Bamboo, Ipe Hickory Build (Repair In Progress)

[Sanford]

Hey guys!

I am new to this community in particular, but have built a few bows in the past. Thought I would share my build I am currently working on.

OK so that makes it sound like, hey, yeah I just decided to starts building a bow and I'll show you the whole thing.

Wrong,

This seems to be a project that I have been putting off for almost two years. Way back when, I ordered the Bamboo, Ipe, and hickory, which was pre tapered (yeah I'm slightly lazy sometimes) from Jim at Rudder bows, who has always been helpful to me. Well so I glued that up last summer since I ordered them in the winter, and was waiting for warm weather so My URAC 185 would dry. My attic above the garage tuned out to be a great heat box...

hmm, you might be thinking, why not just build a heat box.....silly you! you forgot I'm lazy. But really I am a full time Mechanical Engineering Student who also works, rock climbs, mountain bikes, runs, and is captain of a SAE Mini Baja team, so I somehow found things to do besides finish the bow.

So basically I have no pictures of my glue up. All that I did was sand everything, slap some properly mixed per spec Urac on there, used some shrink wrap and reflexed the box in a form. Let it Dry, then glued on a riser, let that dry. Then i Decided, just to be safe, because as I always say, saftey third, I would let the bow glue really dry......and wait another year before I touched it again.

Which brings everyone up to date!

I'm shooting for a 67'' NTN (with the reflex) bow. With a wieght of about 55-60 lb at about 29'' of draw. Not to picky about the wieght, rather it be heavier.

So I finally cut out the limbs and roughed out the handle using a belt sander, band saw and tears of joy to wash away the saw dust. Which Brings me to the first pictures. (see below)

So yeah, roughed it all out here, arrow shelf was pretty high so that was gong to have to come down a bit. So after trying to will the handle into shape with only my mind, I decided to use a 4 sided rasp, which worked much better than my telepathic powers, and resulted in this...(see below)

So i sanded the back down and got most tool marks out of the limbs and did some more handle work.......

You might be asking yourself at this point a few questions
 A.) Why is this guy so wierd?
B.) Why would you spend that much time on the handle pre tillering stage?

as for A, no idea. ANd B, i wanted the challenge of making the entired bow without scuffing up the handle ( or I'm an idiot)

Oh well, must be very careful.

So then the i moved onto tillering. I had to make a tillering tree, using various scrap woods. and i have pctures of that pluss the early stages of tillering that I'll soon post.

Until next time.....

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[Sanford]

For more Pictures and to see my process a little better, visit my web album here, and check out what's there. I'll make sure the important stuff gets onto the forum though.

http://picasaweb.google.com/KNagy88/BowBuild#

[Sanford]

Ok so i uploaded some more Photos to the album, involing the tillering process. Also attached here relate to the first post after I did some more handle work.

I built the Tillering Stick out of a 2x4 and some screws, nothing fancy, but get the job done!

I will tiller using mainly the Rasp, My knife, and some sand paper. Knowing that shaping the hanlde so much then tillering was a bad thing, but i blatantly ignored that, I want to give a word of advice. Many things could go wrong, including your bow breaking, meaning you wasted your time. Well not completely, you will have learned something and will also have a great looking handle. For me, Even though i used padding between the vice and the handle, I still damaged the wood a little, meaning I will have to sand it down further. See, its best to just leave a lot on the handle so you don't even have to worry about it. I on the other hand, will be Extremely Careful.

Haven't go to far on this yet, as i want to take my time with tillering the bow to perfection. Any advice on proper Reflex deflex tillering would be awesome and well appreciated.

Thanks to Josh for the picture advice, and here are some more. Also check out the web album in my second post for more!

And P.S.
I'm a really bad typer, and i harldy ever read back over for mistakes, so sorry for the misspells, un-capped letters, and sentence fragments. Sometimes I go back and Modify what I say if it's way off.

