Author Topic: Good bow limb straightening tutorial?  (Read 1902 times)

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Offline eastcreekarchery

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Good bow limb straightening tutorial?
« on: November 30, 2020, 08:16:46 pm »
Does anyone know a good one?

Offline George Tsoukalas

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Re: Good bow limb straightening tutorial?
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2020, 09:03:10 pm »
See if you can adapt this method. Maybe clamp it in a vice and hang a bare copper wire from the tips to which you attach your water jug.
I would wait until after floor tillering.

http://traditionalarchery101.com/fixtwist.html

Jawge
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Offline eastcreekarchery

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Re: Good bow limb straightening tutorial?
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2020, 09:17:53 pm »
Thanks Jawge. I was looking for something that covers straightening a limb that is bending to the side. I'm not sure where to heat the limb to fix that.

Offline George Tsoukalas

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Re: Good bow limb straightening tutorial?
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2020, 09:36:30 pm »
Heat it a little beyond where you want to bend it...so heat it from the tip to beyond the bend. Add water slowly. You should see the limb beginning to straighten. Go a little beyond. Jawge
Set Happens!
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Offline bentstick54

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Re: Good bow limb straightening tutorial?
« Reply #4 on: December 01, 2020, 07:52:21 pm »
I’ve done similar by clamping the bow to my workbench with the crooked limb hanging off the end of the bench and hanging the jug with a strap off the end of the limb. Heat the belly side of the limb until it’s ready to start bending, then start adding the water until the limb goes just past where it is straight and leave until well cooled. If the limb is crooked and twisted both, you can build a simple caul and as you heat the area, use clamps to straighten and take the twist out at the same time.

Offline Del the cat

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Re: Good bow limb straightening tutorial?
« Reply #5 on: December 02, 2020, 02:23:35 am »
A quick search of my blog found these posts.
https://bowyersdiary.blogspot.com/2020/02/interesting-week.html
https://bowyersdiary.blogspot.com/2018/11/plum.html
There's others on there with steam bending, twist removal etc....
You'll see I clamp the bow up to a jig made of a couple of lengths of 4x2 screwed and glued into an L shape.
With any bending, it's the jigging up and clamping that needs the thought and a few dry runs to work out how to do it... also be prepared to maybe have to repeat it.
Del
« Last Edit: December 02, 2020, 02:28:21 am by Del the cat »
Health warning, these posts may contain traces of nut.

Offline Eric Krewson

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Re: Good bow limb straightening tutorial?
« Reply #6 on: December 02, 2020, 07:43:36 am »
I free hand straightening with my vise and a post on the end of my workbench to use a a fulcrum to put pressure on the limb as I heat it.

I reflex on dedicated forms and do some straightening but fine tune stuff on my bending post.

Because every bend is different I don't think a tutorial would be a lot of help. Just get your heat gun and something to clamp your stave against and have a go at it. You will figure out what to do in short order.

Here is my bending post setup and a bucket of lead that I am using to take out prop twist from a stave.


Offline bentstick54

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Re: Good bow limb straightening tutorial?
« Reply #7 on: December 03, 2020, 05:29:38 pm »
Like the already posted photos, if you have no twist in the limb, but just need to straighten out a curve or bend, you can accomplished in the same manner by hanging weight straight of the limb without the wrench.

Offline PatM

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Re: Good bow limb straightening tutorial?
« Reply #8 on: December 03, 2020, 06:06:39 pm »
Thanks Jawge. I was looking for something that covers straightening a limb that is bending to the side. I'm not sure where to heat the limb to fix that.

 Heat  mostly the side you want to bend towards.

Offline Eric Krewson

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Re: Good bow limb straightening tutorial?
« Reply #9 on: December 04, 2020, 08:06:50 am »
Strangely I never thought of using the weighted bucket for straightening curves, a pretty good idea. If you could put a post behind the area to work on to support the limb it would make this method easier.

Offline Selfbowman

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Re: Good bow limb straightening tutorial?
« Reply #10 on: December 04, 2020, 08:56:32 am »
I do all those things. I also put a pop cycle stick under the area that needs to move the opposite direction and clamp the limb down towards the bench. The stick is just about the right amount of over correction needed for the limb to come to rest and stay there. Arvin
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