D/R Bow build

[kennym]

Do what Jeff said!!

You will have less squeeze out as you build more bows. Always want some tho.

Tip: After you get the plastic on form and the plastic on top of bow and get it squeezed, take a scrap lam and wipe the squeeze down off the edge of bow. It stays between the 2 pcs of plastic, but isn't attached to bow anymore, and you can just tear it off with plastic and not grind it off....

[Trenton G.]

Ok guys, thanks for the help!

[Wagstaff]

We like to apply shrink wrap to the bottom form from end to end..  Then place your stack layup on the pre-wrapped form.  A little strapping tape here or there as needed will hold everything in place.
Once everything is alighed, we wind shrink wrap over the bottom form and stack all again.  This creates just enough pressure to keep everything in the right place through the remaining pressure up and hot box bake.

Like Kenny says, if you "gently" apply a little wipe of the epoxy after pressure up, it will end up as a very thin feathered edge of hard epoxy.  The good news is it's captured by the shrink wrap layers, and chips off very easily when you remove the plastic wrap.

 

[Sixby]

I just cut a piece of visqueen about 8 inches wide and 8 inches longer than the limb. Get the limb glued up with tape on each side and then wrap the entire limb in the visqueen prior to putting it in the form/ Works great for me and keeps everything really clean/ I also have drilled holes in the form and once the limb is in place I use about 6 12 in. zip ties and zip tie the limb to the form. The zips go around everything but the hose. Layup goes like this. heat strip to the form, formica pressure strip, Limb, pressure strip, heat tape , pressure strip., The add zips , next is air hose and top of form./ Air up to 15 lb or so. let set a bit ,. Cut loose zips and pull them all. The air up in 10 lb progressions to 55/ I also use the fender washers on the sides. six per side and two large ones to catch the overlays and wedge ends holding the riser together . I cook the overlays together with the  longbows and one piece curves.

God bless and Merry Christmas to all, Steve

[Trenton G.]

Thanks or all the help guys. I put down the hammer and chisel and spent a while at the belt sander instead. Everything came off nice and parallel. I'm noticing a few gaps in the riser section which have me concerned. When I did my dry run, there were no gaps so I'm not sure where these came from. Should I just fill them with epoxy? I'll try and post some pictures at some point.

[kennym]

The gaps may or may not grind off during shaping. Make sure what they amount to before drawing it tho.

[Trenton G.]

I think that most of them will be gone once I cut the sight window and shape the grip a bit more. If any of them don't go away, I am planning on just filling them with epoxy like I did last year.

[Trenton G.]

Here it is so far guys. I got it all cleaned up and cut the limb tapers.
     
How thick of a piece of phenolic do you guys generally use on your tips?

[kennym]

Looking good, I use 2 pcs of 1/16 and a pc of riser wood for color on top of it. The thin phenolic will conform to curve in limb without fitting to it by grinding .

[Trenton G.]

Ok, thanks Kenny. I ordered 1/8 inch, but for some reason they sent me 1/4 inch thick phenolic. I took some double sided tape, attached the pieces to the square end of a board, then took them over to the belt sander and thinned them down. Not sure if that's the conventional way of doing it, but it seemed to work lol.

When I received my lams, the packing strips that they sent me were curly maple, so I cut some pieces off and glue them to my phenolic. Hopefully it turns out well.

[Trenton G.]

So I'm finally getting a chance to keep going on this bow, but I ran into a bit of an issue today. I was cleaning up a small bit of glue that I had missed, but when I sanded it away, I discovered a small gap. I went to the other side of the bow, sanded a little, and discovered a matching gap. I can't see any light through it, but I'm not sure exactly how deep they go. What has me worried is that these gaps are right at the edge of my fades. I don't know why there are gaps there since there was nothing during my dry run. I'm thinking about just filling the gaps with epoxy, but wanted to see what you guys thought. I'll try and get some pictures of it at some point.

[Trenton G.]

Here's the gap I was talking about. Like I said, I can't tell how far it goes, but there's a matching gap on the other side. What do you guys think?

     

Sorry for the fuzzy pic.

[Theolithic71]

Did the end grain of your accent slurp up the glue there?

[Trenton G.]

I'm not really sure. It may have.

[kennym]

Is there a dark lam where the hole is or is that in the riser?

and is the light colored area to right of hole an accent or a light streak in riser?

I think you have plenty of fade to go ahead and fix it. I would make some sawdust from a riser scrap and stir it in the EA 40 for color . Keep the glue thin enuff to get a good fill on it, you can put a pc of tape on the other side from where you fill.

[Trenton G.]

There isn't a dark lam. The hole appears to be between the riser tip and the lams. The light is a maple accent stripe in the riser.

Thanks for the tip, I'll fill the gaps tomorrow. This shouldn't affect the bow as far as it being safe to shoot right?

[kennym]

Them is  all that dark part above the hole glue in a gap or riser fade? Not sure I'm seeing it clear.

[Bvas]

Trenton and Kenny,
Let me see if I can help.
Everything between the white lines is glue line. Red lines depict different riser wood lines.
If my eyes are seeing correctly.
 

[Trenton G.]

Sorry Kenny, I know it's not a great pic. I took it on my iPod, and it looked clear on that tiny screen, but not here lol.

Bvas, I'm pretty sure that's correct. I'm tempted to sand a bit more away to see if the gap goes all the way up. I sure hope that it doesn't.

Its hard to figure out what is going on... Maybe try zooming out on your pic a bit...