2chucks - 
Spike
 | | 04/03/2008 7:10 AM |
| If you recall, I posted a story about my son after we went to Compton last year. This is the same son, some of you have donated broadheads to for his collection. (Thanks again)
On the drive home from Compton, we alked about making him a bow. This thread will chronicle that process. I am by no means a pro at this. In fact, the last time I built a lam bow was back in 1988 to make the bow I hunt with now. I could most likely buy him a much nicer bow than I will ever be able to build but, there something to be said for doing it yourself and handing it down. The fact that some of the wood was cut by his Grandfather makes this project something one can't buy.
I must warn you that this will be slow going. I have many projects in the works with much stricter time lines than this bow so there will be periods of inactivity. Thats just real life.
This bow will be a reflex/deflex Long bow. Here is a pic I stole off the web to give you an idea of what I am going for.
The woods I am using for Josh's bow are the same ones I use to make knife handles. For the most part, they are South American hardwoods. The riser will be made from Bubinga, Bloodwood and good old American hard rock maple from a tree my Dad cut many years ago. Sort of a legacy piece of wood, cut by my Dad, Made into a bow by me and finally used by my son. I will also use some of the Maple in the limbs.
this is the order in which I will stack the layers.
Most S.A. hardwoods have oils in them that make gluing difficult, so I use acetone to clean and degrease. Blood wood and purple hear are some of the oiliest. You can see the orange oil in the basin of the sink. It took a long time to clean that sink. I should have sprayed it with pam first.
Once cleaned, I used a hacksaw blade as a scrapper to rough up all the gluing surfaces. Epoxy does not like smooth surfaces.
The glue I am using can be purchased at a number of bow building web sites. This is a two part epoxy that gets stronger if cured under a heated condition. This is important because if you leave the bow in a hot car on a sunny day, The glue had better have been cured at a high temp to keep the bow from de-laminating.
It mixes like any other epoxy.
Make sure to cover your work surfaces with wax paper or plastic wrap. It is hard to clean up any spills. Then simply butter both sides of the surfaces to make sure you have no dry spots that will later separate.
I use spring clamps because C-clams will get loose during the heating process when the glue oozes out. (trust me, there is a lot of oozing)  Spring clamps keep a constant pressure at all times.
I then take the riser and put it in a preheated oven. Bake for 8 hours at 180F until a nice golden brown and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream . 
When it comes time to glue up the bow itself, I will build an oven box that is 6 feet long as the bow will not fit in the oven. I will heat this box with 100 watt light bulbs. Fast forward 8 hours and a few more hours for a slow cool down period and the riser is all glued up. The rubber tips of the clamps need to be pried from the glue.
Next, I ran the block through my table saw to square it up and remove the excess glue.
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2chucks -
Spike
| | 04/03/2008 7:13 AM |
| 
Then I drew the riser pattern on the wood and cut it out with a band saw and sanded the fade outs on a drum sander.
This glue is a flexible epoxy. Normal hardware store epoxy would crack and break if bent like this.
Make sure to use only enough glue for the job at hand. A little goes a long way.
I now need to make the form that I will use to glue the bow on and I need to make the heat box. Like I said, this is going to be a slow moving project. I will post more progress as I get a chance to work on it. | | | |
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2chucks -
Spike
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2chucks -
Spike
| | 04/04/2008 10:34 PM |
| I spent some time today, making the clamp holes in the form. When I assemble the bow, I plan to use spring clamps to compress all the layers of wood, fiberglass and epoxy together.
I drilled big round holes and then used a jig saw to square up the side of the hole closest to the top surface. This will give the clamps a little more room.
I will use one clamp on each side of the limb. Like this.
I also got a package in the mail today from Old Master Crafter of Waukegan, IL. I ordered the wood laminations a few days ago and these things showed up a lot faster than I was told they would. (Great Service) It does not look like much for about $60 but what it is, is 6 taper ground action wood strips that are .065" thin on one end that taper at .001" per inch of length. The strips are 36 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. they came protected by two nice looking strips of Zebra wood. I will use them for knife handles at a later date.
I placed the thick end of one piece next to the thin end of another so you can see the taper.
Each limb will get three of these tapers and one strip of parallel thickness Hard rock Maple that is from the piece of wood my Father cut so many years ago. This is the same piece of wood that I used in the riser.
On the front and back of each limb will be a thin layer of Kingwood and then clear fiberglass. All of this will be assembled with the same epoxy I used to make the riser but first I need to assemble an oven box. | | | |
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tomsinnott -
4-Pointer
Newburgh, IN
| | 04/05/2008 12:34 AM |
| | Wow! I can't even make a bird house!!! lol Looking great! | |
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." Benjamin Franklin | |
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2chucks -
Spike
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2chucks -
Spike
| | 04/08/2008 10:17 AM |
| In order to evaluate the bow form, I built a mock up. I bought a pine, 2 x 6 and cut it into strips that were .065 thick.
Before gluing the strips together, I protected the form with two layers of tape. It will be easier to remove and replace the tape then it will be to try and chip away any excess glue from the form.
