Bow making woes

[NTD]

I'm a little frustarted.  I've wasted 4 bamboo backings in a row. 
First one was an R/D that was Really crappy bending in all the wrong places.  Second one was an R/D that I had bending a little better but it chrysaled, still shooting but don't know if it will hold up.  Third was an R/D that came in under weight and pulled a splinter.  Fourth was a bow I was making for a friend of my dad's. 

It's a straight profile with glued in relfex of 2 inches.  Tillered out nicely, shoots great, came in at target weight, but my riser is coming off.  It hasn't popped off but it is lifting on one side, about 1 1/2" long you can see a small gap.  I have the riser on an island of wood and I have a power lam in this bow and it's not bending much near the fades but evidently just enough to cause the riser to gap at the glue line.  I really can't figure out for the life of me why it's lifting.  I guess I will just drop the weight of the bow by 10 pounds and hope that It will stop lifting the riser and have to find someone who wants a 35# bow.

If this keeps up I might have to swear off laminates all together for awhile...except I really am in love with my recent BBO, when I get sad about my failures I just go and string up that bow and put a few arrows through it, makes me feel much better, but also makes me wish I had some skins so I could get more osage from Timo.

Thanks for letting me rant...

[Del the cat]

What? Laminations not sticking properly! I've never heard of such a thing .
A while back I used up some old f/glass lams (spits on floor) that I found in the garage from my Xbow days.
They'd been used once but I cleaned 'em up, glued up a tapered lam, round the wrong way  undid it, turned an old maple tryout into the core, glued it up as an Asiatic recurve but it was take 90# just to get the darn thing braced .So I split it all down rasped  1/32" off the core and glued it up again.
Pull your self together man, stiff upper lip. you know you love it , just like cold showers, it's character forming.
I mean if you're fed up with making bows I'm sure 'her indoors' (the one who must be obeyed) will find some nice decorating or even shopping you could do
Del

[NTD]

Hah Thanks Del,

But right now knocking off some of the honey do's sounds more appealing than building bows.

[okiecountryboy]

NTD

I'm a pretty darn good handyman. I'm just up in mesa. Let's talk turkey bout your honey-dos for some bow tradin...LOL

Ron
Mesa

[Hrothgar]

Del, "cold showers...character forming"!!!

[George Tsoukalas]

I wish I could help but I've never used bamboo as a backing. I backed a Western cedar stave with red oak but it's unfinished due to lack of interest. I love selfbows. I am sure you will solve the problem. Jawge

[vtclimber]

I hear ya NTD...I have had three laminated bows that were almost complete come apart.....I realized after a LOT of colorful language that it was because my glue joints were not perfect. Also had a LOT of risers pop off. I have not made many bows at all, but of the ones I have made have been laminates.....gonna start on a hick stave as soon as I finish up one I am working on for another fella on this forum. Still need to post some pics of the one he made for me..

[NTD]

Hey Ron,

I'm definitely not a pro but if you want to come down my way sometime I'm pretty fair at making simple D-bows, myabe I can help you get a bow in your hand.

[barebo]

I have 2 more pieces of Ipe to work, and the more I hear about Bamboo failure, it makes me want to stick with the Hickory and Ash backings I've used so far. I love the look and mystique of 'Boo but it just seems finicky as H*ll. Yep, I also learned about less than really well mated glue joints - had a 3 piece handle come off on the string and pulley - did a nice number on the ceiling !!!