I changed the title of this post because the caul build is now underway. I have to first give credit where credit is due and explain what this new tradition will be.
I asked DVSHunter about his caul design awhile back and expressed my enthusiasm to build one like his because I want to put some zip in my whip, some sting in my zing, some whummp in my stump.....well you get the idea.
Dave makes some awesome looking Osage bows as you all have seen, so I wanted to incorporate some of that into my own.
Out of the goodness of his heart, he traced the design of his caul and mailed it to me. Thank you so much Dave!
So now after acquiring my 2x8's yesterday evening at Lowes I've finally begun my caul build. I wanted to post a little build along of how I'm doing it so the next guys in line to build themselves one off this same pattern will have a little something to go by.
Next in line is Lee Slikkers to receive this pattern as soon as I'm done with it. Why? Because he asked for it first. So when he receives it he will then be the
"Keeper of the Caul" until he passes the torch onto the next guy. Then that person will then pass it along to the next, then the next. If anybody wants to get in on this you will need to contact the
"Keeper" to get in line. It's pretty simple, and I'm sure you all will figure out how this is gonna work.
Ok, enough blabbing and on with the progress.
So far I have laid out my pattern on the 2x8's which are 8 foot long and I could actually get by with 6 footers, but they only sell them in 8ft. lengths.
First thing I did was mark a line 1 1/2" from the edge of my board and line up the intersecting lines on each end so the pattern will be even throughout from end to end. Why 1.5" you ask? Because I'm trying to keep the pattern close enough to the edge so I don't have to go out and buy huge clamps in order to clamp a bow blank to the caul. If I utilized the entire 7" and something for the width of the 2x8 then I would have to have 10" clamps to make it work. This way I may be able to get by with 6" clamps? Don't really know yet.
Here's the pics of my progress so far.
Now line up the end marks on the pattern with the 1.5" line on both ends that I marked the length of the board.
You can see that this pattern is 62" long from each end mark, but the line keeps going down from the end. So continue following that arc all the way down till it runs off the board. This will give you another 2" of run out on the ends of the caul to make 4" more total length which translates into a 66" bow blank possible before it runs off the caul, at that point if a longer bow is desired the ends of the tips would just run off the ends of the pattern. You get the idea here, you can still make your 70" longbows with this caul if you want, but the last few inches won't be clamped to the actual board, they will simply just run off the ends.
TO BE CONTINUED..............
Topic: The Traveling Caul Design **Clamp Problem Resolved*Final Pics, Project Complete** (Read 3472 times)