Next, I covered the surfaces of the form with plastic wrap to keep it clean.
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Skullworks -
Button Buck
Prattville, Alabama
| | 04/08/2008 3:53 PM |
| | Looking good, Ron! | |
'Cuz deer huntin' ain't catch & release! | |
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2chucks -
Spike
| | 04/09/2008 7:46 AM |
| I took the advice of some folks and insulated the inside of the oven box. I bought a roll of insulation that is made from a double layer of bubble wrap with heavy duty foil on both faces. It is just under a 1/4 inch thick and lightweight.
I used a staple gun to attach it to the inside walls of the box and to the under side of the box cover.
I then added two additional light bulb bases to the boards that I had made up earlier. I used 100 watt bulbs in the center two bases so now I have (4) 150 watt bulbs and (2) 100 watt bulbs.
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countrygirl -
Forum Moderator
4-Pointer
Illinois
| | 04/09/2008 9:28 PM |
| | Thats realy neat Ron, I think thats awesome your building this bow for your son.Looks like it is going to be realy nice, Your son is a lucky young man. Can't wait to see the end results and the first deer your son takes with it. | | | |
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2chucks -
Spike
| | 04/10/2008 6:46 AM |
| I didn't have much time to work on the bow today but I did get the strips of fiberglass cleaned with alcohol and then I put a layer of tape over the shiny surface to protect it from scratches and epoxy during the build up. The one on the left is yet to be taped.
On the back side of the bow (towards the archer) I need two pieces of fiberglass so I cut one of the long strips in half after I taped it
Then I beveled the wood laminations so that the glue seam would not be so obvious.
Then I glued the bevels together to make one long piece.
At this point, I am ready to glue up the bow. I hope to be able to do it next week. | | | |
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countrygirl -
Forum Moderator
4-Pointer
Illinois
| | 04/12/2008 4:37 PM |
| | looks like you have lots of work cut out for ya... Its looking great Ron.. Thanks again for sharing this with us. I'll keep checking in to see how its coming along. | | | |
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2chucks -
Spike
| | 04/18/2008 9:40 PM |
| So, enough waiting already. Time to glue this bow up. I promised a local grade school I would give them a few hours on Friday so I took the whole day off and worked on the bow in the afternoon.
I laid out everything I needed since the dry run a few days ago. Then I put both quart containers of the epoxy in a basin of hot water to warm them up a bit.
Next, I cleaned all the wood and glass surfaces and laid them in the order in which I would glue them.
1. is .050 clear glass
2. is .020 kingwood vernier
3. is .090 thick hard maple taper (two pieces glued together to make one long piece)
4 and 5. is .065 thick hard maple taper (two pieces glued together to make one long piece)
6. is a piece of hard maple .060 parallel from the piece of wood my Dad cut. (two pieces glued together to make one long piece)
7. is .020 kingwood vernier
8. is .050 clear glass
Missing from the picture is the riser.
Fast forward to a completed glue up with the warmed epoxy. Due to the mess and the fact that I was working alone, I did not slip out of my sticky rubber gloves to take pictures along the way. What a slippery mess to work with. I used a combination of spring clamps and rubber inner tube strips to compress all the layers. I had more C-clamps at the center (on the riser) but I took them off once I realized that they stuck up higher than the sides of the box and the cover would not lay flat. So much for a complete dry run. I should have tried the lid of the box also. Oh well. live and learn.
Here is a close up of all the layers and all the extra glue that oozed out. I also learned that I used too much glue. I think I could have built two bows with what came out from between the seams. Once again. Live and learn.
Here is the oven box doing it's job of keeping the bow at around 160F. I will unplug it before I go to bed and let it slowly cool down over night.
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2chucks -
Spike
| | 04/20/2008 8:46 PM |
| It was a day of ups and downs on the bow project. It took a solid hour to free the bow from the form. Removing the spring clamps was easy, The epoxy covered strips of inner tube proved to be a bit tougher. The form cleaned up easy because of all the tape I used to protect it.
The bow was a little tougher. The extra epoxy was everywhere and held bits of the inner tube captive.
To save on a mess in the shop (and because it was a nice day) I took the bow out to the back patio behind my shop. The breeze would blow all that nasty fiberglass dust away.
I learned that I need to place a layer of plastic wrap between the last layer of glass and the aluminum pressure strip. I didn't do that with this bow and needed to sand away the excess epoxy to free it from the bow. This also gave me my first look at the glue lines between the layers of wood.
after sanding both sides I could pry away the aluminum pressure strip.
Then I just had to peel away the tape to see how the Kingwood looked under the clear glass.
And the other limb.
and finally the back of the bow. Everything looked good.
Then I worked on the riser. there was a lot of epoxy to remove.
The risers looks good and so do the skive cuts that joined the strips of maple
I then made a line on each end of the limbs that was 34 niches from the center point of the bow. (68 inches overall length) I used a fine tooth hacksaw to cut the ends off.
Both ends measured the same thickness.
Then I used the washers to string the bow before I cut the string grooves.
Here is is strung but with a bow string that is too long so the brace height is only about 5 inches. I used the string from my longbow. It is the only string I have for that bow. (that is an important point that will be realized a bit later.
