Apartment Bowyering - A 3pc build Along - With Full Draw

[takefive]

Good looking bow       Thanks for the build along.  I used Transtint Golden Brown dye in alcohol on the last hickory backed bow I made and it got it much darker than the stains I usually use.  I'm adding this to my bows to make wish list.

[kevinbarry]

Very nice build along.Great looking bow.I do belive I will use this for my first attept at a take down.Thanks Ben

[D]

Great looking bow.  I really like that braced profile.  Thanks for the buildalong.

[LittleBen]

Thank you all for the kind words.
D, Thats one of the reasons I like supertiller is the ability to fine tune the braced and drawn profile.

Glad you all enjoyed. One word of caution as to the use of wenge as a compression wood. I did this mainly because I had a ton of it, and the grain was very very very straight. I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to use it unless you must. Ipe or Osage would be much better choices.

At the time I started planning this one I had no osage (still don't) and had no ipe. I will likely move to osage and ipe almost exclusively for these takedowns because the limbs are highly stressed for the length of bow.

[Buemaker]

Very good, nice BA. Bue--.

[monterey]

Ben, You are getting me inspired to try a take-down bow!  Not sure that's a good thing?

Here are a few questions for you.  

I seemed like you drilled and tapped the wood in the riser to insert the limb hardware.  Is that correct?  Is this hardware store hardware or a Bingham or other supplier thing?

How much time do you get with the titebond before it skins over when lamming the limbs?  Would like to try this with titebond but still know that the smooth-on would probably be better, but also more expensive!!  :(  

Did you use titebond to lam up the riser?

Thanks again for putting this up.

Still waiting for that full draw pic!

[Roy from Pa]

Really nice, Ben.

[LittleBen]

Roy, Thank you for the kind words.

Mike, the titebond working time depends quite a bit on the temp/humidity but I'd say maybe 10min or so. also the more glue you use the longer your workign time so I usually really load it on there. If you've got a decent shop area I'd probably try unibond or smooth on before TBIII. I use it on everything because it cleans up with water, doesn't bond to my kitchen linoleum, and is non-toxic in case my dogs get at the form during glue up (hasn't happened but just to be safe), also it has no odor so it keeps my better half happier than epoxy (i presume urac/unibond also has an odor).

I did lam the riser up with TBIII ... I did that months and months ago so I didn't have any pics.

Regarding the hardware, I did drill and tap the riser for the limb hardware, I used Bingham's takedown hardware kit with the knobs. I like not needing any tools to takedown. I think they get liek $13 plus shipping for it. Plus instructions for installation, well worth it in my opinion. I guess you coudl use hardware store hardware but frankly I don't knwo that you'd save much.

[LittleBen]

Here's the full draw pic for you guys.

Just another quick disclaimer about TBIII. I waited nearly two weeks after glue up to start tillering and that probably wasn't enough. when I finished tillering the bow was at 45# @ 26", by the time I had all the finish work done (4 days later) the bow was up to 45# @ 25", and I just rescaled it today and it was at 47#@25". Also it hasn't taken ANY set from shooting in since tillering. But during tillering it took about an inch+ of set.

What this tells me is it was still too moist 2 weeks after glue up, and some of that set was avoidable. Also, it may still be going up in draw weight and may even hit 50# @ 25". I will have to keep an eye on it over th enext month or so, and make sure my arrows are still correctly spined once things settle in a bit more. So like I said when I started, you really have to watch moisture content with water based glues. We should be treating bows glued with TBIII the same as we treat sinew backed bows, allowing a month or more of dry time before any beinding is done.


You can see from the pic that this bow could be drawn to probably 28" or so before getting to a 90degree string angle (I'm drawing 25"). Assuming your backing and belly can handle the stress, I beleive this is a suitable length and design for an all wood takedown longbow for anyone with a short-normal draw length. This bow is also only 1.5" wide, so going a bit wider, say 1.75" would reduce the stress alot and allow ou to get out to that 28" mark a little more easily.
 

I had the chance to do quite a bit of shooting with this bow on saturday and it performed great. Had the slightest fret in one spot on both limbs, I believe it was a weak spot in the board because they were bookmatched lams and it's in the exact same spot. Not even sure it came from shooting, but they're only about 1mm wide, and aren't growing.

The accuracy was fantastic, gotta love a nice longbow. Even though I'm barely as tall as this bow is strung, I really enjoy shooting thsi length of bow. I've found this is about the maximum I can shoot out of my ground blind also.

I did not have the chance to chronograph it, but it shot arrows tuned to my 43# recurve quite well, albeit they were ever so slightly weak whcih I think the addition of a velcro rest and plate will fix. Also the point on distance was besically identical to the recurve using the same arrows and some arrows weighing about 10% more. I expect to see about 150fps @ 25" with 500grain arrow, thats about as fast as any bow I can confortably draw will fling an arrow, so I'm quite pleased.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Musta' used better hickory this time eh' Benny boy?

Nice build along and a great bow man!

[LittleBen]

Haha thanks Chris, you're consistently my toughest critic (which I do enjoy) so it's nice to hear you like the work.

And YES! I will never use anythign but the best hickory. These pieces were literally arrow straight nearly quartersawn (slight bias) and the grain ran at probably less than 5degree angle to the length of the board. I also decided to abandon the recurve takedown because the recurve reduces the bending limb even more, and it's already pretty short because of the riser and wedges. This way the whole limb is working.
Also, the recurve, although I finally got a set of limbs to hold together, is not very fast at all. This longbow will beat it all day long because the tips are light, and the limbs evenly bending. Tough lesson to learn, but it's the truth. I think recurved wood bows are very very very difficult to execute without losign performance and/or durability. Best left for osage I believe, or maybe just more patient bowyers than I am.

[Roy from Pa]

Ben you can't be but about 4 foot 10" tall.. LOL
Full draw looks very sweet.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Look who's talking old fart???? Your wife has to "give ya' a boost" just to reach the handle on the beer fridge.

[PEARL DRUMS]

If I where you? Id be making me a matched set of static limbs. Just make the hooks small, I used half the diameter of a quart paint can for my form shape. For statics to perform the string has to leave the bow at say 40-50% of the draw length. If the string hangs around too long all you are doing is shortening your bow. My qt paint can caul is perfect for 27-28" draw. Id tighten the radius up even more for anything under 27". As far as fat tips go, narrow them just as much as you do straight limbs. I dare ya'?

[scars]

Looks great Ben, I've always liked your laminated wood bows. Someday I want to try making one of your all wood takedown bows.

Joe

[canopyboy]

Ben, well done.  I especially like the PBR can...

Can't wait to try to short-draw that one!  You got a Sunday free sometime this month?

[LittleBen]

Finally shot the bow through a chronograph. 47#@25", 150fps @ 535 grains , 161fps @10gpp. On par with my glass bows.

That's with about 1/2 " of string follow.

[Pheonixarcher]

Sounds like a screamer to me! Nice craftsmanship, and thanks for the very informative and well laid out build a long. I guess I'd let you build me a bow. Lol. Well done!

[stretch2]

very good looking bow very impressive thanks for the build a long

[mikkekeswick]

The reason your lams aren't 'matching' after a while of the bow being made isn't because of the TBB3 and the water in it, it's because your wood still had excess moisture in it to start with pre-glueup.
I have to store my wood for years in a humidity/heat controlled space to get everything to true EMC. I've constantly been surprised as to just how long this actually takes.