the bow. This will be one of my standard longbows. The rules of this swap are that we should not reveal any details that would help the prospective recipient to know that this was his or her bow so I'll be kind of skimpy on details.  This will not be a build along, but rather just a series of pictures of the stages of building the swap bow.  I'll be showing shots of the sander conversion in action.

   

I generally resaw a couple of extra lam pieces for each project, just in case... I was fortunate in that for this project I was able to find a nice set of lam pieces left over from these previous projects. Here you see a bow... some assembly required! There are four pieces of laminated bamboo and two of red elm. These will make a three lam bow. Also on on hand were two pieces of black glass and a riser block laminated of myrtle.

   

The lams have to be ground to the specs I determined appropriate for the weight and length of bow desired. Here are two of the bamboo pieces being ground on the Grizzly drum sander. All of the lams will be ground parallel, then two of the bamboo lams will be tapered.

   

Riser being cut out of the myrtle block.

   

Using the sander's flat edge to smooth and true the bottom of the riser. I actually did this with two hands, but taking a picture required the other hand for the camera

   

Here I'm ready to use the round end of the sander to smooth the top of the riser and sand the fades. The hollow curved piece closest is just the remainder of the block the riser was cut out of. I'm using the bottom of it here as a flat, true surface to back the fades as I sand them into paper thin ends.


   

Finished fade tip. 

   

What was a "bow kit" this morning is now ready to be laid up. I grabbed another previously made bamboo piece, cut it up and ground the pieces into two 12" tapered power lams and two 4" tapered tip wedges.

   

Final step before lay up is to stack all of the pieces together between two stiff slats of wood and run them through the drum sander on edge to get them all of absolutely uniform width, exactly matching the top surface of the form. Nothing invites lams to slip in the gluing process like having them be of different widths!

I'm now ready to do the layup, but it will have to wait for a couple of days. I'm overdue for a day with my wife, tomorrow, and found a shoot to go to on Saturday.

Dick

[Mike Most]

Good pictures, and a lucky recipient, but,    where is all the dust??

[KellyG]

oh Dick I bet *************** is gitty with anticipation and just can't wait to see what their bow will look like.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Boy there's alot of neat projects going on in the Bowyer's Bench! This is awesome and I'm watching all of them!
This gives me lots of good reading to follow along with every morning while drinking my coffee.      

[soopernate]

That is cool Dick...I LOVE watching these things turn into bows and probably one of your biggest fans....keep it coming, I am about to get going myself on a similar project before I start my swap bow.

[Dick in Seattle]

Mike:  You allow dust in your shop?!  I'm shocked!  Actually, with a small shop hooking the dust collector to each machine is easy and cleanup after each stage of the operation is vital or you suddenly find yourself unable to work.

Semo Hunter:  If you haven't "watched" me build a bow, I'm guessing you haven't found my website:

 www.dickwightman.com

Hit "Archery Activities", then "How I Build a Bow".  This is real complete build along back when I built "Arrowl Flynn".   That was a couple of years ago and I do a few things differently now, but it's a real thorough presentation, covering all the steps and tools used.   Most important difference is that today I wouldn't dream of allowing a bandsaw blade to touch fiberglass!   All done with the sander.

'Course, if you really want to watch me build a bow, come build one with me!

[KellyG]

Dick you better hope I never find myself out the FT lewis way. Your wife and mine would would get sick of bows I am sure. LOL

[Dick in Seattle]

You get out this way you darn well better look me up!  The wives can talk knitting, choir singing, music in general, or whatever until we remember we got 'em!  :^)

[KellyG]

[KellyG]

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Originally posted by Dick in Seattle:
Mike:  You allow dust in your shop?!  I'm shocked!  Actually, with a small shop hooking the dust collector to each machine is easy and cleanup after each stage of the operation is vital or you suddenly find yourself unable to work.

Semo Hunter:  If you haven't "watched" me build a bow, I'm guessing you haven't found my website:

 www.dickwightman.com

Hit "Archery Activities", then "How I Build a Bow".  This is real complete build along back when I built "Arrowl Flynn".   That was a couple of years ago and I do a few things differently now, but it's a real thorough presentation, covering all the steps and tools used.   Most important difference is that today I wouldn't dream of allowing a bandsaw blade to touch fiberglass!   All done with the sander.

'Course, if you really want to watch me build a bow, come build one with me!

I will definitely check it out!
Man I would love to work along side you and learn from you! I wish you weren't on the other side of the continent.......otherwise I would be right over!        
I'm sure you've got so much information running around in that head of yours, I'd have to carry a tape recorder to take notes........and lots of extra memory cards!

If I had wings......I'd be happy just to be a little fly on the wall in your shop and observe.     :D  

I would be hard to miss, cause I'd be a big ol fat 250lb. fly all blobbed up in the corner holding on for dear life!    

[stringstretcher]

Dick.  I noticed that you grind your lams directly on the rubber pad of the sander.  How thin can you grind on that sander without using some kind of sled?  And what grit paper do you use to grind your lams?

[Dick in Seattle]

stringstretcher...   I grind to between 50 and 60 comfortably.  I get nervous thinner than that, but that's thin enough for front and back lams of fancy woods backed up by a good lamboo core.

