Got out the glue this afternoon and put together my second attempt at a glass R/D bow. Learned a lot on my first one and already learned a lot on this one.
Trying a couple things different on this one. First is all parallel lams. Call it lazy, but I got curious and just wanted to try it. This is going to be a light weight 35-40 lb bow that will be for my dad or my wife. See how it turns out. If it has any defects, it goes to the wife.
Another thing I am trying out is my new set of heat strips from Kirk. They worked real slick and I am very happy with them. Although I might have screwed things up by forgetting I had the heat turned up to high and let it sit to long. Call it a rookie mistake, I got distracted with doing 3rd grade homework. The high heat did cause some issues with the seran wrap bonding to everything. It also made the tape on the glass almost bond to it. That took forever getting the tape off. It was all my fault.
Here is how I set up the heat strips. I took two pieces of mahogany cut longer than my form. I did this so the mahog would support the cord and heat strips as they stuck out of the form.
Now everything is laid out and ready for glue.
Glued up and in the form. Heat strips are turned on HIGH to get everything up to temp. After a little bit I went to check temp and it was already up pretty high. This is where I forgot to turn down the heat.
After talking with Kirk on the phone, I realized I had the heat on to long (two hours). After it cooled for a bit, I was able to get it out. Not easily because of what I mentioned above about the saran wrap gluing everything together. It took a while getting it out of the form and then longer just getting the tape off. Rookie mistake and won't happen again. Maybe.
Here is where it lies now. Needs a few inches cut off for a 64" NTN and limbs shaped.