Making a tapered limb wedge

[Bow Bender]

Back in September there was a thread talking about using a T/D  limb wedge that is tapered the entire length of the wedge without a parallel section where it bolts to the riser. How are you all making these, on a tapered sled that you run through the drum sander or maybe a profile sanding jig?

[JGR1269]

Years ago I built a sled that was adjustable. It was wide enough to do both wedges at the same time. I installed threaded inserts so I could run a screw up or down to change the angle of the sled. I used 3/4” cabinet plywood with a small hinge on one end and the threaded inserts on the other end. Once I figured out the exact dimensions and angle I wanted I ended up building a one-piece sled in those dimensions.

[kennym]

I make quite a few wedges for folks. 

Simple sled, 4.25" wide, make two pieces of something paralleled as perfect as possible 3/4" thick , the bottom piece needs to be long like 20" .

Screw the top piece (few inches longer than desired wedge) to the bottom roughly centered on bottom part.

 I superglue a thin stop on at desired length, slide a piece of parallel stock in between sleds and square it with them. Slide it back to adjust angle.

Sort of trial and error , but works well.

Trade spots with wedges and flip over at final passes.

The long bottom part reduces snipe , which shows up as a dip in the middle of wedge.

I have some sleds that are more detailed but don't work any better...

Hope that helps...

PS, if making Bingham style with the flat for bolt, just run stock thru sander to butt thickness desired ,then carry on same way.

[Crooked Stic]

I do mine with profile sander

[Buemaker]

Profile sanding. The wedge do not have a straight taper, but dips into a concave section. Sorry, pics upside down.

[Crooked Stic]

[derekdiruz]

I use straight taper wedges, both 9.5 and 10.5" over all length. Pending limb length.

The sled i made for mine I did on my cnc. My wedges taper at 1.8*. The sled is purely a 18" piece of 3/4" plywood that has pockets milled out at that taper. I carpet tape (heavy duty double sided tape) down sacrificial plywood strips, and carpet tape my wedges down to the sacrificial piece. From there, I mill a 12" piece down JUST until the end is feathered out. Then I pop it off, and cut it to the length I'm using.

This lets me only need to swap out the sacrificial pieces every 7-8 bows.

If you know the taper rate you want, shoot me a PM. I'd be happy to help with a milled out sled like I was talking about here.

[mmattockx]

The sled i made for mine I did on my cnc. My wedges taper at 1.8*. The sled is purely a 18" piece of 3/4" plywood that has pockets milled out at that taper.

Pics?


Mark

[derekdiruz]

I’ll be making some wedges this morning- so I’ll snap pics.

Process takes all of 5 minutes with the drum sander and they’re accurate as I’d ever want. If I did 20-25 sets, I’d bet it takes me under an hour lol

[Mad Max]

Profile sanding. The wedge do not have a straight taper, but dips into a concave section. Sorry, pics upside down.

How do you hold it in place Bue ?   
I see the nails.

[Kirkll]

Making a straight taper sled is pretty simple to do just using your table saw. Just figure out what thickness you want at the butt of the wedge and super glue a little block on the end of a piece of solid stock. After cutting a couple of these rough cut wedges, just pop em off and use them to mill your new sled on the drum sander.

Kenny’s suggestion of using a longer sled base is a good one on a drum sander too.
If you want a 1/4” in 12” taper, just make your 18” sled 3/8” to nothing, and glue a stop 3” from the end.

The real time saver, and material saver too, is building a sled for your table saw to rough cut the wedges on an angle prior to sanding them.    .02 cents worth.

[Buemaker]

Max, like this.Sorry these old pics come out upside down.

[derekdiruz]

Here’s my sled and old sleds. Just differing degrees of taper rate til I found what I liked.

The second pic shows the soon to be wedge riding on the sacrificial piece and the last pic is the final fades of the wedges.

[Mad Max]

For this one it's a .050 per inch butt wedge.
White is a parallel 3/4" thick or thicker 19" long.
Mark a line at 6", 12", and 18" on the white board.
.050 x 18" =.900 thick, the white block on the left, run a board threw the thickness sander to .900 thick, cut a small piece off.
.050 x 12" = .600 thick         "              in the middle. run the same board threw the thickness sander down to .600 cut a small piece off
.050 x 6" = .240 thick           "              on the right. repeat
Hold each piece on the line and use super glue on one edge. repeat.


Red is going to be the sled, cut at the dash line and super glue it like before, run it threw the thickness sander until it is parallel, pop off the red board and you have a sled .

I have made many sleds this way.

[simk]

Now that's an intersting topic. Seeing all these different devices is cool. Thanks!
 
I personally never got so far. Still sanding my powerlams and risers by hand, eyballing the stuff. Only have taper templates for the midlams.

Now: If you taper to zero: How do you all attach the lams to the sled so it does not move during the sanding process???? I see Buemaker putting a little nail there as a stopper. I had been thinking about double sided flooring tape....but dont really like that for different reasons.

Now what's the secret?

Simon

[derekdiruz]

The tape works fantastically. I use it on the butt end til about half way. If you go too far you’ll risk breaking the fade when freeing the wedge.

[Mad Max]

Now that's an intersting topic. Seeing all these different devices is cool. Thanks!
 
I personally never got so far. Still sanding my powerlams and risers by hand, eyballing the stuff. Only have taper templates for the midlams.

Now: If you taper to zero: How do you all attach the lams to the sled so it does not move during the sanding process???? I see Buemaker putting a little nail there as a stopper. I had been thinking about double sided flooring tape....but dont really like that for different reasons.

Now what's the secret

Simon

I use super thin double side tape to glue the 120 grit sandpaper on the sled.---.003 thick.

https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-15718/Double-Sided-Tape/Double-Sided-Film-Tape-2-x-60-yds?pricode=WB0222&gadtype=pla&id=S-15718&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw_qexBhCoARIsAFgBlettYlhYK2f3z1KKSHaM8OkOkWv0_37FCJIJfkKxuOgaEKevuKuksbwaAmtJEALw_wcB


Here a link to the same topic
https://www.tradgang.com/tgsmf/index.php?topic=177865.0

[Mad Max]

I use the double side tape for a lot of things, even to hold my riser to the pattern sander template.
Here is one for paper templates.

https://www.tradgang.com/tgsmf/index.php?topic=178886.0

[simk]

Thanks Guys!
Double side tape definitly seem to be the trick. I have used this for sanding and flattening horn already.
But I found it annoying to have to remove the tape again from the template - but maybe I used too sticky tape.
What I also didnt't like about this tape-trick was the fact/risk, that the tape with its glue comntaminates my glueing surfaces.
Do you all clean the wedges after sanding somehow to remove leftovers from the tape glue?
Thanks
Simon

[dbeaver]

A light hand sanding should take care of slight adhesive residue