Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Badger on July 16, 2017, 12:10:36 pm
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With all the diversity of skills and trades we have here I have often wondered what would happen if a group here put their heads together and started designing specialized bow making equipment. Everything from small hand held tools to larger tools. Every time I make a bow something crosses my mind. Input from the bow makers matched up with designers and draftsman and specialists in different fields.
This is a partial list of things we use everyday, some could be improved on and some not so much.
Steamers for bending ( maybe adjustable while steam is going in)
Cauls for forming ( adjustable so only one caul is needed for any design)
heat guns ( way of getting heat where we need it)
Tiller trees and backboards ( I use 3 different styles for different things)
Stave harvesting. ( splitting)
Work benches
Stave horses
Hand Tools etc.
Bow testing equipment
Arrow making equipment
Would anyone be interested in contributing to something like this?
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I used to steam but only on a pot of water on our cook stove and some aluminum foil. I did make up a steaming system with 8" galvanized duct pipe but never used it and a few years ago I gave it away.
Eric's tillering Gizmo is a great tool and I altered his idea and made it double use by adding 2 dowels on the opposite side so I could screw the pencil from the other side and made it a tool for finding the center line of a stave.
I have 2 or 3 reflex cauls but also a few for different degrees of recurving, one for reflexing one limb at a time and a small one fro removing crooks in a limb.
Most of my other tools are the standard, run of the mill bow building tools, ie. bandsaw, different size and coarseness rasps, a few different scrapers(straight and goose neck), chainsaw files, 6" to 8" flexible rules, tape measure and a 5 gallon bucket to carry it all in when it's not on my work bench.
I built a shaving horse years ago and a few years ago got one of Keenan's Stave Masters, best investment, next to my bandsaw.
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Pat, those are really good examples if you didn't mind giving your ideas away.
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i often find myself modifying or making a new tool, and dont mind sharing. What exactly are you proposing to do with the collected ideas and designs?
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I make my own scrapers and round the corners so I don't need a goose neck. I roll a burr all the way around both sides. I also took an old pair of scissors and made 2 precision scrapers, one with a point and one with a rounded end. They work great for detail scraping around knots. I recently got a wall paper steamer and used it to recurve the tips on a bow. It was much easier to set up than propping a bow up over a pot of boiling water.
I made a log splitting stand in my yard that takes advantage of the slope. I can get the logs to the perfect working height without ever lifting them. It's nice to be able to split big logs without bending over. It has been a back saver.
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I make my own scrapers and round the corners so I don't need a goose neck. I roll a burr all the way around both sides. I also took an old pair of scissors and made 2 precision scrapers, one with a point and one with a rounded end. They work great for detail scraping around knots. I recently got a wall paper steamer and used it to recurve the tips on a bow. It was much easier to set up than propping a bow up over a pot of boiling water.
I made a log splitting stand in my yard that takes advantage of the slope. I can get the logs to the perfect working height without ever lifting them. It's nice to be able to split big logs without bending over. It has been a back saver.
I think a good log splitting trailer set up would be really cool. I can't hardly split logs with my back the way it is. I have to stretch it out over days. I know a lot of guys have back problems.
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Forms are something that in the beginning of bow making were a question of how to make correctly.Reflex...Too much/not enough????My half form adjustable reflex caul for one limb on bows of different lengths even with recurves on themI think is a good one.I've sent it to people as a cardboard template for others to copy it.
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I like the idea of a variable use caul. maybe a solid wood block for the handle section and then removable profile blocks that slip on alignment rods or dowels that you can adjust to the length of the stave. Maybe that will be my summer project. )-w(
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Forms are something that in the beginning of bow making were a question of how to make correctly.Reflex...Too much/not enough????My half form adjustable reflex caul for one limb on bows of different lengths even with recurves on themI think is a good one.I've sent it to people as a cardboard template for others to copy it.
I doesn't matter how many bows I build I always want a new form. Adjustable is the way to go. I have a rough sketch for one that could go up to about 6ft using adjustable roller clamps that can push or pull up to 6" either way and for aligning the tips it uses eccentrics that can be placed anywhere on the form. I would like to be able to place a plexiglass steam compartment over the whole thing that could be lifted off and placed right back on.
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Old heavy duty clever. I like this for quick wood removal.
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I don't have much that's specialised, about the only thing is the flat wood boring bits that i've ground for drilling horn nocks.
Some things I made jigs for I now do by eye, it takes a lot to beat experience, feel and eye.
Del
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I don't have much that's specialised, about the only thing is the flat wood boring bits that i've ground for drilling horn nocks.
Some things I made jigs for I now do by eye, it takes a lot to beat experience, feel and eye.
Del
Del, the only thing I use kind of specialized for ELB is a device like a bow press. I have wheel on each end and I crank it down in the middle. I can sit in my chair next to the bow while it is cranked down and scrape or rasp as needed. I only use this for my real heavy bows ( Heavy seems to be getting lighter as the years go by) I also use a tiller tree that lays flat with a winch on one end that I can move anywhere around the shop. I can lay it flat or lean it against a wall.
