First glass bow buildalong (Finished bow page 5)

[Lee Lobbestael]

Hi Guys. I have been making and hunting with selfbows for about ten years and have always wanted to get into building laminated bows but have been a little intimidated by the whole process. To make a self bow you basically just start going to town on it with your draw knife! Not alot of precision measurements and squaring is involved, so this is a whole new world to me. I decided to do this as a buildalong in hopes that you guys with experience can steer me clear of mistakes before I come to them, and so that others just starting out can learn from the mistakes I do fall into. I took the advise of several tradgangers and contacted Kenny. He has been a huge help already and I ordered lams ang smooth on from him last night. I also printed off his plans for a 64" r/d bow. I'm shooting for a 50 pound bow at my 28" draw. Here is what I have so far.                                          I'm missing a few pictures because my 4 year old had my phone at the time but I did alot of sanding on the template and used a router with a guide to clean up my form after roughing it out on the bandsaw. I used 3 pieces of 1/2" marine plywood for my form and 1/4" ply wood for my template. I'm   using the rubber band method so I will need to drill holes and glue dowels in next. What diameter dowels do you rubber band guys use? Also where do you get your rubber inner tubes?

[KenH]

Don't bother to glue the dowels; tension will hold them in place.  I usually use 1/4" dowels that stick out each side about an inch (3.5" overall) and just tap them through. I started with larger dowels but realized I didn't need to waste the wood or the money.  The dowels are spaced 1" down from the edge:

     

Here's a dry fit test showing lams partially banded in place while they dry to this extreme shape:
       

I use 3/4" to 1" wide rings cut from bicycle innertubes -- the wide/fat "cruiser" tubes, not the skinny racing tubes.  Visit your local bike repair shop, they'll gladly let you scrounge their trash cans.

I use two rings "figure eighted" together.  When applying the rings to a glue-up, I alternate hooking and pulling the rings over from one side of the form and then the other, to even out the stress of pulling sideways across the top of the layup.

[Bvas]

I used 1/2" dowels spaced about 2-1/2" apart and down about 2" from the edge and let them stick out about 1-1/4".  I would rather spend a little extra on dowels than risk having one break during glue up.  
The pocket in the center serves dual purpose.  One it allows you to clamp the riser in place to help prevent it from slipping.  But it also allows you to clamp the form to work table while wrapping bands.
Used semi and ag tire tubes are another source that can be found for free.  Just cut into long 1" strips and wrap back and forth.  Have a staple gun handy so that if a band breaks you can just tack it down and continue on.

[Robertfishes]

Kennys plans look awesome! When I got them from him in 2009 they were hand written.. Kenny is a good guy and was very helpful when I was first starting out. One tool I highly recommend is a quality dial caliper.. One mistake I made (2 times) was I bought inexpensive digital calipers from my local home improvement store.. I did upgrade to a better set of Igaging digitals that were pretty good for 2 years..I ended up with 2 used Mitutoyo dial calipers that are perfectly accurate on my known standards. If you don't have one get a hard back "log book".. In it write down every part of you build, like riser legnth, taper rate, fiberglass, taper and a parallel thicknesses..

[Krasus]

Starett digital calipers are the best. That's what I use. You only really need that for checking lam stack, but if your ordering the lams pre done(I grind my own) I'd save the money and buy something else fun.  

[Robertfishes]

I try to buy enough tapers and parallels for 6-10 bows at a time. I have tapers and parallels from vendors that were....not precise.. I once got some parallels that were 006 off side to side.. Most of my order was pretty good, not sure what happened when he ran these thru his sander .  I had to run 10 or 12 of them them thru my mini drum sander to use them, then they were not the 030 that I needed. The parallels were not from Kenny.

[Lee Lobbestael]

SO you guys cut 3/4"-1" cross sections of the rubber tubes? Kinda like thick rubber bands? I'm off to the local millworks place to pick out a piece for a riser after work today. Yeah Kenny's plans are really nice.

[Lee Lobbestael]

I'm debating on using a pin through lams and into form and riser during glue up to keep things from slipping around. But with a clamp on the handle screwed down snug, will slippage even be an issue?

[Crittergetter]

Kenny is who got me started when I made my first glass bow.  Top notch guy and a top notch bow!! If you plan on making more than one bow do like Robert said and write EVERYTHING down!! Takes the guess work out later!

[Bvas]

Originally posted by Lee Lobbestael:
SO you guys cut 3/4"-1" cross sections of the rubber tubes? Kinda like thick rubber bands?  

Some guys use "rings", usually when using bike tubes. I just cut long continuous strips out of big tire tubes. Then kinda serpentine it back and forth on the dowels.

[Bvas]

Originally posted by Lee Lobbestael:
But with a clamp on the handle screwed down snug, will slippage even be an issue?

Slippage can always be an issue  
I would suggest multiple clamps on the handle. If not placed perfectly, a single clamp can actually cause things to slide.

[YosemiteSam]

I love seeing these build-alongs.

[Lee Lobbestael]

So this is probably going to be a fairly slow build along just to warn you guys. I'm figuring everything out as I go and with a few kids at home and working overtime, I only get a short time to work on it each day so bear with me. Right now I'm kind of compiling materials. I ordered lams from Kenny and just ordered some thin strips of aluminum for pressure strips. Last night I bought a piece of walnut for a riser but I'm not sure I want to use it. I didn't have my template on me so I couldn't check the size and when I got home I saw that it was only just wide and long enough. If I plane it smooth it will be less than 1 1/2" wide. I kind of want to use an exotic wood for the riser anyway. Tonight i'm planning to buy 1/2" dowels and maybe drill holes in my form to slide the dowels through. One step at a time!

[Woodpuppy]

These build alongs are fascinating! I've got 4 kids under the age of 6, so my time is pretty much spoken for too. Thanks for sharing the process! Maybe there will be time when mine are older. Maybe the boy will want to help  

[Lee Lobbestael]

Tonight I put the pegs into my form. I drilled 1/2" holes 2" apart and 2" down from the top of the form and tapped 4" dowels through.        

[kennym]

Lookin good Lee!! When is glue up? Dry run first to check glue lines...

[Mad Max]

I pin my riser to my form, that take's care of the back lams.
I pin my belly lams to the riser too.
Everything slides around when you get glue on it

[Lee Lobbestael]

Thanks Kenny! When I get my lams from ya I'll work on skiving them together and then I can make my riser. I'm hoping to glue next week. I think I'll have a lot of questions once I get the lams. Tonight i'm going to stop by the bike shop to see if I can get ahold of some inner tubes. Tomorrow I'm going to go to a different millworks place and see if I can find some zebra wood for a riser. Mad Max You pin the belly lams to the riser? Do you or anyone have a pic of this? Is there any concern with splitting the laminations or the glass by doing this?

[kennym]

Good grief they should have been there days ago. I'll check tracking when I get home!

[Lee Lobbestael]

Thanks! I like the idea of pinning everything while its dry fit on the form and than just stacking everything on the pins during glue up. That way nothing can move.