Is this fixable?

[Xander]

I have this old Ben Pearson Colt recurve that maybe 10 years ago my brother left it strung in the car on a hot day and it popped the lamination at the riser.

Its only a 35# @28" bow, so I kept it all these years and wondered if it might be possible to fix.  I have plenty of experiance in fiberglass lamination and have the proper epoxies.  What do you think I should try? Will just straight epoxy and clamped work?  Should I drill and pin the end of the split on the back as well?  Or is it trash?

Here is the split...

 


Any help or ideas are appreciated.

[macbow]

,might as well try. The biggest worry is did the heat hurt the glue in the rest of them laminations.
Wouldn't worry about pinning.
I would use smooth on epoxy.

[JamesV]

Zander.............

I would re-glue it back with E40 smooth-on but with the lam being dammaged, you might not be happy with the results. Nothing loss to try. If not you could always remove the lams and glass and completely rebuild the bow. I just relimbed a Pearson Hunter and it made a fantastic shooting bow.

James

[Xander]

Well, I don't have smooth-on epoxy, but I do have high strength flexible epoxy, West Systems G-Flex and also West Systems 105/205 laminating epoxy.

Fotunately, it never hinged badly enough to damage the glass on the belly lam, it still looks good.  Maybe I will just go for it and use it exclusively for form training, not worrying about how it bends.

I shot a lot of carp, stingray, and shark with this bow over the years, so I would like to get it serviceable in one form or another again.  It was a decent bow.


Thanx!  I will report back with results.

[jsweka]

Looks like a clean separation on the back, but with that belly lam broken, I'm not sure how well it will work.  But it ain't no good the way it is now and if it has some sentimental value to you, it's definitely worth the try.

[Mike Most]

Thinking out loud here, I wonder if that broken lamination with todays glues might hold better than the wood itself. I would be trying to glue it up if it were mine. good luck

[Xander]

Mike, you are not far off base.  I have potted fasteners into wood for years and after seeing a few fail because of th wood, not the epoxy, gives me a sense of hope!  I still haven't glued this up yet, but I plan to in the next week or so.  I will report back after I do.

Btw, I will be using West systems 105/205 epoxy, likely thinned to aid in getting into the finest cracks.


Cheers!