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I recently ordered a two handed rasp that's used in a similar way as a spokeshave. I love a regular single handed rasp but I thought it would be interesting to try out.
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What I am talking about is to see if there is any group of guys on here that would be interested in collaborating on refining some of the equipment we use.
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I think that's a good idea you have and I'm sure there are other and more creative ideas out there done that we hav'nt seen yet by individuals.In the past it seems individuals have been sharing their experiences through build-a-longs and the sort on different aspects of archery.
Many problematic situations I've had I somehow come up with a make shift solution for the moment but never show it.An adaptation of sort.
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I'm with the others that would like to see a good adjustable caul. One that would go from longbow to RD.
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Absolutly! I'm always up for trying to improve efficiency when bow and arrow making. I think the best thing I have come up with that has made bow making easier is a little adjustable marker that I can run along the back of the stave, near the sides, and it marks a line on the side paralleling the back. I use it on all the time and has made making even thickness taper so much easier.
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The post I put on the end of my work bench in conjunction to my swivel vise has worked as an adjustable caul for me. No telling how many staves I have straightened while using this arrangement.
(http://i.imgur.com/AxvuYF2.jpg)
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I took a hand grinder and cut my farriers rasp down to about 7-8 inchs removing the handle section. Comes in handy on straight edges like side of bow and rounding the edges. I just lay it on the bow plane away. Arvin
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I like that post Eric, I see a lot of uses for it. Back in the 1940's and 1950's there were several magazines going around like popular mechanics and I think science illustrated where " Do it yourselfers" would post projects on how to do things. They had all kinds of trick little gadgets they used in bow and arrow making. The old flightshooters were especially adapt at making jigs and things for accuracy.
Bowmaking is just like any other hobby, it has a lot of different aspects to it. Different people will excel or be drawn to these different aspects. Tool making and technique development is just as fascinating to some as making bows. We all benefit from the diversity of interests we share with each other.
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I recently made an adjustable caul with each stand insert easily removed and replaced which changes the amount of deflex and/or reflex, and with solid recurve inserts for the ends too. I use it more for backed bows and trilams than selfbows, but parts of it it works for them too.
Also, an adjustable aluminum taper sled, from 0 to any degree of taper you'd want. Again, more for backed bows, and composites. Very versatile.
Made a simple taper gauge with a chunk of scrap oak and an indicator gauge, posted pics here before. It can be run down a limb in 2-3 seconds, revealing how the limb tapers in thickness, or not. It can be used to check thickness across the limb's width too. Faster than a caliper or dial caliper.
Got a bend gauge as well... made with a chunk of aluminum and an indicator gauge... it could be made of wood as well.
Currently working on a pair of precision indicators with load cells to show how much weight is on each limb as the bow is drawn.
Also made a way to attach an accelerometer to a bow grip to measure hand shock.
Necessity, and sometimes just curiosity, breeds invention.
I don't know if I want to reveal all of my secrets, I should probably patent some of these things :) Besides, figured all this stuff was just too high tech for primitive bowyers :o
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I recently made an adjustable caul with each stand insert easily removed and replaced which changes the amount of deflex and/or reflex, and with solid recurve inserts for the ends too. I use it more for backed bows and trilams than selfbows, but parts of it it works for them too.
Also, an adjustable aluminum taper sled, from 0 to any degree of taper you'd want. Again, more for backed bows, and composites. Very versatile.
Made a simple taper gauge with a chunk of scrap oak and an indicator gauge, posted pics here before. It can be run down a limb in 2-3 seconds, revealing how the limb tapers in thickness, or not. It can be used to check thickness across the limb's width too. Faster than a caliper or dial caliper.
Got a bend gauge as well... made with a chunk of aluminum and an indicator gauge... it could be made of wood as well.
Currently working on a pair of precision indicators with load cells to show how much weight is on each limb as the bow is drawn.
Also made a way to attach an accelerometer to a bow grip to measure hand shock.
Necessity, and sometimes just curiosity, breeds invention.
I don't know if I want to reveal all of my secrets, I should probably patent some of these things :) Besides, figured all this stuff was just too high tech for primitive bowyers :o
You sound like the perfect guy to develop some of the tools we use. I have always wanted to develop a shooting machine that had load cells built into it that could plot a force draw curve on one draw of the bow, have it all hooked up to an excel program that would make all the calculations we do.
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That would be convenient. I wouldn't mind building a shooting machine. The accelerometer is touchy and it's values vary with human influence. The load cells can also tell us whether we're drawing it on the tree the same as we do by hand. I have much building and testing I want to do, I just haven't been able to spend the time in the shop lately.
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I use the same wrench method Erik posted above, but I use a big monkey wrench and don't have to add weight on the handle end.
In the arrow department, most of you have probably seen my refinement of a router setup. I drive the square stock with a 3/8 drive hex wrench chucked in a drill (chuck gripping the hex end).
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This from Fine Woodworking Magazine
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Made a simple taper gauge with a chunk of scrap oak and an indicator gauge, posted pics here before.
DWS, can you post a link to the thread with the pics?
thanks