Let's build a longbow!

[Apex Predator]

I glued up another longbow Sunday morning before church. Thought I would share a few photos.
Here are my lams, glass, and riser laid out.

 

 

Here is my form ready for the glue up. Notice the plastic wrap. I will fold it up over the bow after I get all the lams in place.

 

I will pivot these washers out of the way until I am ready to start clamping everything together.

 

Here are my pressure strips. The are made from 1 1/2" wide 1/16" aluminum with a 1 1/4" pvc lattice glued to the top and a piece of rubber on the bottom. Notice the cuts on the radius. It helps to conform to my risers. I will lay everything up dry to check that everything fits, especially near the fadeouts. I can, and do, tweak the radius on these before each glue up, to ensure the best glue lines possible.

 

Smooth-on mixed up and ready to go. This was the perfect amount for a glue up. I may use a little much, but it's better than too little.

 

Here is my first glass piece, that will be the bows back, all buttered up and ready to go. I use a 1" seam roller to spread the epoxy. It works like a charm.

 

[Apex Predator]

Here are all the components glued up ready for clamping.

 

A C-clamp goes on the riser first. This must be tightened incrementally, because the glue will take a minute or two to squeeze out. Once the riser is secure I tape down the laminates in several places and make sure my alignment washers are all up and tight.

 

I forgot to take a photo with everything clamped up before the oven, but have one as I'm taking it out of the oven. Here she is cooking for 4 hours at 170 degrees in my cheepo oven. I use two 100W, and two 75W bulbs. My garage gets hot this time of year. Four 100W bulbs gets my oven over 180 Degrees. During the colder months I will probably go back to 400 total watts.

 

Here she is after cooling down some.

 

I brought her into the house to cool some more.

 

[Apex Predator]

Let's get this thing out of the press and see what we have. I also wrapped my pressure strips with plastic wrap. This one came right out of the form with no problems. Some of the expoxy worked it's way out of the plastic, but not much.

 

 

 

Here she is after cleaning up on my belt sander.

 

 

 

I just love the looks of osage!

 

[Apex Predator]

I'm getting a little fancier with this one. I decided to use a riser overlay. Here are the riser and tip overlays after cooking in my whirlpool oven for three hours at 170.

 

I forgot to show the overlays cleaned up and pre-tapered before glueing them to the bow.

Here they are on the bow. I used smooth-on and placed a light bulb close to each of the tips and one on each side of the riser. I then draped some aluminum foil over the top of each area. I got them up to 130 degrees and let them cook for four hours.

 

 

 

After a little work.

 

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Nice.... looking good

[Apex Predator]

Now time to break out the rasp. I did all the riser shaping with this rasp. It took me about 1.5 hours.

 

 

 

I spent about 2 hours sanding it down through 220 grit this morning. I am using super glue to fill the wood pores. Here it is with a fresh coat of super glue. You can start to see how pretty it will be when finished.

 

 

Now you folks are up to speed. I started this yesterday morning. Tonight or in the am tomorrow I will finish sanding through 400 grit and apply my first coat of tru-oil. It will take about 4-5 days to apply all the tru-oil. I apply a coat in the a.m. and another in the p.m. about 12 hours apart. Stay tuned for the final product.

[pine nut]

Looking forward to seeing your fruit for this one too!  You are not one to waste any time I
see.  Beautiful work an obviously something you love (are driven) to do.

[Scott E]

    :eek:  that was awsome watching it transform from all glued up to a beautiful bow. WOW you have inspired me. Gotta make one now      
-Scott

[longbawl]

Very nice How does the tru-oil do on the glass.
If you dont mind me asking.

[BMN]

Great job. Your bows keep looking better and better.

[Apex Predator]

Tru-oil does a fabulous job on wood and glass.  The only draw back is that it is very labor intensive.  It takes a lot of time applying it, buffing it out, and then waxing.  I have started spraying a mist of poly over the top which gives a great looking satin finish.

[SteveD]

Great Job Marty. Looks great Thanks

[bentpole]

Wow, Outstanding! Can't wait to see her finished!

[Lewis Brookshire III]

Looks great Marty! I cant wait to see one in person!

[robtattoo]

If only it was as easy as you make it look!

[kennym]

Marty,Lookin great!! You are a bow makin machine! Never mind the PM I sent,I figured it out! LOL

[blacktailchaser]

hey marty,that is one sharp looking bow..i have a question...is making a glass bow hard to learn how to do..and how did you go about learning this..i have been trying to learn how to make self bows.but its not really my cup of tea.all so glad to see anther believer on here.thanks john

[TNstickn]

Lookin good bro! How long does it take you to make a bow now compared to the first couple?

[JEFF B]

awesome marty!!! how the hell do ya turn so may out man thats just wow!!!      

[Apex Predator]

Building these type of bows is not particularily hard.  You can be pretty sure of getting a shooter the first time I would think.  The details and finish work are the toughest.  You have to be very methodical in your process.  After a few your system gets improved.  I learned how from these forums!  The build-a-longs were a tremendous help.  I did have a background in building selfbows and all wood laminated bows.  Glass bow building is easier for you to hit on sucess early, but is more expensive.  If you screw up a board bow or boo backed bow, you are only out a small amount of money.  If you screw one of these up you just ate about $120 minimum.  That's with buying from several sources for supplies.

I'll have about 16-17 hours in this one.  I have trimmed off a couple of hours of standing around trying to figure out what to do next.  If you aren't real sure I suggest writing down steps you plan to use and modifying it as you go along.

I am truely addicted to bow building, but I guess it could be worse!