An experimental leaf-spring lever bow

[medicinewheel]

This sure is something different!
Really like it!

[willie]

I have a bow drawn out in the VirtualBow program that is an extreme r/d bend in the handle bow:



It has very low stress (90 MPa) at 40 lbs of draw weight and VirtualBow predicts a speed of ~200 fps with 10gpp. Friction will probably eat some of that, but still - there's probably room to stress it a little more.

I like the stress curve and am watching with interest to see how you work out the design with the leafspring idea.

[NicAzana]

I have a bow drawn out in the VirtualBow program that is an extreme r/d bend in the handle bow:



It has very low stress (90 MPa) at 40 lbs of draw weight and VirtualBow predicts a speed of ~200 fps with 10gpp. Friction will probably eat some of that, but still - there's probably room to stress it a little more.

I like the stress curve and am watching with interest to see how you work out the design with the leafspring idea.

I'll be sure to post it here if I get to make it. But I probably have to wait for a piece of wood that is clean and straight enough - otherwise it will be a nightmare to balance and align, I think.

Really cool. I love how narrow you were able to keep the limbs. The performance sounds pretty darn good! Do the limbs mostly contact near the tips of the smaller belly limbs?

I think that is one of the main benefits of this design: It is wide and narrow at the same time!

That bow looks like a lots of fun Nic! And great execution! My hat's off 

Thank you for the kind words simk!

I'm glad to see that you decided to post it here.  I was the one that sent you the link.  I have been doing this for quite a few years and really enjoy seeing 'different' ideas, like yours.  You did a great job on it.   

Thank you bob, I really like r/Bowyer for the great community, but there's just an amount of cumulative experience here that is unmatched anywhere else.

[Bob Barnes]

NicAzana welcome to the site.  I hope that you become a member and share your bows with us. 

I like the profile of that DR virtual bow, but the wide middle wouldn't seem like one that I could shoot well hunting. 

[NicAzana]

NicAzana welcome to the site.  I hope that you become a member and share your bows with us. 

I like the profile of that DR virtual bow, but the wide middle wouldn't seem like one that I could shoot well hunting.

Hi Bob, to be sure, that bow is too wide to shoot with any arrow, I think. The point is that I would split the limb into three stacked limbs (as in the original bow of this thread) and end up with a one-inch wide limb that is working as a three-inch wide limb. Sadly, VirtualBow doesn't let you stack limbs, so I have to work it out like this.