Giving it a shot... My First Laminated Glass Bow Build

[Mark R]

Did you measure from the fades to nocks not from grip fulcrum, regardless I think you can get a bow out of that, maybe not what you had in mind but there's  more than one way to skin a cat,just get the limbs tillerd better and working together.It looks like the thickness of fades are much different does'nt take much to change things, there are bows with the top limb much shorter regardless if its from grip fulcrum or fadeout to nock but with limbs working together and shoot well.

[Major Boothroyd]

Mark R, my earlier measurements were from grip fulcrum to nocks.  

The measurements from fades to nocks is:

fade to top nock = 21"
fade to bottom nock = 20.5"

[Mark R]

OK  the working part of the top is 1/2" more than the bottom, knowing the stack at fades to tip, (bottom versus top) will also matter but lets not get to technical at this point,you may want to shorten top limb, change  grip fulcrum, or other ways to get the limbs to work better together, I think you have room to make a working bow,more to gain than to lose,keep at it, if anything your getting plenty of work experience which is what makes us better.

[Mark R]

OK  the working part of the top is 1/2" more than the bottom, knowing the stack at fades to tip, (bottom versus top) will also matter but lets not get to technical at this point,you may want to shorten top limb, change  grip fulcrum, or other ways to get the limbs to work better together, I think you have room to make a working bow,more to gain than to lose,keep at it, if anything your getting plenty of work experience which is what makes us better.

[Mark R]

oops.

[Mark R]

Sorry, disregard any notion of just shortening the top limb, may not be necessary,the top limb is  stronger than the bottom,if you just shorten it the bend may be even more severe at the bottom. Things to try, perhaps narrowing the top limb starting at its fade, a little at a time and carefully sanding uniformly the belly of top limb a little at a time and checking often will help, also a different brace height leaning on the shorter side may help the strung profile.

[mikkekeswick]

Ok yes I see the different lmb length and diffence in the riser.
You just need to weaken the upper limb. This can be done a number of ways. First narrowing it slightly. Then rounding the edges of the glass over well/sanding the belly.
You aren't too far off  

[Major Boothroyd]

Thanks, gentlemen!  Your suggestions and encouragement are very helpful.  I was coming to the same conclusion, but you guys stating it with your experience makes me feel better about giving it a try.

I was looking carefully at my bow, and I think part of why the top limb is showing a bit stiff at brace is because I am slightly wider in profile than I should be.  I think I neglected to sand/shape the sides quite to the line I had intended to on just the top limb.  So, I'll start doing that a little at a time and checking, until I get the bend looking correct at brace.  Then I'll start using the tillering tree to see how the limbs perform through the draw.

I came down with a bit of a cold starting Wednesday afternoon, and now it's kind of hit me full force.  On top of that I am intending to head to Fresno, CA tomorrow with a couple of buddies to attend the Gene Foster Traditional Archery Rendezvous.  I'll probably get back to work on the bow on Tuesday, since the community woodshop I joined isn't open on Mondays.  I'll post an update Tuesday afternoon or evening.

[Major Boothroyd]

I spent a few hours on the bow today, and worked on carefully sanding the sides and the belly of the upper limb, until I got pretty close to limb symmetry when braced.  It still needs a little more work, but I thought I'd wait to do any more work until I check it on the tillering tree.

I also spent a little time narrowing the slightly fat tips, and working on the fine tuning the string nocks.

After that I spent a little time working on my tillering tree, which is almost finished.  I think I should be able to complete that tomorrow, and then I can check for proper tiller through the draw cycle, and make adjustments as necessary.

I feel a lot better now, seeing the bow looking a lot closer to how it should.

I also checked the draw weight, and it's currently at 43 - 44# @ 28", which is exactly in the range I was hoping for.

Here are a couple of photos of how it's looking now...

     

My buddy drawing it back to see the basic arc of the limbs at full draw:

   

[Mad Max]

It's turning out nice

[Major Boothroyd]

Thank you, Mad Max!  I'm certainly having a fun time making it!

Today's update is a brief one.  I built a Tillering Tree, and designed in a simple method of allowing for different bow riser sections as needed down the line, assuming I continue making bows, and different types, at that.

Basically, I built a slot that accepts different blocks that are custom shaped for the bow/riser to be mounted on the tillering tree.

