What did you do today 2014

[LittleBen]

Well it wasn't today, but this weekend I ground 9 pairs of lams, 2 pairs of hickory backing, 2 pairs of maple cores, 3 pairs of walnut core, 1 pair ipe belly, and 1 pair shedua belly (experimental).

I think I need more glue.

Planning a wide range of bows.

bamboo-walnut-ipe R/D for the swap with maple/walnut riser

hickory walnut shedua R/D for me with cocobolo riser for me

bamboo maple ipe R/D with figured redheart riser for a buddy

bamboo walnut ipe R/D with flame birch riser for another friend.

reflexed hickory selfbow for my brother in law

then I need to get a kids bow done for my cousins son ... and gotta either sinew or bamboo back a spliced yew billet set ...


I think I need to quit my job ...

[Zradix]

....jeesh..

   

[LittleBen]

Forgot to mention .. .I finally switched to 36 grit paper on my mini drum sander (3"x3") and it is a completely different animal even than using 50grit ... I can go from a .150-160 parallel to a well ground .150 .002 taper in 4 passes. Thats probably nothing compared to the big machines, but for 1/4 hp and less than $100 I'm happy.


Will I need to run them through with finer grit paper before glue up? or is the 36grit ok? Seems it sill help prevent some lam sliding side to side!

I have some 80grit or 120 grit I can put on there if anyone thinks thats necessary.

I've previously been grinding with 50 grit, then light hand sanding with 120grit before glue up with TBIII and have had good success.

[Zradix]

that's sweet

[scars]

Originally posted by LittleBen:
Forgot to mention .. .I finally switched to 36 grit paper on my mini drum sander (3"x3") and it is a completely different animal even than using 50grit ... I can go from a .150-160 parallel to a well ground .150 .002 taper in 4 passes. Thats probably nothing compared to the big machines, but for 1/4 hp and less than $100 I'm happy.


Will I need to run them through with finer grit paper before glue up? or is the 36grit ok? Seems it sill help prevent some lam sliding side to side!

I have some 80grit or 120 grit I can put on there if anyone thinks thats necessary.

I've previously been grinding with 50 grit, then light hand sanding with 120grit before glue up with TBIII and have had good success.

Sounds interesting +- $100 1/4 hp motor You Have a picture of your little beast.

[LittleBen]

Not sure if I have pictures, but I basically followed this build along.

  http://www.buildyourownbow.com/how-to-make-a-simple-thickness-sander-for-bow-laminations/  

I didn't really follow his dimensions, I just got the jist of it and built mine. I used 3/4" birch ply, and basically doubled the thickness of everything so it's ridiculously heavy/rigid. probably unnecessary, but I had to buy a full sheet of ply either way, so what the heck.

I used the type of sanding drum which accepts standard sand paper. I found that regular sand paper is basically useless in this application, and the outside of the drum is too soft. Theres a 1/4" layer of soft rubber around a very hard core so I ran the machine and ground off all the soft rubber by raising the ramp with sandpaper on it untilo it hit the drum and removed the rubber.

Then I was left with a very hard drum of roughly 2.5-2.75" diameter ... so I lost a little FPM but I got side-side consistency in the laminations. I use 2" strips of sanding belt in 36-50grit that I wrap around the drum similar to on the big drum sanders.

I also found that the little metal tube thats used to secure the sandpaper on the drum is useless. What I use is a tiny wedge of hardwood at each end of the paper, wedged into the groove with the paper. the wedge is maybe 1/4" wide x 1/2" long x 1/16" thick ... but it's not precisely made or anything and I replace them with each paper change.

[scars]

I've been looking at a lot of the diy grinders.
I've been flipflopping on if it was worth my time. Or just buy the baby drum sander. Or this:

 http://www.vanda-layindustries.com/html/the_hog_sander.html

[Roy from Pa]

For another couple hundred $$, I would buy the real drum sander and then you would have something.
 http://www.grizzly.com/products/12-Baby-Drum-Sander/G0459

[LittleBen]

Likewise. If I was going to buy one for that price I'd buy the grizzly, the 10" grizzly is basically the same price, don't know what the review are like. or the JEt 10-20, or a used 16-32

Honestly scars, I'd buy aa big drum sander instead of building, mainly because I think the feed belt alignment will be a nightmare and make you miserable.

If you were set on a small one, I'd really recommend to consider building one. Mine is all ply, and I have no problem maintaining +/- .001-.0015 along the length of a lam. And honestly could probably get even closer if I just ran the piece through a few more times.

Realistically, if you have some scrap ply of MDF, and you can get or have a cheap used motor (1/4-1/2HP), the sanding drum is only like $30 or so. Or you could make your own small drum. I think if you went 1/2-3/4HP you could probably run a 6" wide sanding drum ok, but you'd probably have to make the drum which is not terribly hard.

[canopyboy]

I still think the best decision for me is to concentrate on the other aspects and let Kenny or Troy sand your lams.  I get back perfect lams in no time with no sawdust involved!  Plus, I figure I can pay Kenny to grind a lot of lams before I've paid for that baby griz.

[LittleBen]

This is also clearly true. I still can't figure out why I bother.

If I was building glass bows I probably wouldn't because the precision is alot more critical. with teh wood bows, I have to do slight tillering anyway so a few thou is largely irrelevant. But on a short recurve or something with a stack of les than .200 a few thou can be a whole lot with no real good way to correct it.

[halfseminole]

Cut bow wood until my stupid legs completely quit.  Just did get back to my chair in time to fall down every five feet trying to get back to it.

Wood 1, Me 0.

[canopyboy]

Originally posted by halfseminole:
Wood 1, Me 0.

   

[halfseminole]

It gets better.  I got the wrong wood.  It's not even useful.  Wood 2, Me 0.  I'm gonna try for best two out of three.

[Buemaker]

Showeling snow like almost every day this winter, bloddyell driving me nuts. Any vacant spots in Hawaii ? Bue--.

[Roy from Pa]

Bue, Hawaii got 12 inches of snow last night.  

[Buemaker]

Now Roy       Bue--.

[Roy from Pa]

In the corner?  

[Zradix]

Ben...

That Shedua is interesting.
Little softer than maple..but the other "stats" kinda fall between Ipe and osage...

Good luck!

[Roy from Pa]

36 grit is fine, you won't need to toothing plane it now.