Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Marc St Louis on February 18, 2011, 03:08:13 pm
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I have a board of Bubinga with fairly straight grain. A few months ago I had the curious idea to see if it would work as a backing. I used some Satinwood for the core and glued up an RD bow. Then a few weeks ago I decided to tiller the bow out. Everything went well up to 22". The bow was bending well
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/Marc-St-Louis/MSC/22.jpg)
At 24" it exploded violently, you can still see a piece falling at the bottom of this picture.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/Marc-St-Louis/MSC/ExplodingBubinga.jpg)
This is all that's left
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/Marc-St-Louis/MSC/Exploded.jpg)
My curiosity as satisfied
I also had some Bulletwood backing strips that Steve Gardner gave me many years. At about the same time I glued the Bubinga bow I decided it was time to make use of them so using the same core wood I glued another RD bow. A couple weeks ago I figured I would tiller out that bow. Everything was going well out to 26". The bow was bending well, it had high draw weight and was losing very little of the reflex I had glued in
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/Marc-St-Louis/MSC/26.jpg)
Then at 27" it self destructed, violently. The camera just about caught the explosion
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/Marc-St-Louis/MSC/BBSExploding.jpg)
This is all that was left of that one
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/Marc-St-Louis/MSC/Pieces.jpg)
Of the 2 exploding bows not one piece of wood touched me, my nerves on the other hand were a bit frazzled :)
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Awesome pictures thanks for sharing. Although I hate to hear that it happened, it is good to know that it can even happen to the best. Helps me not get so discouraged when it happens to me!
Mark
p.s. They were both looking great before the mishap.
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Yep, I'm frazzled just looking...
Interesting to see where the limbs failed. Thanks for the pics!
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Marc I'm glad U show us those. They had very nice contrast! I think those woods wouldn't be your fauvorite backing ::)
Oh yes I forget to say WOW :-\
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Am I right in thinking you've marked up an arrow for use as a draw length measurement/guide/thingy?
I guess none of the bow pieces hitting you classifies them both as "lucky breaks"... ;)
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what choice words did you use?
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Wow thanks for shareing, im glad you didnt get hit by any shrapnal :o It is unfortunate but it is cool you got it on cam :)
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This scares me! If a bow blows up on an expert like Marc, what are the chances that one will soon blow up on someone like me!
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This scares me! If a bow blows up on an expert like Marc, what are the chances that one will soon blow up on someone like me!
*waits for Jawge to come say his trademark words...* ;)
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It's sad to see that happen, we can all share in that pain. As commadore said, this is a good reminder that breakage even happens to the best bowyers, which helps us less experienced bowyers from getting too discouraged when it happens to us.
The photos getting the breaks in action are :o Really glad you didn't get hurt!
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It happens! Times like those one wishes to have a movie camera rolling, just to see the exact spot where the failure starts.
Glad to hear you came out of those explosions unscathed. O:)
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It's interesting to see that both limbs let go at the same time on both bows.
I was speechless on both occasions
The Bubinga was an experiment but the Massaranduba has been used by other people for backings before, it sort of surprised me when it let go. On both occasions the RH in my shop was not that low
I did mark that arrow at every 1" of draw, I have 3 arrows set up like that. The lines on this one stands out the best
I have caught 4 bows exploding on film, 2 of them pretty well right when they let go
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That's a bummer! Looks like you just about got a jointer stuck where you shouldn't have one :o
good luck on the next ones! How did yo get your camera to go off at the right time? Is it a video camera and you just grabbed the right frame?
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..Boombinga :o
Thanks for sharing, just shows it happens to us all.
Very considerate to do it on camera.
Del
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Sorry about your bows Marc :'(, but that makes me feel better. It was less than a few hours ago I had the same problem. Mine was hickory bow with hickory backing.
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Marc, this is good the newcomers think the guys that have been mkaing bows for years don't break them. Last year I had 4 breaks that I can remember. One of them was a result of my stupidity. I strung Nicky' bow backwards. It cracked. That was from a board I found in Dad's shop. He had a stash of perfect red oak boards. I think there is one left. May be 2 with a splice. How's that for a guy who has made between 2-300 bows? I string the kid's bow backwards! I am the king of breaks. If you ain't breakin' you an't makin'! How's that, HatchA? :) Jawge
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Man, I hate when that happens. But it is part of the game, as much as it sucks!!
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Very cool pictures. Thanks for sharing.
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If you ain't breakin' you an't makin'!
Truer words could not be spoken.
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I hate it when they blow up, but those are very cool sets of pictures. I always go in the house and sit down with an iced tea and mourn the loss for an hour or so. Then I can go back to the shop and get busy again.
George
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Even when watching your "failures" I still feel inspired with new ideas....so something good was acchived after all:-)
Btw...I blew a boo/boo/massa trilam yesterday...the belly succumbed where the speed lam (another massa lam) faded out. It was the peak of a bad evening were a chronograph revealed that none of my current selfbows yeild more than 150 fps....I gave up after the breakage:-(
Cheers
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Bummer Mark, That looked like it would have been a very nice combination. I haven't blown one recently and starting to get nervous, I know it happens. I remember Joel working meticulously on a beauty of a yew stave and for know apparent reason it went boom :o :o His first nice stave to work. Never felt so bad for some one
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Great post Marc. Your work has been an inspiration to many of us, and it is encouraging to know that they blow no matter how well tillered, not necessarily that one did something wrong in building it. If the wood don't want to be a bow, it will let you know. Jawge's bow garden its testimony to that also.
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Good to see you were not injured Marc.
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Yes I was lucky I guess to not have been hit by shrapnel.
Just out of curiosity, how many people here have had a bow blow both limbs at once?
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Scary stuff to happen while drawing :o.
I've been lucky so far and only had one go that explosively, but only 1 limb, not 2.
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Marc, recently had an ERC that blew at 24 inches. Never did find all the pieces.
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Just out of curiosity, how many people here have had a bow blow both limbs at once?
That tells me that your limb timing was on the money Marc. ;)
I blew a bloodwood/bamboo one day on the tree,both limbs went, but not in the same locals. I have a ridgid insulated ceiling and one piece stuck in it. It's still there to this day. I have not worked with that stuff since.
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If you ain't breakin' you an't makin'! How's that, HatchA? :) Jawge
That's the stuff of Legend, Jawge ;)
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I've had 2 Bamboo backed Bloodwood bows blow on me Tim. The last one was caught on film with the pieces suspended in midair. I have another glued up but it's been sitting on a rack for at least 5 years and I still don't have the urge to try tillering it out.
I had a Rock Maple recurve blow at full draw a number of years ago that put a hole in my ceiling, the hole is still there. There were pieces of that bow strewn all over the place