SO YA WANNA BUILD A GLASS BOW ?

[Greg Owen]

He did say he likes to eat and sleep.......

[Mad Max]

I'm with Roy

Get you b_tt out of bed Kenny and make us a bow.

[kennym]

Jeez! I been building a shiping/receiveing box to put outside to keep stuff dry!

Got it painted JD Green and drying now.

I may just rob some hardware off another form I may not use again instead of making it to keep ya happy tho....  

[Mad Max]

You Da Man

[Bvas]

Originally posted by kennym:
Jeez! I been building a shiping/receiveing box to put outside to keep stuff dry!

I think you have priorities in line  

[kennym]

OK, we are ready to space the form and put some hardware on it...

Special spacing tool...

 

And in action, usually the form will space evenly except on limb ends so I check all the center and get spacing right...

 

Then when it starts getting a smaller gap at ends, I mark with the special tool and will cut with bandsaw...

 

Then lay the riser pattern on and use spacer tool to mark out around it, if you put something right thickness in between form halves to hold the riser pattern up, it really helps......

 

Now to really mess me up, I'm thinking about running the belly glass right thru and just adding overlays on belly to make the grip up as well as overlays on back....

 

What you all think about that idea??

I robbed the other form, have hated every bow off it so far anyway...

 


That was it for today, ran out of time...    :p

[Bvas]

Very similar to what I intend to try on my next build for the boy. Except I'm not gonna go straight thru with the belly lams. I'm gonna try and radius them slightly towards the back of the bow.
I just can't decide whether to do it as a one or two step glue up.

[Mad Max]

don't forget to take that screw out before you band saw it.

   :p

[Crooked Stic]

Love this thread. I use 3/4 -1/2 and 3/8s plywood to get really close to 1.5. Cant find the 3/8s everywhere but we have a store here that still carries it.

[kennym]

That would work too Brad, I'll look at that option, it may mess with my curved accent. That is how it is on the form I robbed hardware off of.

I'll have to check on 3/8" Mike, one less step. Not that I'm lazy.............   :D

[goobersan]

I think running glass straight thru would look fine. I split the riser in half on a couple and it looked okay but not doing that again. Have pics if ya like

[kennym]

OK, here we go, settled on how much riser to put in , hope it works!! Kind of averaged between straight and the accent curve.....

 

Figured I better make a template for this style, forgot to take pics after finished, sorry.....

 

Now I've sawed the space for riser and hose (and bow) and sawed the ends where they were too tight.
Line up center and check spacing...

 

When spacing is correct all the way thru, I put some temporary chunks of plywood on both ends to keep spacing, they come off after drilling and installing hardware....

 

Now I figured out equal spacing on hardware, making sure I can see ends of riser at bow glue up. I want my hardware square with the portion of limb it is on, so it pulls straight and not pulling top form endwise....

 

Now lay your hardware where you want it, I made the 1/2" hole 2.5" from face of form. Then I drilled a shallow 1/2" hole .....

 

Now put the 1/2" bolt in the shallow hole thru the bracket...

 

Now drill the 3/8" holes shallow,just enough to start the bolt in. Put the first 3/8" bolt in before drilling the second, now all holes line up...

 

[kennym]

Now to get the holes straight thru without lugging the form to the drill press, been there done that!
This is a block I had made for TDs, I just drill the hole with the 1/4" bit, then run the right size thru after drilling the pilot hole straight thru. ..

   

Holes all drilled to size and ready to put hardware on. NOTE , if your hardware isn't factory like mine isn't, drill thru each individual pair to start and keep them where they go!!

   

And..... there she is in her raw beauty!! You can take the temporary plywood pieces off the ends now!

   

I may or may not put a piece of glass on her face, last form it was a waste of time, hated the bows off it. So may build one or two to see if it's worth putting on....

[kennym]

Now to glue up the riser, you don't have to glue a riser, with a strong wood you can just go with it solid wood. I like the fact that it takes some riser flex out, which improves performance a tad.....

Glue lines look good! NOTE, if one piece is a bit flexible and your glue surfaces feel smooth, its hard to go wrong here... LOL

(There is that pesky riser template!!)

 

Ready to put some EA-40 to it. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap on bench and wrap the riser after applying glue. Careful not to pinch it in between the wood surfaces.The bottom 2 pcs don't glue on, just helps to clamp it together , keep these outside the plastic wrap. Note the little plywood pieces at top. These go on the sides after you get the plastic wrap around it to clamp side to side to prevent slippage.

 

This one is easy to explain! Note the X on the riser, I put that on when I cut it to keep grain lined up, centerline looks fairly good, I tighten clamps slowly and not super tight, don't wanna starve the glue joint. Coat each glue face that glues to another...

 

[Mad Max]

nice
   

[Bvas]

Looking good!!
I'm glad to see this build before I get started on my next.

[Kopper1013]

My lord you make all this look so easy!!! I STRUGGLE building a form keeping everything square and what not.

[Mad Max]

He da man

[kennym]

LOL , I've made a lot of em. Some only get a bow or two off em if I don't like the results. Will glue the bow up next weekend if I have time. Lams are ready and waiting. Amber aboo and brown glass.

[monterey]

Loaded with good ideas