Main Discussion Area > HowTo's and Build-a-longs
Fiberglass takedown sleeve
madcrow:
Plain turtle wax. Maybe I did not put enough on it, or I applied the strips too tight. Anyway, I decided not to take chances and started using the plastic covered with a layer of mink oil. It was handy at the time. The plastic does not take up enough room to cause any looseness in the finished handles and they all click in and click out.
mullet:
This is a good build-along. This is exactly the way it was done in the article in a back issue of Primitive Archer.
madcrow:
Now that it has dried, it is time to sand down all the rough stuff and get ready to add the final layers. You will need some safety glasses and a mask or respirator because the glass is rough on the lungs.
I lock it in the vise and rip off a strip of sandpaper and rough sand all the way aroung the handle to smooth it out.
Smooth enough to continue. It is also a good time to take the screws out and give it a yank to seperate the two pieces.
For a four inch handle, I cut the strips 5 inches wide and around 18 inches long. I know, somebody just said that I
messed up and cut them too wide, but let me explain. When the sheet of fiberglass is cut, it unravels. To help stop that problem and to keep the edges smooth and clean, I fold under 1/2' on each side of the glass.
For this bow, four more strips should do it.
I was the only one here, so I could not take pics of me putting the strips on the bow. Basically, I started with a big
glob of mixed epoxy, smeared it all the way around the handle and started applying the glass, folding the sides in as I go. I also pull it tight and smooth it out as I go. When the first layer is done, I repeat the process until all the strips are used. The final amount of epozy gets smoothed out around the handle, making sur there is good coverage. This is the final result.
Once dry, the handle is ready for your favorite wrap or laced handle material.
One other thing, the limbs that are wrapped with plastic are a good place to stick all of the fiberglass pieces as they unravel, which they will do.
When all the nuber crunching was done, I spent $4 on two tubes of epoxy and $4 on glass, but only used half of it, so here a takedown handle for $6 plus some of Uncle Sams Taxation.
radius:
so you use epoxy instead of fiberglass resin, eh? ever tried using the resin?
madcrow:
I have never used the resin on one of these. It would probably work, but I like the 2500 # strenght of the epoxy. Sounds like another experiment. I was going to buy some resin to make some micarta for knife scales anyway.
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