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[youngbowyer33]

I like your style. great build along so far. Welcome

[Josh]

If you click on "Additional Options"  below the type box when you are making a new post,  you can attach up to 6 pictures 200kb or less directly from your pictures folder on your computer. Click "browse" and find the folder on your computer with the pic you want to attach and hit "open".  After you attach your first pic, click "more attachments" to the right of the attach box and another attach box will open under the first one. I think you can post up to 6 pics per post this way.  That is the easiest way to attach pics to your post.   

*EDIT*  Cool you got it working now...   

[Sanford]

And some more of the tillering process....

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[Sanford]

Yeah thanks again Josh! You'd think attending a nationally ranked engineering university (University of Illinois) would require some sort of intelligence.....

.....i guess not....

[Sanford]

Also, been thinking ahead here, and can't decide what to finish the bow with. I have used a number of different brands and methods in the past. I built an Ipe backed with Hickory, and used Deft because i was told it dries on anything, and it did, and looked and still looks amazing. Would use it again and still may but for one problem, it seems to scratch off. For that bow i shoot off the knuckle, and i have a spot worn where the arrow hits the handle. Some may say, well just get a strike plate duh! But i like the simplicity of that bow. Im ok with a little where, its easy to see where i grab the bow everytime. But i've noticed it scratches in other places easy too. So i plan on re-finishing that bow, while making handle adjustments for comfort/asthetics. so any advice on finishing IPE would be good too.

So other more important question is what people would reccomend for finishes in general that bring out the woods natural color for the bow i'm making now. I'm not a big fan of staining the wood, as I feel like the natural wood color looks the best in most cases if done right. Also, i want it to be a protective finish. What i don't want is for my bow to look like it has a layer of glass on it because the finish is so thick haha. So yeah i guess i'm picky? so what.

So yeah, looking at protective, satin/ low gloss. Now witht hat strip of IPE, i'm willing to put some seal on it so a normal finish can be used for the rest, because i know some won't dry on ipe. any suggestions there would be good too.

[youngbowyer33]

lots of people use tung oil or tru-oil, but i like to use Minwax wipe-on poly, it's clear satin and it looks great, really brings out the color.

[Sanford]

Ok so coming right along here

I have been doing a little bit of tillering here and got about 6 inches or so. I decided I actually want to make a higher draw weight. Shooting for about 70-75. Shouldn't be a problem considering this bow is like an iron tank with the combo of woods I got glued up.

I also started on the Knocks, nothing too fancy, I'm kinda going for a simplicity theme with this bow. Still going to shape the knocks a lot before its done, just got the rough cut out.

And really, I don;t know if i smell or what, but any input on tillering and tillering advice on the R/D would be helpful, and I'd love to get the input.

Also, check out that little file kit, went to lowe's looking for a specific file to do the knocks, and it was about 8 dollars. Then i saw that 23 piece kit for only 18. I was like what? jackpot. Totally worth it!

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[aznboi3644]

I would test the breaking strength of those screw heads...I wouldnt feel safe putting 50-60 lbs on them.

My old subwoofer ripped the heads off 6 out of 8 of some fairly string dry wall screws

[colejack3]

  That must be a crazy powerful subwoofer

[Sanford]

Yea noted on the screws.

I have though of that and did take one precaution by angling the screws done so that the force of the string is directed both parralel and perpendicular to the screw axis. What does this do one might ask?

Well by having some of your force vector pointing down the shaft of the screw, you take a way some of the moment that is put on the screw. If all the force is normal to the screw, then you put the biggest moment on the screw.

But having said that, this doesn't mean anything if the force is to great for the screw anyways! So may change that!

[Justin Snyder]

Looks like it is comming along nicely. 

Just for future reference, putting the ipe on the belly makes for a better bow. The denser wood is better in compression for the belly, but in the middle of the sandwich it mostly just adds weight.

[Sanford]

Justin- thanks!

And yeah i thought about that too. The whole Ipe in the middle. Probably didn't need it anyways. Mostly pleasing to the eye. I actually love working with IPE. I like how hard it is, because i like to use power tools, and it very hard to mess up. Where as using less dense woods, sometimes I get carried away.... Its heavy and all, but man does it make a fast bow. I wouldn't expect it with the weight, but it performs. In this situation though, i think your right!