Here is a close up of the slot:

     

This is an example of the block I shaped for this bow:

     

The block slides in the slot like this:

     

Here it is fully seated:

     

Finally, a shot of bow on the tree, drawn to 28 inches:

   

I need to attach a panel with a grid to my tree, and recheck the bow through the draw cycle, but it looks pretty good to me so far.  I think the bottom limb is just a little bit stiffer than the upper limb, since the hook on the string slid about and eighth of an inch or so towards the lower limb at full draw.  I may sand the lower limb slightly, but I think I may want to cut the shelf, shape the grip and shoot it a few time stop see how it shoots, feels and sounds before I sand the lower limb.

My next step is to glue on the riser accent pieces, and then start to shape the grip after they are cured.

[Major Boothroyd]

I've been busy the last couple of weeks with Thanksgiving, and I just started up a new gig, so I have less time to work on the bow, now, other than an occasional evening and weekends.

I started gluing the first riser overlay tonight.  Over the next few days I will glue the final riser overlay pieces, and then I can hopefully start to shape my grip one evening next week.

Nothing very exciting, but here's a pic of the current glue up:

   

[Holm-Made]

Looks good.  I didn't read all your posts but some of them.  A couple observations.  After taking the bow off the form, Cut the bow to length before cleaning the glue off the sides of the limbs.  Those staggered lamination and glass ends can snag on something and cause the limb to delam, especially the glass to veneer joint.

Also if the top limb is stiffer then the bottom limb.  Sand the fiberglass to bring the bow into tiller.  You can round the limb edges a little more and flat sand the glass.  You can sand the glass quite a lot with out worrying about it.  I start with either 100, 120 or 150 grit, depending on how much I need to take off.
Tillering that bow as I saw it strung up for the first time is about a ten minute process. With sand paper and a block.  You don't want to start shortening limbs to bring the bow into tiller, unless it is WAY off.  Have fun and good job.  Chad

[breazyears]

Youve come a long way with that bow! Good for you, it looks great.

[Major Boothroyd]

Thank you, Chad and Breazyears!

Chad, thank you for those tips.  I didn't know about cutting the bow to length before cleaning off the sides, but I will do that on my future builds.  I brought the bow into tiller by sanding the glass, but I didn't round off the sides.  I was not considering cutting the limbs shorter if there was any possible way of avoiding that.  

I can see how, with experience, one could have sanded my bow to tiller in 10 minutes, but it took me a little over an hour for the sanding, because I wasn't sure how much effect a given amount of sanding was going to have.  So I probably strung it to check on the tillering tree, and unstrung it to sand, at least a dozen or so times throughout the process to check how it was looking!  I figured better safe than sorry, but in the end you are right.  It was not a big job to get it in the ballpark.

By the way, if you read this, Chad, several guys at my local club (Pasadena Roving Archers) have bows made by you.  They are very nice indeed!

[Major Boothroyd]

I made a little more progress last weekend.  I finished gluing up the last of the overlays on my riser, and I cut my arrow shelf out and have just begun to shape the grip.

I've only started on the upper portion of the grip by the fulcrum, and I have a lot more work to do, but it's starting to feel like a bow in the hand.  I hope to get some more work done this weekend.  I'm slammed with work until the weekend.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

[breazyears]

Looking good!

[jsweka]

Looking good - especially those overlays.

If I can make one suggestion, I'd say don't be afraid to round that riser some more.  It will make it look less "blocky" and will feel better in the hand.  You may already have this in mind since you said you still have work to do.  

I just see a lot of first time bowyers have a rather blocky riser for fear of removing too much material.  I'm also speaking from my own experience.  My first bow looks like a 2 x 4 with the corners rounded a little bit.  My buddy said it's still a bow blank - LOL!

Anyway, it's just a suggestion and make it however feels good to you.  It's certainly a lot nicer than my first attempt.

[Major Boothroyd]

Thank you breazyears.

jsweka, thank you for your suggestion and comments, too.

Rest assured that I plan on making the grip far less blocky.  I know I have a lot more shaping to do, and was always intending to.

Last weekend, I only had a couple of hours to work on the bow, and in that time I had to sand off excess epoxy from the glue up of the overlays, cut the rough shape for the arrow rest, taper and sand the overlays so that they blend in to the riser smoothly, and finally, do what I could in the remaining time to begin shaping the grip.  I had hoped to get further along, but the sand ran out of the hour glass.

I plan to shape the grip much like my McCullough Griffin, which looks nice and feels great to me.  I also plan on giving more radius to both the side section of the arrow shelf as well as to the shelf itself.  All corners will be far more smoothed out and curved when I am finished, as opposed to looking like a slightly rounded 2x4 like it does now.

   

[jsweka]

LOL - You're rounded 2 x 4 already looks a heck of a lot better than my first rounded 2 x 4.

I've often thought about going back and reshaping that bow, but I also kind of want to keep it as is for a reminder of where I started.