Kirk, have you ever had any issues with the zip ties? I was wondering if you could feel where they were in the lams due to a pressure spot on each ty wrap ?
Like Max said above. You load your lams, put your pressure strip over them, THEN use your zip ties. Oh Ive screwed up a couple times in the past and put the ties right on my glass before, and had perfect zip tie indentations on my limbs. These make great tomato stakes though….
I’ve also found there is a fine line between using cheap zip ties, and the heavy duty ones….the cheap ones strip out too easy trying to pull a recurve limb in tight to the form, and the seriously heavy zip ties are tough to work with. Finding just the right ones make it easier.
When I was first getting started we all used to use flat washers on the edge of our forms to hold the lams straight. And that works ok if you are just using pressure strips and an air hose clamping system in a hot box. Or even the peg and inner tubing type clamping system in a hot box….. but I quickly moved to using heat strips after the first year of building bows.
The heat strips we used 10- 15 years ago were flexible silicone strips that plugged in to 110. Unfortunately they were not cheap, and they burn out or broke to easily, and the manufacturer wouldn’t warranty them after awhile. I used to distribute them myself until they wouldn’t stand behind their product….
The next step was an innovative bowyer I knew built some low voltage heat strips himself and I ran those prototypes for awhile hoping to build a better mouse trap.
But those were too fragile and didn’t hold up well. Oh they worked perfectly….. but we’re not dependable.
Then Brandon Stahl from Rose Oak Creations came up with a system using 22 gage stainless steel pressure strips and hooking them up to a battery charger with a voltage regulator for temp control. I think that was about 2014… can’t remember
Exactly …. maybe 2013. This system works excellent and I’ve used it ever since.
Your pressure strips ARE your heat strips, and cure a set of limbs or a bow in less than an hour…… but….. and there always seems to be a lot of butts in life. This system is serious battery charger abuse, and the chargers only last so long. I get about 100 bows out of one before they go boots up…… Another issue is finding the right kind of charger is getting harder to do. You need one with manual adjustment capabilities. These new electronic ones with the automatic safety features won’t work at all. They are built so you cannot over load them, and that slight overload is what gives you the heat.
Last year I really had to look hard to find one that would work, and paid a couple hundred bucks for it too. I really like this system, but wouldn’t mind if some innovative bowyer would come up with something better.
I know they use nichrome in silicone heat strips, and there should be a way to build something durable enough to meet our needs, but nobody has. I haven’t looked into it real seriously, and probably won’t until I’m forced to do so…..
Kirk
Topic: First time build. (Read 6900 times)
