Custom riser block for factory limbs

[Squatchbilly]

Sorry if the title has some confused. Not sure if I’m even describing correctly. Curious if anyone has made custom risers to accept any one of the standard manufacturer type limbs. I want to get into bow building and am interested in all of the various methods one piece selfbows, glass bows, etc. but am slightly intimidated with all of the processes involved with the different layers and thicknesses in order to get proper weights and what not. I very much prefer the appearance of wood bows, wood laminated, more natural looking vs technical composites. But of course LOVE the performance of carbon and what not. So I was kind of thinking on just making a beautiful wood riser, possibly multiple layers, just all around awesome, but compatible with an off the shelf ILF limb (insert whatever style limb) to have an easier path to getting the speed/performance/desired style out of the bow as a whole.
Sorry if all of this seems rambling. Just curious if anyone has done this. I’m guessing there’s certainly some off the shelf options as well, but custom is always cooler. And I also wonder if I’m delusional in thinking that just making the riser even if it is kind of intricate would be much simpler than limb stack/laminations etc.
Random thoughts

[Crooked Stic]

As mentioned in another thread start with something proven to work such as Kennys designsforms stacks etc. Then venture on you own ideas.

[Buemaker]

Stic x 2. By all means go ahead and make an wood ILF riser and you will find out how «easy» it is.

[Kirkll]

There are no short cuts in this trade….

I build ILF risers for guys from time to time, but these require the use of composite materials to get the strength you need, and the milling necessary for embedding the hardware. Typically ILF risers are cut way past center so various elevated mechanical rests can be used. I use a lot of G-10 in my ILF risers.

When embedding the ILF receiver plates in the limb pads, these need adjustment set screws tapped into the side of the riser for lateral limb adjustment. Tapping set screws into wood is a waste of time and they strip out too easily….

Bottom line…. There is nothing simple about a well built ILF riser.

If you want to build laminated composite limbed bows you either have to get a drum sander and mill your own tapers, or order them from somewhere. Kenny can get you set up, or I could even set you up with tapers milled 36” long that you can adjust the stack height sliding them back and forth…standard bow limbs rarely exceed the need for more that 30” length.


Forget carbon and stick with .040 glass to get started.


There ain’t no shortcuts in this trade….   Kirk

[kennym]

I figured Kirk had some insight on ILF risers, good info.

I've built exactly one and it is the last. 

Read this part again...


There ain’t no shortcuts in this trade….   Kirk

[dbeaver]

It would probably be "easier" to replicate a purchased limb make the set, and make a three piece bow complete before settling into the nuances and tooling needed for the ILF endeavor.   Trust me I have a thread from August 2023 "Is there any benefit going ILF" where i found out some of this same information.  With a little more experience I now understand it would be quite the meticulous place to begin your journey.

[Squatchbilly]

And just a day later after posting this, I stumbled upon a thread of yours Kirk where you were building an ILF riser, needless to say, it opened my eyes to the more technical aspects of it. 
So maybe not ILF but what other mounting types out there are there for limbs that would require a less complicated/sophisticated mounting point system? Something where limbs are available in prefabbed assortments of weight length and style?
I don’t want to sound like I’m downplaying the difficulty of any of this, but I feel like the basic riser block would be easiest part, even if multiple species were used to get a beautiful stacked/laminated appearance. Then cut to shape and form fit etc. feels like it would be a good place to start.
Not sure why the limb part of things seems to concern me the most. Probably the concept of getting the wrong stack put together, incorrect thicknesses etc. and spending a bunch of time to end up with an incorrect weight or limbs completely unusable.

Oh, and I would not even come close to considering to build with carbon on my own, was meaning more to purchase a carbon cored limb with wood veneer faces for the beauty and performance mixed. The building part I’m positive it would be a good long while before I’m ready to think about that at all. I love the concept of it all, but I’m sure my dreams are far bigger than my reality but you’ve gotta start somewhere right!!!?!? I’ll be scouring this forum and any other place I can for info on all the different aspects of building bows for sure. And thanks for the info so far, it’s all very helpful.

[Kirkll]

"I don’t want to sound like I’m downplaying the difficulty of any of this, but I feel like the basic riser block would be easiest part...."

Well you ARE down playing this.... There is nothing BASIC about a take down bow riser. Just the shape itself can make the difference between being a hero or a goat... there is a LOT of pressure being applied to a TD bow riser. learning how to reinforce them with different lay ups and paying close attention to grain run out and type of woods used needs to be studied...Otherwise you are just building a time bomb.

Then you have your bow bolt threaded inserts and location pins to hold your limbs straight...Doing this by hand and keeping things straight is one thing.... matching them to existing limbs is another.... 

 I use a vertical mill for both my risers and limbs, and having them bolt on dead straight every time just doesn't happen.... I mount my limbs first, then get center line marks before i profie them and do the tip overlays. That is a very BASIC part of building a bow..... Any bow...

 You will find there are very few TD bows out there that you can interchange limbs on. ILF is about the only design that works.... Why?  Because it has a universal mounting plate that has adjustment for limb alignment.... Just bolting somebody else's  limbs on a riser ain't going to fly... you have to have a means to line them up or they will twist on you...

Now what i do have is some aluminum plates i had milled to allow for lateral limb adjustment using a single location pin.  I could sell you some of these, and some limbs too for that matter, and let you play with it if you like..... Once you get done, you can come back and post your results....   

look at this photo and you can see the plates i'm talking about on 2 different risers. They work excellent, but i went to a 2 pin alignment system and quit using them.

Kirk