How much is too much reflex?

[Dan Landis]

I'm working on a HBERC and after glue up ended up with 2-1/2 to 3" of reflex.  After removing wood from the belly on one limb I had about 6" of reflex.  Removed wood from the other limb and it did the same thing.  I used smooth on for the glue up, the back is about 1/8" and trapped and the belly is about 1/2".  Is there anything I can do to reverse the reflex or try tillering as is????...Dan

 

[PEARL DRUMS]

WOW! Thats a bunch there. I dobt have any experinece with that much relfex. I would be concerned about it flipping on itself maybe? Or blowing at mid limb. How much more wood do you have to remove? You can expect to lose about half after tillering and shoot in.

[PEARL DRUMS]

One more thing. If it increased after removing ERC, your back is too strong and over powering the cedar.

[NTD]

PD, the bow moving into reflex after removing belly wood is actually normal for composites where the core was pretty thick to start with, has nothing to do with the back over powering the belly.

That's a lot of reflex Dan, Scary amount especially with no deflex.  I have no real ideas for you except cut the bow in half and glue delfex in at the handle....Maybe....

[No-sage]

It's where you put the reflex also that makes it a problem to fix.

You've basically got 2 reverse hinges 6" from each fade to a flat limb.

Give us a look with a long string to see what it want's to do when you give it a little pull.

[Dan Landis]

PD, I thought that the back was overpowering the belly also, so I removed some of the thickness from the back and trapped it, but it actually took on another 1" of reflex.  
No-sage, This was my first attempt at a composite bow and I noticed after glue up that most of my reflex was in the locations you mentioned, and as NTD noted, the belly wood was probably too thick at glue up, but thought I could work with it at that point, never thought it would move that much when the belly was reduced.  I'll put some string grooves in it tomorrow and get it moving a little and see what happens.  Every bow I've made so far has been a learning experience, why should this one be any different.

[Pat B]

If you don't "pre-tiller" the belly before you do a glue up the bow will reflex as you remove belly wood. By reducing the belly first you are reducing the restriction holding the glue up in shape.
 When I do a glue up I like to get the limbs of the belly bending evenly and together just like tillering a bow to floor tiller. To this I will only add about 3" to 4" of glued in reflex
(aka Perry reflex) because more than that seems to over stress the bow defeating the added reflex. By "pre-tillering" you get a nice even reflex bend in your glue up.

[Dan Landis]

Pat, you're right, didn't pre-tiller before glue up, a lesson learned.
Got it on long string tonight and bending some, pic below.

If it were to stay together I imagine the shock would be so bad that it would rattle the fillings from my teeth.  So, is there anyway to salvage a shooter out of it.  Considering the option mentioned above, cut it in half and put back together with some deflex.....Dan

 

[Apex Predator]

I'd say you have about twice as much reflex as most bowyers could handle!  

[evildocrsx]

What if you start tillering near the handle and have the limbs bend first near the riser before moving out on the limbs.  Since you have a short riser, you have a little more limb to work and kind of get it to work like a working handle.  Just a thought.

[Dan Landis]

I've decided to cut it in half and use some type of a sleeve to re-attach the halves with some deflex to reduce the reflex to half of what it is now, then tiller it out from there and see what happens.  Ain't givin up till it does...Dan