looking good!
Thanks
Deflexing the belly lam before glueup, but reflexing the backing? What profile are you hoping it will be when it's time to tiller?
If it all goes as planned the final profile will be reflexed with the nocks ~2" forward of the handle. By deflexing first, then reflexing when the backing is added I am getting a much larger Perry Reflex effect without ending up with a huge amount of finished reflex that makes it tough to string and overstrains the backing.
I am deflexing the nocks ~6" behind the handle on the form (the final amount will depend how much spring back I get off the form), then pulling them forward to ~3.75" of reflex on the second form. To get that much preload with a flat belly lam I would need to pull the bow into 9+" of reflex when gluing the backing on. That is sinew backed bow territory and more than the backing wood could survive. If it did manage to survive it would be tricky to final tiller and would be nasty to get a string onto.
Those fades look short and the ramp very steep. You might try using a French curve to achieve a less acute angle on your riser.
The fades aren't as short as you think, but I can look at making them longer next time. No french curves required, they are drawn in CAD and accurately printed onto a template, but suffered where I had to freehand the last of the taper due to not having a profile sander. I made a pattern for the riser and used a flush trim bit in my router to cut the ramps and into the fades, but had to leave material at the ends and finish the taper by hand on my belt sander. The hand work is where the problems are.
The ramp is working out to be a bit steep and I will be changing that on my next bow.
Make a lam 4" longer than the riser, .125 thick and taper like this.
I can't do that now, the stack is already completely designed to final thickness (like a FG bow). If I add a lam it will alter everything in the design.
I think I will be doing the next bow as you describe, it seems like an easier way to get the fine taper right to nothing off the end of the riser block until I work out a profile grinder of some sort. Now that I have the thickness sander working OK I know I can taper a lam to nothing with no problems.
Mark