My first BBO, went KERBOOM!

[ffdiggs]

So I've been on hiatus the last couple of months since I finished my osage take down. Been fighting a bad back, had one daughter graduate college, and one from high school, plus I took in some exchange students for a couple of months. But now that things have calmed down and my back is doing better I want to tackle a BBO/tri-lam bow. Got my bamboo today, Shout out to Echo archery, super fast service.

Heres what I'm thinking spec wise; 64"-66" long, 1 1/4" at  fades to 1/2" tips w/reflex-deflex design. I want to end up with a minimum of 50# at 28"

Bamboo back, black walnut core, osage belly. I could use some advice on taper vs. paralell and taper rates.

I am gonna take this nice and slow, I still need to flatten the bamboo and figure out how to taper (I don't have a thickness sander). Plus build a form for the reflex/deflex.

I do have all the wood and a new container of unibond 800, tool wise I have a jointer, planer and new bandsaw.

So please feel free to share any advice, personal experience, and spiritual guidance you have to offer.

Thanks in advance to everyone

[wood carver 2]

If you are comfortable working with the jointer, you can use it to make tapers.
Assuming you are using 2 piece lams, mark each piece to divide it into 3 areas. Set your jointer for a very light cut and run a lam up to the first mark. Stop there and start again, going to the second mark. Then start again and go all the way to the end of the piece. Now it's tapered.
 Not everyone is comfortable jointing thin strips , so to do it in a safer manner, do this with a thick piece of wood and cut off the tapered lam using the bandsaw.
You can also build or buy a taper jig that you can use on your saw. Again , rip a taper on a thick piece , then cut it off at the required thickness.
I hope this helps.
Dave.

[ffdiggs]

I have plenty of scrap wood, I am going to experiment with using the jointer for tapering. I assume you could use this same method on a full length piece, using the center as the end of the piece?

[ffdiggs]

Also if I use tapered lams, does the taper face the back or the belly when you glue them up?

[wood carver 2]

On a full length lam, I work in from both ends, then I run the lam full length over the jointer. This won't work well using a very thick piece because it will need to flex a bit. Be careful with thin lams and make sure the knives are sharp. Sometimes on a full length piece, it can break or tear out badly when going against the grain.
I have gone over to using two piece lams for that reason. I'm not fond of having a thin piece blow up on the jointer.
I also use two push pads so my fingers stay as far as possible from the knives. I go hand over hand as I push, keeping the pads close together.
Dave.

[wood carver 2]

I don't think it matters how they face, as long as both are oriented the same way.
Dave.

[macbow]

If,that,is,a,thickness,planer you have I run my full length slats through with a double tapered sled that KennyM made for me.
The sled would,be,easy,to,build if you bought one,set of tapered Liam's and glued them to a,piece of oak.

[ffdiggs]

macbow, it is a thickness planer, nothing fancy, wish I had a thickness sander though. Sending thin pieces of wood through those metal blades makes me a little nervous. I understand how to make single taper sleds but the full length one has me a little confused. wouldn't have to be high on both ends and low in the middle? Guess I would need to see a picture or blue print for one

[macbow]

That is it exactly.
If you take two half length tapers and put the thick ends toward the ends on top of a 3/4 inch hardwood board maybe. 1x 3 oak 72 inches long.
Maybe KennyM will chime in.
That is basically your sled then.
Now you can put another 6 foot piece of oak on top and,run it through several times until it has removed the ends and just touched in the middle. Use pencil marks to see the removal.

After all this you will have a solid taper sled. I add a small piece of wood on the lead end as a stop for my thin slats. I have no problems running 1/8 inch slats through on my .004 taper,sled.  Usually run it through 3 or 4 times to remove enough material.

[J.F. Miller]

before I got a drum sander I used my jointer to taper my osage cores. a simple three stage taper will do nicely if you can adjust your cutter head accurately enough to take of about 1/32" or so. it should yield a total taper of about .120-.130" over the length of the limb. stay off the middle 12-15" where your riser will be glued on. is important to salvage as much core thickness there as you can so that you have a slight pedestal of sorts to glue your riser on to help prevent possibility of it popping off later. once you have the taper established, you can still use jointer to reduce thickness to whatever you want.

[J.F. Miller]

also, I use my jointer for flattening bamboo to this day. it gets pretty thin sometimes just to make it flat. if your stock is good and your knives sharp, you shouldn't have any trouble tapering something 1/4" thick if you are careful. maybe it goes without saying, but I'm saying it anyway. you absolutely have to have the push pad thingies to do these sorts of maneuvers with a jointer or you will be losing digits posthaste.

[Bowjunkie]

Yep, and that's evident because no matter how careful I am, I have caught those rubber pads on the jointer blades and they're torn here and here. Each time, that could have been my hide.

Another thing, if you thin bamboo on the jointer, which I do too, be careful. Through the course of thinning, the sides can be brought to a knife's edge. I learned that the hard way... with a beauty of a cut to the web of my thumb.

[ffdiggs]

you all are a great wealth of help and knowledge, I'm in sponge mode soaking up as much as possible.

today I made my cores from black walnut, they are 1 3/8" x 36"x 3/16". that should be a good start. They are not perfect, my planer is old and cheap. Just need to taper them. My brother in law has a thickness sander, looks like a road trip is in my future.

Also got my bamboo flattened today, had to cut it to 64" because the one end had a crack in it from the end to the first node. But I think 64" will be a good length. Now all I need to do is taper it.  
Should I cut out my profile then taper or taper before?

Also gonna try and make a taper sled, should it be he same length as my lams or longer?

[J.F. Miller]

thickness sander does make life easier for making bows of this type.

you need to cut the bamboo to its width profile first, then taper it. for a bow like this, anything over 64" for a 28" draw is overkill, imo. no worries.

[macbow]

I'd make the sled long enough to be used for any length you might use.
A little longer works,well.
I,also put the sand paper on the,sled that has the,sticky backing so the slat sticks and doesn't slide easily. Don't forget the little stop on the lead end just slightly thinner than the slat. This also keeps,the,slat,from sliding.

I,agree,on cutting the profile into the bamboo.
First when tapering you can get the,edges even this way when flattening and tapering.
I glue up with the slat or slats full,width and cut to the bamboo after glue up.

[John Scifres]

I'd run the full width out to about 1/3 of the limb.  It seems to help with keeping your profile in that hard working area.

[ffdiggs]

tried making a sled with my planer, strike one! This job thing is taking up most of my time since friday. Hope to try again tomorrow.

[ffdiggs]

I know I am kinda dragging my feet on this bow, but sometimes work gets in the way. 24's at the fire house and HVACing on the side has kept me pretty busy.
So this is where I'm at:
bamboo cut to profile, 1/8" in the middle tapered to approx.1/16th"

core wood 1/8" tapered approx. .001

I have an osage board 5/8" thick.,thinking I should taper that from 1/2" at the handle to 3/8" tips before I glue it up.
and possibly adding a power lam made from osage.

Thoughts?

[macbow]

Sounds good.
Power lam is optional. If your dips run from your handle,wood into the Osage fo a inch or so no power lam needed.
If,handle,will have,all the dip on top of Osage the use power lam extending beyond end of handle.

[ffdiggs]

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. Almost ready for glue up, I was running my osage through the planer to get it down to my desired thickness. Next thing I know, kerchunk, a big piece of wood chips out where the grain was a little wavy. I wouldn't have been so bummed but it was a piece I actually bought from 3-rivers. Gonna dig through my stack and see if I have a piece that will do.