Here's what I do: I do 0.006"/inch total taper, .002 on the back, .002 on the core, and .002 on the belly. That gives you a nice arch type bend which is what I'm after. If you want your outers to be a little stiffer, I would take out the taper on the belly, like Roy and some others do. I also add tip wedges to stiffen the outer limbs, but I'm currently playing around with no belly taper and seeing how it affects my bend.
The way I see it, you are determining how your bow will bend by precisely pre-tapering your lams and width tapering pre-glue up, so you really don't have to mess with tillering one area or another. I just more or less remove wood evenly from the entire limb to balance them out and reduce weight to get to my target. I let the shape take whatever shape it wants, since I already know it's going to bend evenly because I spent my time in prepping the tapers. Your eyes will fool you every time if you try and play the I don't think it's bending enough here game when you are adding reflex and deflex. What you are looking for with your gizmo is sudden dips or flat spots, not worrying about gradual changes as there will be changes in the gap because of the R/D.
You can use whatever crazy fractions you want, but you are working on a thousandths per inch level, so it just makes it easier to address everything in thousandths of an inch. Roy's fancy thickness sander is accurate down to less than 0.001" of an inch. You shouldn't be off more than a couple thousandths of an inch IMO on these types of bows.
I use a scarf joint. I've used a z-splice but don't find them necessary, especially when I add a power lam.
Topic: Roy, BMorv, other gurus i need help with trilam Taper? (Read 1603 times)
