Delamination: Can it be fixed?

[ajbruggink]

Hey guys,

I made a bow for friend back in April, a hickory backed red elm flatbow and this morning, the top of the limb delaminated. I'm not sure how the glue line could have failed now but it did. Can something like this be fixed or would I just be better off junking it and reimbursing him somehow?

Thanks,

Aaron

[PatM]

What is the glue?

[Del the cat]

I think the only way is to completely remove the back and replace it or re-glue it.
I don't think you'll be able to just re-glue the end as you can never get the glue down into the root of the break. As you open up the break to get the glue in, the break just goes down further until, in the end the whole back is off.
In that situation I'd make a replacement, and use the delaminated bow for an experimental repair job.
Don't beat yourself up, we all get failures... it's how we deal with 'em that counts.
Del

[PatM]

The bow also seems to be really illustrating masked set. What does it look like without you holding the two pieces closer together?

[ajbruggink]

The bow also seems to be really illustrating masked set. What does it look like without you holding the two pieces closer together?

It was Titebond III wood glue. I glued it by putting the backing strip down on a red elm board just as wide and put bricks on top of it three bricks high. It seemed to work well at the time, tight glue lines, no gaps, but 8 months later something went wrong. I no longer have a picture of the unbraced profile of this bow, I lost the phone that I took the picture with in marsh while hunting a few weeks ago, I do a picture of the bow while braced and while drawn but I don't know how much good that'll do. Pretty sure this bow is junk but thanks anyway.

[Badger]

   A lot of people may disagree but red elm is not a bow wood. It is a decent core wood and that's about it. The bow is junk. We all screw some up, no big deal.

[bubbles]

Looks like those fades should have been working a bit harder as well. If you do manage to glue it back, you may want to fix that.

[scp]

What a shame. I read that Titebond3 can be "unglued" by heat. Is there a safe way to separate the backing?

[PatM]

Your tiller is off and the wood may have had different rates of expansion through the seasons that allowed the glue joint to give way. TB lets stuff creep.

[Badger]

Your tiller is off and the wood may have had different rates of expansion through the seasons that allowed the glue joint to give way. TB lets stuff creep.

  Pat, I have heard this before and it makes no sense, You don't have a thick enough layer of glue for any creep, if it creeps it comes loose. If properly glued it doesn't creep or delaminate.