Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: ZanderPommo on July 06, 2010, 04:06:45 pm
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hey guys I've been having trouble recently getting a snakey osage stave to have a flat surface to glue an overlay to. i used my belt grinder then a hand plane but cant get the thing perfectly flat. how do you guys generally cut/sand yours?
thanks in advance for any input!
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I just use my belt sander on the tip of the bow to make it flat.. sometimes I have to touch it up with 80 grit sandpaper on a block of wood. I hold the tip and overlay together up to the light and I adjust till I can't see light through the joint anymore. Remember to degrease the osage and glue it on. :)
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Sanding block with new 60 grit open coat stapled on. Gives a good surface for epoxy.
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Ditto....Belt Sander with 60 grit....normally don't have any fitment issues at all....
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It's hard!!!! I concur with you. I've done dozens of them and they are always hard to get perfectly flat. It's a pain in the arse to be perfectly honest. Just keep sanding and try and sand them level. Hopefully it helps to know you are not alone.
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Fitment issues, Michael? ::)
I do what the others said. You may need to secure the bow tip firmly so you can concentrate on getting it flat with a sanding block.
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I just use a 12" bench plane. It will do the job quickly if you have a good vice setup. If I wanted the overlay to be 1" long, I would do a couple of strokes starting 1/4" from the tip, on the bow's back going towards the tip, then a couple more starting at 1/2", then 3/4, then finish off with one or two 1" strokes. That gives the angle to the joint. I would have the depth of cut set for very thin shavings. If you made any mistakes or got chattering, you could touch it up with a good flat sanding block. The easiest mistake is to roll the plane or sanding block side to side as you move it along the bow, and you end up with a convex surface instead of flat surface, or the surface is flat but angled to the side.
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Fitment issues, Michael? ::)
Yes Pat...but only a time or two........... >:D
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yes the problem I was having was with getting a convex surface, must have just been having bad luck though, because i gave it another go with the bench grinder yesterday and was able to glue it up successfully. thanks all for your help!
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I sometimes get a perfect fit but not often. I get the bow surface as flat as I can, hold the overlay wood to it and hold the combination up to a light and look for gaps. I sand the overlay wood on my belt sander but just use the belt while the sander isn't running to remove wood where I need to to get a good fit. Usually my bow surface is a little concave so I have to make the overlay a little convex to fit.