To check for limb twist, I wanted to look at more than just saw cuts at the ends of each limb so I took a carbon fiber shaft and taped it in place on each limb. I made sure they were at 90 degrees to the limb.
With the washers in the measured center of the limbs, there looks to be no twist in the limbs.
I marked the centerline of the bow along the entire length and used a strip of wood to mark a straight line for the limb taper toward the string nocks.
Just as I was marking the last line on the other limb, all hell broke loose, Something whacked me in the finger and the bow jumped up off the table. When I figured out what it was, I had to search high and low for both washers. The bow string (my only string for my bow) had broke. My guess is that I left too sharp an edge on the inside of the groove and it cut through the string. Now I have no string for either bow. Time to scramble and locate a 64 inch string for my bow and a 63 inch string for the new bow.
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2chucks -
Spike
| | 04/21/2008 9:32 PM |
| Today was a better day. If there is such a thing as a good time for a string to break, I guess I am lucky. I have a lot of work to do before I need a string again.
I used my belt sander with a 50 grit belt to grind down the limbs to the lines I scribed. My lovely bride got a picture of me at work.
Next, I marked the location of the string grooves in the ends of the limbs.
Using a chainsaw file I made the beginnings of the string grooves. This will help me locate the tip overlays. when they are installed, I can finish the grooves.
For the overlays, I want to use Bloodwood and antler. The Bloodwood will match the accent strip in the riser and the antler is just something I wanted to try. I had a section of antler left over from a knife handle I made. I will use the longest tine as it has no pithy core. It is solid all the way through.
Using the belt sander, I created a flat spot on the antler that will run against the rip fence of my table saw. I am using a carbide tipped finish blade so I get less chipping and a smooth cut.
I made the strips about an 1/8th of an inch thick.
In order to get the best adhesion with the epoxy, I needed to rough up the shiny surface of the clear glass. I used a hacksaw blade as a scraper. I did the same to the bloodwood and the antler.
I used the same epoxy, I used for the rest of the bow build.
I used only one bulb under each tip and some of the left over insulation from the hot box. Not much I can do except make the tillering tree.
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2chucks -
Spike
| | 04/22/2008 9:02 PM |
| With the antler and Bloodwood overlays glued in place. I began shaping the tips. I still have the very first fiberglass longbow I ever owned as a kid. It is a 25 pound bow and I wanted to make the tips of the new bow look something like my old bow.
I sanded all the edges flush and continued the string grooves I had already started.
The rest really need no explanation.
The groove has to have enough room so the string does not kink at full draw. I used the good end of the broken string and approximated the string angle.
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2chucks -
Spike
| | 04/25/2008 11:18 PM |
| I've been a bit busy lately so time spent on the bow project has been short. I did get a replacement string from a very kind young man on a traditional archery site where I have been keeping this same blog. He sent not one but two strings for Josh's bow. I offered to pay him and he would hear nothing of it. Trad folks are really good people.
He even matched the colors of the riser.
Before I could use the new string, I needed to build a tillering tree to check the limbs for even bending. I had a section of treated 2x4 up in the rafters of my garage for a few years so I knew it was good and dry. I drilled a series of 3/4" diameter holes at a 15 degree angle in the edge of the 2x4. The holes are 2 1/2 inches deep. In those holes, I glued short sections of 3/4 inch wooden dowels. I then sanded them to round off any sharp edges.
And marked off the distances along the side.
This is the bow holding end of the tree. I use a piece of leather to protect the riser when I clamp the bow in place.
I attached a plywood base so it would stand by itself.
With the string grooves filed and the tillering tree finished, I strung the bow for the first time. and drew it back. It was a good feeling. I then put it in the tree and drew the bow to a few different lengths to see if the limbs were flexing equally. Here are the pics.
I can see some differences in the flex of the limbs. I will sand away certain areas to make the limbs act the same.
Lessons learned. I could have left out every other wooden peg. I really don't need one at every inch. | | | |
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2chucks -
Spike
| | 04/30/2008 9:46 PM |
| After a few days off to tend to some important issues, I got a chance to get back to the bow. I still needed to cut out the sight window and shape the grip. I drew the window onto the tape on both the back and belly of the bow. The window will be 1/8th inch less than center.
I used a hand saw and chisel to remove the wood.
And then sanded it to the lines.
I put a crown on the shelf.
To shape the grip I used a wood rasp and sanding blocks
It still is a bit thick and will need to be slimmed down a bit.
The end user is happy with the fit so far.
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tubby -
Record Book
Moundville,Alabama
| | 05/01/2008 9:45 PM |
| | Very impressive,you are an excellent craftsman. | |
Tubby
The God of My Rock;He Is My Sheild;And The Horn Of My Salvation 2 Samuuel,Ch 22 | |
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Olsplittoe -
Button Buck
| | 05/01/2008 10:04 PM |
| | Sure have enjoyed watching your progress with this bow. This is some impressive work. I can see why the end user would be proud to own and hunt with such a fine looking bow, and just think "My Dad made it for me" awesome. | | | |
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