West System and Cloth

[WILL CAROTHERS]

Hey fellow bowyers! Christmas is in a few weeks and my parents sai they could buy me more supplies for bow making! ive been making simple self bows and board bows, but i just bought about $100 worth of wood (walnut, hickory, cherry, and maple).
     Ive already used all the pieces usable for an all wood bow. (No more hickory, all were used as backings) I came up with the idea of using fiberglass cloth and west system to back the not o perfect wood. I would love smooth on and more "professional glass", but they are about a hundred dollars out of my budget.
     West system is fairly inexpensive and readily available.
     Has anyone ever done this, i need input!?

[WILL CAROTHERS]

/Users/williamcarothers/Desktop/Handle.jpg

[WILL CAROTHERS]

Tried to post a pic, it didnt work

[dmikeyj]

Will, create an account on photobucket.com, and upload pics to it first.  Then you can get a link from the individual pics there.

I have seen alot of bows made from boards with fiberglass drywall tape glued to the backs.

[WILL CAROTHERS]

Thanks

I dont mean the drywall tape, but more so the type of cloth that is used in boat making like in strip canoes. With this glass i believe i might be able to get a clear finish.

[wildbill001]

Will,
Can't speak to using the cloth and West Epoxy on a bow but can speak to the resin and cloth.

Last summer I used several gallons of the stuff to repair our swimming pool.  I was paying something like $30-40/gal for "marine" epoxy (it wasn't West but a competitor's product).  I noticed that the local Home Depot had epoxy resin for about $10/gal and wondered about the difference.  So I called the manufacturer.

According to them epoxy resin, whether from Home Depot or the local boat supply store is the same.  Only the labeling is different.  So I switched to the Home Depot brand and saved a ton of money.  I saw no difference in the use-ability or work-ability of the Home Depot brand.

As for the cloth, I used what I called the tight-weave.  This is the stuff that actually looks like a course-weave cloth or burlap.  It is there to provide added strength.  Kind of like rebar in concrete.  It does not completely disappear when coated in resin.  Anyway, boat supply place was twice as expensive as the local Home Depot or Ace Hardware for the exact same brand.

Hope that helps.

Bill W

[wildbill001]

Oh, almost forgot.  This stuff I used dried to a dull yellow-ish color and not really clear.  It can be tinted but the the tints are expensive and it seemed to take more than the directions indicated to get the color I was looking for.

Bill

[WILL CAROTHERS]

I think west system is different, ive used the home depot epoxy 3 times and its failed. The west system has a different make up and is made to dry clear., i would also use a cloth that would be see through (like on wooden boats.

[monterey]

Will, I used some epoxy to back a small youth bow and it worked out well.  I used the glass cloth sold at the parts store for auto body repair.  The results were clear just like the boat stuff.  The epoxy I used was purchased at a modeling/hobby store and was lableled with their own name.  Was a 50/50 mix.  They had it in fast set and slower as well as what they called a clear finish used for a final finish on rc models.

I had some west systems stuff around for years but used it up.  I've wondered about the polyester resin stuff at Home Depot.  Apparently it did not work out very well for you?

Don't know where you can get the West Systems stuff but am confident it would work for you.  As great as smooth on is, it would be harder to get a full saturation of the cloth due to it's higher viscosity.  

You might consider the Versamid epoxy as sold by Binghams Projects.  It is much runnier than the smooth on and might be perfect for what you want to do.  Small quantities won't break the bank.

[WILL CAROTHERS]

Thank you!

[milehi101]

I have used the west system and their tape to back hickory bows and I have also used it to raise the draw weight on a bow that was to light. I have built cedar strip canoes for years and also bows and I agree with most of the posts on here.  I do not agree that all epoxy is the same.  The west system will dry pretty cleat and if you want a really clear get the hardener for use with wood and it is crystal clear.  They also have small tubes of die for their resin so you can make your bow most any color you wish.  The bow will need a sealer coat of varnish that has UV protection in it.  The UV rays of the sun will cause the epoxy to go bad in a couple of years(depending how much it is exposed to the sun).
I normally put the cloth on the bow and let it get dry to the touch then put another coat on it and squeegee it to a smooth finish.  After it drys lightly sand it and apply varnish for a finish.  If you let the epoxy dry between coats it needs to be sanded so the 2nd coat has something to hold on to.  If it has not completely dried their is a chemical bond that will hold the 2 coates together.