Tip for room Temp. Cure

I don't know if this has been mentioned before or if anyone else is doing this...  

   Here is a tip for those who lay-up their bows at room temperature... If the temp. gets below 70 degrees or you want to speed up the curing process, Wrap your form in an electric blanket and then cover it with a another blanket or comforter...

  Happy Holidays Folks...

[mikkekeswick]

Sleeping bags  

[Bowjunkie]

Well now, that's not room temperature then is it?        

[Crooked Stic]

[John Malone]

Shredd that's a good idea. I'm not up to that level yet with my bow making. However ive used electric blankets in an unheated shop for glue ups on furniture, rockers for chairs and such. I also use them on occasion in a t-pee fashion when I have a finish curing and the temps will drop to low. They work great, and you can get them dirt cheap at yard sells or goodwill. Thanks for sharing a cool trick.
 Merry Christmas

[Roy from Pa]

Dear Mr. Carpenter in Florida.

I need to come down there and build ya a hot box?  

[Ringbill]

In the winter when the heat is on I will take it inside and place your form next to a heat register and cover it with a couple blankets. Sure, the room may cool down but the bow won't

C'mon down Roy...  Don't forget your suntan lotion and your water wings...      

  I got three hot boxes...  6' one, 4' one and tiny one for keeping my epoxy warm...  I just use them to post cure my bows...  I don't like putting my forms in the oven...  Limited space made me keep my boxes to the small side. The light bulbs are to one side and I feel the it heats one side of the form too much and could could warp it...

  The blanket works great for those chilly days down here...  Maybe if I plug it into the 220 line I could post cure my bows and get rid of my boxes all together...  

[Crooked Stic]

Let me know how the 220 works      

[monterey]

Climb the pole and go 440!  

Now we're Talking...  LOL...  Maybe a sprinkle  gasoline and plug it in while standing in a puddle  of water...

[monterey]

[Forwardhandle]

I have been using the elec blanket for a while caught the idea out of Adam Korpwicz composite bow book I'm using it as we speak on a BBH bow this morning ,if you use 2 of them folded over I can get 130 % F  I need to build a proper hot box my problem is room in the shop !

Trust me...  I think you will be fine with that... Too much heat can mess things up, increase pressure in hose, warp forms, dry out and crack wood...  People build bows without any heat at all...  And them damn boxes take up a lot of precious room...

[mikkekeswick]

Originally posted by Shredd:
Trust me...  I think you will be fine with that... Too much heat can mess things up, increase pressure in hose, warp forms, dry out and crack wood...  People build bows without any heat at all...  And them damn boxes take up a lot of precious room...

Those are all problems to do with using wood at too high an m.c. not heat problems  
When your wood is at the correct m.c. you won't have any of those problems.

Not true... Not all the problems are related to high MC...  I Only agree with the cracking of wood and too high MC...  I just prefer to keep my forms out of the oven... My lightbulbs are to one side and can cause uneven heating on my form... We all know what happens to a sheet of plywood when you sit it in the sun...  Plus it can increase pressure in a hose in which I prefer to air up at 35psi... I post cure my bows in an oven to make sure the epoxy is fully cured and I call it "trial by fire"...  When you put a bow in an oven without a form it goes through a drastic heat change...  If a bow is gonna twist it will twist then not a year later when it sits in the hot sun or a back of a car... I live in FL. in which it is humid in the summer... My MC is about 10 to 12 percent in my wood...  Putting a bow in drastic heat change could still cause minor cracking in wood...  Thats why I wrap my riser in cellophane when it goes in the oven...  As for the limbs the edges are sealed in bow snot... Another thing that could happen when you heat up a bow too quickly is what I call "Air Out"...  It's when the wood in the limbs heat up and any moisture or air in the cells expands, pushing out the resin and can cause voids between your laminations... I take all these things into consideration and just like to cover all the bases...  Less things can go wrong...  The main reason a bow is put in an oven is faster cure time for production and makes for a thorough cure... I don't think it makes too much a difference in adhesion properties... There is also the fact that if you air up your hose at 65psi which will squeeze out most of your resin, put it on a heat strip which liquifies the resin more...  It could soak into the wood and leave a resin starved joint... Add in the air expanding in the hose causing even higher pressures... All things to consider...

[Buemaker]

Shredd, what do you mean with post cure?

Glue up the bow at room temperature first and then put it in the hot box after the epoxy has hardened...