Source for Micarta and G10

[Kirkll]

I can’t imagine that stuff would be cost effective to make yourself, but it might be an interesting project. Kirk

[Flem]

Definetly cost effective to make, dirt cheap as a matter of fact. Paper or fabric for Micarta can be had for free. Fiberglass reinforcement for G-10 is very inexpensive. We already have epoxy. And anybody that can press a bow together can easily accomplish pressing any and all of the above. Plus you can make any color you can imagine.

[Crooked Stic]

I have some left over cactus juice I plan on using for that. Just saturate cloth or whatever press it and bake it to cure..

[Bow Bender]

Check out reply # 15 in the Build Along thread at the top of the page.  A year or 2  ago there was a different post for making linen micarta but I can't locate it right now.   If I or anyone else finds it the link could be posted in the
Build Along thread.

[Flem]

This might be the weirdest G-10ish material ever.
I made it with black fiberglass window screen, with aluminum window screen layers interspersed throughout

partly done and real ugly!

[Goldxxx]

Can natural  canvas micarta be used as an I-beam on a riser? Would one use Smooth On or just regular epoxy to laminate it to the other wood for riser?

[Kirkll]

Can natural  canvas micarta be used as an I-beam on a riser? Would one use Smooth On or just regular epoxy to laminate it to the other wood for riser?

You bet…. This whole ILF riser is made from canvas phenolic.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/x44HmrKuXWPNgvkJ7

Kirk

[Goldxxx]

Kirk, What did you use to glue it together? And did you rough it up with sandpaper before gluing?

[Flem]

Most any epoxy should work fine and yes you should rough it up for a better mechanical bond, in addition to the chemical bonding. I would avoid quick cure epoxy's and CA glue, they get brittle over time.

[Kirkll]

Kirk, What did you use to glue it together? And did you rough it up with sandpaper before gluing?

Like most my laminations I run them through the drum sander with 36-40 grit sandpaper and use good old EA-40. I’m actually surprised I still have this riser, and Someone hasn’t bought it. I built it several years ago.   

I used to do a lot of wood laminating with Urac 185. Good stuff, brown in color, can
Be heated and cured , or room temp cures just fine. It was discontinued, but is still produced by the same company under a different name. Unibond 800. Excellent wood glue…. But…. It doesn’t bond well to fiberglass or phenolic.

https://nelsonpaint.com/unibond-800-urea-adhesive-pint/

In the days of old they used to build a lot of bows using Urac and had a lot of delaminating going on with glass bows. Once the epoxy came into the picture, Urac wasn’t used for glass backed bows much any more. 

I used a lot of Urac to build action wood for bow lams, and mosaic blocks, and I used a bunch of it building furniture from black walnut. The brown glue lines disappear with the dark wood. We used it a lot with Teak on the bull works on boats and rails. It bonds real well with that oily wood for some reason.

If I were building a lot of board bows with no composites , I would use the Uni Bond 800 over epoxy. It’s a water based glue, and much more user friendly than epoxy.       Kirk


Kirk

[Flem]

Epoxy came into the picture at about the same time as fiberglass laminates
Most all wood bows prior to that were made with Resorcinol glue.

[Kirkll]

That’s interesting…. I had to look that up…. Urac is a modified urea-formaldehyde glue that has gap filling attributes up to .020 thickness. Where the  resorcinol-formaldehyde does not. So the urac probably came out later. I can’t find the dates they came out with the Urac, but the but  the resorcinol-formaldehyde glue came out in 1943, and Nelson paint company was founded in 1940.   So I have no idea which one came first. 

 I remember reading some articles about it being used by Fred Bear many years ago when the first glass bows were becoming popular, and then going to epoxy in short order after experiencing delamination issues.

Interesting topic…. Kirk

It’s entirely possible this newer Unibond 800 bonds better to composite materials, but I have no experience with the newer stuff.   

[Flem]

I agree, adhesives are interesting, especially if you are a Dork like me!

I imagine the old time bowyers kept using what they were familiar with, even after they started using synthetic materials. Until they discovered the compatibility issues.

In all the old Archery texts that I have, Casein glue seems to have been the adhesive of choice until the synthetics became available.

[Kirkll]

Now that was an interesting read... Electrodeposition is something i've never studied. Ya gotta love this day of instant information available today. Its drastically changing the whole education system from actually book learning, to punching in questions into your search engine.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/casein-glue

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/electrodeposition