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Share your tips and tricks.
DC:
Cutting Bamboo backing.
I just figured this out and it made cutting the boo on the bandsaw much easier. I clamped a piece of wood to the table of the saw so that it just covered the blade.(first picture) It needs to be thin for the last cut, that's why there is different pieces of wood in the pictures. Draw a line down the edge of the boo about 1/16" from the back.(you can see the line in the second picture) Run the boo through the saw following the line on top and holding the bottom against the piece of wood. This means you only have to pay attention to the line and not top and bottom at the same time. Turn the boo over and draw another line 1/16" from the back on the other side. Run it through the saw again. Now you have a thin strip that just needs a few passes through the belt sander. I did two sets of cuts. One with the boo full 2" width and then again after I had trimmed it to width profile. Last picture boo is about 1/8"+ thick
Eric Krewson:
I do the same thing free hand and tilt the bamboo into the blade for each cut. I use the rind as a guide instead of drawing a line and cut as close to it as I can.
DC:
I just found that the piece of wood clamped to the table gave me one less thing to think about. Doing it freehand with my lack of dexterity every time I checked to make sure I wasn't getting too close at the bottom of the cut I would lose track of the top of the cut.
Eric Krewson:
I just cut one side at a time, I tried to cut top to bottom on my first BBO, it was a disaster.
burtonridr:
Pay attention and figure out which way the grain is running off on your first couple strokes with the draw knife. A lot of time I will stroke down the limb to remove wood on one side, and stroke up the limb on the other to prevent the knife from digging to deep.
If the grain is being especially difficult to work with a draw knife, use a sureform rasp and make long even strokes at a 45* angle to the limb instead.
I've lost a few bows to grain tearing, hopefully these will help new bowyers.
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