Help me eyeball my R/D tiller (Updated...went static)

[Balding Kansan]

How does it look? It's at a 5" brace and pulled to 21".

When are the mid limbs going to finally give up and start bending????

All comments appreciated.

[Keenan]

It's hard to say completely without a resting and braced photo as well. For what I see it is bending to much right out of the fades. Both limbs look stiff just shy of mid limb.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Im no R/D wizz, but that looks like permanent damage to those fades to me? The mids are dead flat and I think maybe that going to 21" already wasnt a good thing. As Keenan said, get those mids moving before you pull that far again or you will loose all your "R" and be left with a bunch of "D".

[okie64]

Ok Im not gonna lie, I cringed when I saw that pic. You gotta get something bending besides the fades before you pull it any farther. Start scrapin wood off from the hinges out and you should be able to get em worked out. Might take quite a bit of scrapin before you see any difference. Take 10- 15 scrapes off each limb, exercise it and and check it and then do it again until the midlimbs start movin. Not sure how much weight you are goin for so it may come in a little lighter than you wanted. It would help to see an unstrung pic to see what kind of r/d profile it has.  

[Nim-rod]

Yea I cringed at that pic too. FAR too much going on near the fades and you are definatly going to have a light bow when all said and done. I floor tiller it when real heavy and make sure I see movement all across the limbs before putting a long string on and that is only for a short time to verify the bending and bring poundage down some. Once I'm happy tiller isn't too far off I move onto brace height and really pay attention and go slow.

[Stiks-n-Strings]

My first r/d ende up being 30# at 20"

 Good luck with it they are tuff to tiller

[Tom Leemans]

R/D bows are tough to tiller the first time, but I noticed the handle doesn't look like you're doing a R/D bow. It looks like a stiff/straight handled bow. Maybe that threw you off?

[4est trekker]

James Parker of Huntworthy Productions taught me to tiller a true R/D from the tips inward, which is generally backwards of, say, an American flatbow.  It helps to prevent the very circumstance you find yourself in.  It's much easier to catch up the inner 1/3 of a bow's limb than the outer 2/3.  Hope that helps some.  

[Roy from Pa]

When I tiller r/d bows, I expect and watch for the reflex to start coming out of the outer limb area first. As that begins to happen, I then expect to see the mid limb area begin to bend and so forth right into the fade area. I guess just like 4est described.

But however you tiller a wooden bow, one thing you need to keep in mind is that you do not want the limbs bending too much in any one area. Looking at you picture above, tells me your limbs were way too stiff to start with. Floor tillering first would help prevent your situation. You may as well keep going for expeirence and see how the bows turns out.

[Art B]

How 'bout an unbraced side and back pic. Your tiller could be dead perfect or dead wrong. Without those other profiles all we can do here is speculate.

[PEARL DRUMS]

What profile would require that tiller Artsy?

[Roy from Pa]

Prolly one of them WV hill billy bows:)

[John Scifres]

It's pretty common for R/D bows to look really hingy at the fades at first.  Just keep working from midlimb on out.  She'll come around.

Depending on how much deflex there is at the handle, it's possible the near handle wood isn't bending at all.  Get an unbraced pic up here so we can help some more.

[Balding Kansan]

Unbraced. Hope this helps.

I know most of you guys "cringed" but honestly i'm not too worried about it. I don't think it's hinged at the fades....yet!

Thanks for the advice fellas. I like the idea of working from the tips, inward.

[Art B]

Thanks for the pic BK.

I thought maybe there might be a couple slight natural kinks coming out of the fades. Honestly, I think you're pretty close to where you need to be. That's a very quick design, maintaining it could be problematic because of your srtaight back handle and sharp fades.

More bending mid-limb and you could lose the lever effect you now have. A real balancing act for sure.

Oh Pearly, that profile you asked about would be similar to that world record flight bow sitting on my wall. Gifted to me by Steve Gardner (Badger) and shown on Page 103 of the TBB4.  

We like our bows fast Roy Bob!

[PEARL DRUMS]

I was actually serious this time Artsy. I was curious what the width profile would need to look like. I dont have TBB4......boo

[Art B]

Limbs would need to be pyramidal IMO Pearly. That would help reduce limb weight outside the bending area.

[Balding Kansan]

These limbs are pyramid, 2" wide @ the fades, and flat growth rings that allow the back to be perfectly flat. This is why i'm not concerned about how it looks at the moment. I'm pretty sure this bow will be able to take a lot of strain. I hope. Thanks for the pointers, i'll post another when I get a chance to scrape on it some more.

[Roy from Pa]

Unbraced profile doesn't look bad at all. I can see why the braced drawn profile looks like it does. Just get some bend in them limbs:)

[Tom Leemans]

What kind of weight is it holding at that 21"?