I grind with 60 grit paper.  Many grind with coarser and prefer it, feeling that it gives a better grip for the glue.   However, I do a lot of clear glass (I'm a wood freak as much as I am a longbow freak) and I'm told that sometimes with coarser grit you can still see the sanding lines.   I imagine 50 grit would still be fine, but I'd be nervous below that, and I've found that 60 is more readily available than 50, and I've never had a lam failure with it, so there I am.

[stringstretcher]

When you say 50 and 60 are you saying .050 thousandts?  Man, I have that same sander and did not think you could grind that thin without a sled.  Learn something new every day.  Thanks Dick.

[Dick in Seattle]

Yes, that's what I meant... sorry not to be more specific.   Wed. my "apprentice", Jesse, ground a pair to .60.  He was quite pleased with himself. I used to use my sled, but frankly, I don't think I made a great parallel sled and I get better results faster off the bed.   I was put on to this by Kenny of Kenny's Custom Archery.   I asked him if he'd make me a better parallel sled and his response was, "Why?  Use the bed."  Of course, it's assumed you have the machine well set up and know how to allow for the compaction of the hook and loop paper.  Some folks hate the hook and loop, I like it.  I feel it gives me some flexibility for small adjustments simply by moving the lams around on the bed. There's always a bit more compaction in the middle and if you want a very small increment without raising the bed you can move the lam (or sled) over to the side.  This doesn't work with a brand new wrap of sand paper, which, if properly put on, is even.  It's a matter of getting to know your machine and watching every grind carefully as it proceeds.

[stringstretcher]

Thanks Dick.  Very Helpfull info.

[Trux Turning]

Looking good- thanks for posting. Your site has a lot of helpful info that I have borrowed from too.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Dick- I've also been snooping around your website. You have some good stuff on there and lots of it! I'm still not through reading all of it, you do a great job of explaining and I like your style.

[Dick in Seattle]

First of Two New Installments - Jan.24

Layup
 
   

I still had to angle butt the lam ends. Here I'm using a 45 degree angle jig (fancy name for a piece of wood with an angle cut on it) on the flat side of the new sander to do that. It's just a matter of gently sliding the lam end up into the angle an letting the belt touch it briefly.
 
   

Here's the result.
 
     

Here's the bow layed up, ready for 6 hours in the oven at 170 degrees.
 
     

I'm a fiend about preparing for my layup. I wax the form surface, then put two layers of masking tape on it. Each piece of glass also gets two layers of tape. Then the form gets a layer of clear plastic, then the actual layup. Finally, another layer of plastic. Then I place the backing/pressure strip. This consists of one layer 1/4" masonite, a layer of semi-truck mud flap rubber and a piece of 1/8" aluminum. These are taped together and go on as one unit.  Care in keeping the form clean pays off.  This is the form about 20 minutes after I took it out of the oven.  The bow is off, the tape is off and the form is completely clean.  This form has made more than 30 bows and is a clean as the day I made it.

Because I use the "overpass" riser shape that I do, my belly glass is one piece, not cut, and my backing/pressure strip is also one continuous piece. The gentle curves of the overpass allow for easy placement of the clamps and produce excellent, smooth fades.

Once the bow comes off the form, I have the option of making the bow with either my deep locator forward riser or a standard straight or dished riser. This bow will get the standard riser.

[Dick in Seattle]

Second of Two New Installments - Jan. 24

The Grindout

This was the part I was really excited to get to, as it was the real test of the new sander, which passed with flying colors. It runs much faster than Monstro, and I found it took a lighter touch, but it worked very well. I may slow it down by going to a larger pulley size on the belt drive unit, but that's a minor modification
 
 
 

Set up to begin work.
 
 

A bow fresh off the form is not a pretty sight! There are gobs of squeezed out glue (bow snot) all up and down the length. My first worry is always to get down to the riser side surfaces so I can see how well (or poorly!) the lam joins and fades came out.
 
 
 

Here I'm running the side of the riser section against the oncoming belt. That's important! To grind off you go against the belt movement.
 
 

Here's the exposed riser surface. Lam joints are OK, not as good as I like.. they squeezed open a bit. Sometimes I glue them together ahead of time, sometimes I don't. This time I didn't but probably should have. The fade looks perfect.
 
 
Here I've started to move up the limb and expose the sides of the lams.
 
 
 

If you look real carefully here, you can see the power lam... riser, belly lam, power lam, elm core lam, back lam. Also gives a better view of the fade flowing into the layup.
 
 
 

Once the excess glue is almost all gone, I smooth the side by working it against the flat side of the sander, working with the movement in this case.
 
 
 

This is what the side of the limb looks like after this operation.
 
 
The bow is still actually rough at this point. Tomorrow I'll run it through the drum sander to smooth bow sides and bring it down to the final shoulder width, which I'll decide on by floor tillering it as I go. It will probably be between 1.100" and 1.200". Once that is done I'll strip off the tape and any plastic still surviving and you'll be able to see the basic bow blank. After that will come re-taping the back with lighter colored tape and drafting the bow shape on, then grinding out the final bow shape and tillering to weight.

Are we having fun yet?   Actually, I am.  However, I find it difficult to build a bow and not reveal who it's for, but them's the rules. I'm going to cheat just a bit and reveal that at least in my mind, I'm building this one for Herkimer Q. Wheezby.    Herk, I hope you're liking it....
 
Dick