Red Oak Trade Bow Progress Report (Arrived!)

[oscar3b]

Matt that is awesome man!  I love recurves!  I'm going to have to make one now that I've seen someone do it with red oak.  What was the final draw weight on that thing?

[ionicmuffin]

I have to say, that is one sweet bow matt! unfortunately unless you just undertillered and figured i would be able to draw it the rest of the way then i doubt its coming my way lol. Very nice bow either way!

[VicNova]

Ah man that has some really nice recurved tips. Great job

[Matt Heppe]

Thanks for the nice comments. I'll try to post some more (full bow) pics tomorrow.

Ben, the bow draws 47# @ 28"

[Matt Heppe]

She's ready to go. The tiller looks a little off in the pic as I had it held at an angle. (And because the tiller is a little off). Sad to see it go as it is my favorite bow so far.



Shipping will be slightly delayed as I used the "eyeball" method of measuring the pvc tube at Lowes and now need to get a longer tube.

[IdahoMatt]

That's a sweet looking bow Matt the recipient is going to be very pleased indeed. 

[lesken2011]

Nice bow, Matt! That red looks good!

[lostarrow]

If you go to a flooring supply place, you could get a cardboard tube for free and cut to whateve length you need. The ones used for shipping the aluminum edging (Schluter)can be stood upon! And it's FREE!

[Matt Heppe]

Thanks, lost. I'll try that.

[ionicmuffin]

Well, i just came in from the garage. The results, red oak bow 5 bowyer 0. Was looking GREAT! got it to 5.75 inch brace and took it slowly to full draw. got there for a second or two, then BOOM! turns out all you folks that said that the glued on handle section would pop off if the boards thickness was the same when you glue on the handle section. well you guys where right. It blew up right at the handle. I am not hurt, but i should say, i had done this and then reported in, and after hearing that it would likely end up in a popped off handle i figured i would go for it! i guess the glue line was very strong, because it held till the LAST inch of draw! Here are the pics of the break.

[ionicmuffin]

Sadly this was looking to be a 50 lb at the draw i needed.

[sleek]

That bow is far from dead. Very far from it in fact. Lay out a splice to insert a new center piece to that handle, trim up the damage, then lay in your new handle. After that, build up your belly and back with a laminate, shape and shoot

[ionicmuffin]

do you have any build alongs for this? or something like that? I would want to do it right.

[sleek]

You will need a double fish tail splice. I have no build along that I have done, but I have spliced may billets together. My favorite and most easy splice is the scarf joint, but you dont have the material for that. Each limb needs to be cut to the shape of the female end of the fish tail splice, then make a double male joint to fill in the area between the two females.

I have done this on tip levers before. Ensure the best glue lines you can get, and fill any voids with glue sawdust mix. Go heavy on the glue in the mix. After that has dried a day, laminate on your belly handle riser, then for good measure ( though probably not needed ) a thin riser on the back as well. Once dry for 24 hours minimum ( assuming you use TBIII ) shape the handle and stress the joint. My money is on your handle will never break again.

Like I said, I have done this on tip leavers in the past and they hold just fine. Will try to find some pics of it. But look up fish tail splices to see what I mean, and make them as long as you can to get the most surface area glued up as possible. You want a minimum of 8 to 1 length to thickness ratio of contact surface area in your splice.

[hedgeapple]

That bow is far from dead. Very far from it in fact. Lay out a splice to insert a new center piece to that handle, trim up the damage, then lay in your new handle. After that, build up your belly and back with a laminate, shape and shoot

OK Sleek, you have my interest, now.  I'm guessing at the repairs you're suggesting.  I can see cutting the broken section of the handle area for the main board and doing a "filler piece" with a V-splice on each to put the main board back together.  Now the tricky part-- gluing in the lams.  I"m guessing you'd use 1/8" lams maybe 2 of them stair stepping from the hand riser out into the fades on the belly.  The handle riser would then be glued to them?  On the back, you'd glue an 1/8" or slight thicker lam a bit longer than the V-splice?  Or, maybe, the same lenght of the hand then another lam over that one the length of the V-splice.

Like Ionicmuffin, I'm really interested in a more detailed discription.  A drawing would be awesome.