BBL R/D lets see what happens.

[John Malone]

Well Guys I guess I'm breaking a bunch of bowyer laws with this one, oh well. I try and take everyone's advice but I get so much it confuses me. So this is what I glued up. 64 inch, one inch wide bamboo backed lemon wood with a piece of ipe as a full length power lam. I just made that one up by the way. I tapered the ipe from 1/8th to 1/16ths. The lemon wood was 7/16 tapered to 3/8 then I tillered it until it would lay down in the form fairly easy, didn't take much.
 The form had 5 inch end post, 2 3/4 mid limb post placed midway between end of 12 inch riser and tips, the center post was 3 3/4.
The way I measured it out of the form was belly down on the table. From table top to belly its 1 5/8 at the tips and 5/8 at center. so it kept half of what I glued in.
I would have made it wider but that's all I could get from the boo after tapering it. I also done a lot of looking at old lemon wood designs. There were bunches of them with tropical cores, hickory backings and most were only 1 to 1 1/4 wide.
 I just had to do it this way to actually fell it so to speak. If I had to guess id say she's a hundred pounds over anything I could pull.
 Lets see if I can ride the the whole 8 seconds. They don't give gold buckles to spectators, ya got to ride the bull.
 
 
 

[Roy from Pa]

I like it, Johnny..

[John Malone]

Like it! I'm loving it! This would be the build that prayers are welcome.

[BMorv]

It will most certainly break since you didn't follow my advice.....

[Roy from Pa]

When ya putting the riser on?

[BMorv]

Just joking man.  The core should work fine.  I just respect ipe as a belly wood too much to use it for anything else.  I'm sure it will make a great bow if you do your part    

[John Malone]

Working on riser now Roy, glue it up this afternoon maybe start tillering tomorrow. Let all the glue joints cure out real good.
BMorv, don't jinx me. lol That piece of ipe was only 1/8th thick to start so I didn't think it would make a belly lam. Got another piece that's 1/4 to use on another one. This is my practice r/d. If it blows I can get more lemon wood billets.

[Roy from Pa]

Benton, LMFAO...    

[John Malone]

Ha Ha.

[John Malone]

Question, where do you even start tillering one of these monstrosities? Get the outer and mids working?
Anything to watch out for?

[Roy from Pa]

Same as any other bow. Facet and round the edges, shape the riser, floor tiller, string grooves, long string, get it bending nice, then shorter string. Use gizmo, go slow.

[BMorv]

Your R/D is mild, so you can use your gizmo.  Just don't make the mistake of removing too much from dip where you midlimb post was.  Your scraper will want to take more off there because of the shape.
 
And since you have a lot to remove, expect it to gain reflex.

[John Malone]

Thanks guys.

[John Malone]

Guess ill get to the riser in the morning. Damn chickens. But I must say after working for home owners for 25 years its kinda nice.

[Wolftrail]

Looks great Good luck.
Possible words of wisdom;  shoot the bow at least 400 times, had to many bows break after 300 shots.  I know some bowyers only shoot their bows 40-70 times, hang them on the wall for 2 years then give them away and finding out later that it snapped.
...  

[John Malone]

Gotcha Wolftrail. Ive been shooting the bows ive made as much as possible. Fortunately I have the space and time to shoot a hundred a day, most times. Don't plan on giving any away with less than 800 or so shots on them. Also for bows I plan to give away I will use ea40, tight bond is great but, ya know what I'm saying.

[John Malone]

Well guys, got the riser on there about oh 5 hundred, not under any stress so I unclamped it this afternoon and roughed it out pretty close. Left the tip over lays a lil over sized for now. Ill tune em up when I narrow the tips later. Start tillering tomorrow, the glue should be cured as good as it will ever be.
 
 
 

[BMorv]

She cleaned up nice John.  Still pretty heavy?  Looks tic (in a Cajun accent) as they say in my part of the world.

[John Malone]

LOl, yea I knew some fellows from down youre way, They don't seem to like a th sound, tic or tin or I taught so. I love that accent.
As far as thick goes I tillered enough to get it to lay down in the form, I will start working on it tomorrow, but yea she is thick. Kinda sexy like that though.

[John Malone]

Well, this is 24 inches 48 pounds, brace is 5.5 inches, target was 50 don't think ill hit that. Pic isn't good, gizmo and yard stick says its even. I don't know guys, how bad is it? Last 11 inches are stiff.