Author Topic: For Arguments Sake-PVC  (Read 13849 times)

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Offline sleek

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Re: For Arguments Sake-PVC
« Reply #30 on: January 21, 2016, 10:22:55 am »
Joseph, these guys can be a rough bunch, but with all the calluses on their hands, what do you expect? Notice the use of the letter I in their opinion. Its just what they care about not what actually is. They dont have to much an interest in it. You wanna talk pvc bows, Paleoplanet has a section for them. Not many take much stock in them, But a pvc bow that shoots 160 fps is a lethal weapon and faster than many bows made.  Skill, hell I never made one, I dont know, but I assume there is a lot of design that could be done much like with wooden bows, getting tiller and profile right.  They are water proof, no worry about the lower limb warping from being stored wrong. If the tiller aint right, heat will fix it. There are lots of reasons pvc bows are good.  Dont get disheartened. Make em if you like em, and dont seek your happiness from other folks approval.
Tread softly and carry a bent stick.

Dont seek your happiness through the approval of others

Offline paulsemp

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Re: For Arguments Sake-PVC
« Reply #31 on: January 21, 2016, 10:25:51 am »
I meant no ridicule by what I said. I'm all for people enjoying archery in any fashion. But this tight knit group of people spend an awful lot of time making bows in possibly the hardest fashion so you're not going to find a lot of love here. I'm sure there great for little kids and people that want quick results making them. Have fun and don't let me hurt your feelings I'm sure there's plenty of people out there that are into the same sort of thing

Offline Pappy

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Re: For Arguments Sake-PVC
« Reply #32 on: January 21, 2016, 10:38:37 am »
Joseph it's not the PVC thing, you would get about the same response with glass or wheel bows here. Most here's main interest in archery is all natural bows overall and self bow in general. ;) Don't run off, hang around and who knows it may strike an interest for you one day.
It would be kind of like me going to a Muzzle loader site and want an opinion about a BB guns or 3.06 rifle. ;) :)
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Offline PEARL DRUMS

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Re: For Arguments Sake-PVC
« Reply #33 on: January 21, 2016, 11:11:19 am »
I meant every word I typed. Don't settle for less, don't set your bar lower than your ankles and strive for more. Who cares how fast they shoot (temporarily) or that they are waterproof. Get more from yourself and your mind young man! I don't even know you and I can tell you that you are capable.
Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.

Offline Knoll

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Re: For Arguments Sake-PVC
« Reply #34 on: January 21, 2016, 11:23:39 am »
. . . . . and dont seek your happiness from other folks approval.

imo, words to live by.
... alone in distant woods or fields, in unpretending sproutlands or pastures tracked by rabbits, even in a bleak and, to most, cheerless day .... .  I suppose that this value, in my case, is equivalent to what others get by churchgoing & prayer.  Hank Thoreau, 1857

Offline sleek

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Re: For Arguments Sake-PVC
« Reply #35 on: January 21, 2016, 11:31:16 am »
I meant every word I typed. Don't settle for less, don't set your bar lower than your ankles and strive for more. Who cares how fast they shoot (temporarily) or that they are waterproof. Get more from yourself and your mind young man! I don't even know you and I can tell you that you are capable.

I have never been interested in something I wasnt capable of. ( Except a few girls I can think of ) And I find that to be true of many people. If you are interested you are by default capable.
Tread softly and carry a bent stick.

Dont seek your happiness through the approval of others

Offline joachimM

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Re: For Arguments Sake-PVC
« Reply #36 on: January 21, 2016, 12:03:03 pm »
Hi Joseph
In the urban jungle many of us live in, a PVC bow seems indeed a “primitive” attribute: you made it yourself with very simple tools, PVC pipes were never intended for this purpose (making it more exciting) and still it shoots as well as many regular bows. 
If someone's goal is to have a decent bow as fast and cheap as possible, PVC is the deal. I made my fair share of PVC bows, out of curiosity and learned a lot about bow physics, but found it just too easy. It doesn’t take a lot of skill to make about any possible type of bow from PVC (except for a regular longbow or a yumi). Making about every design type of bow from natural materials (wood, horn, sinew, plant fibers, hide glue, …) will require extreme dedication and craftmanship, not to mention close to a lifetime of  bow making efforts. That’s why I (and I guess many others here) value primitive archery so much more.

For the rest: it looks like a PVC-wood composite bow (very short PVC working section, very long extremely light wooden recurves) can reach 200 fps@10 gpp (Nicholas Tomihama claims to have made one some time ago). That's quite an achievement by itself, but it doesn't relate to skill, only to knowledge.

There's a pretty large google community (>1000 members) on PVC archery, plenty of PVC addicts there.  Different audience here.

Offline sleek

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Re: For Arguments Sake-PVC
« Reply #37 on: January 21, 2016, 12:32:47 pm »
Id love to see that 200fps bow!
Tread softly and carry a bent stick.

Dont seek your happiness through the approval of others

Offline joachimM

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Re: For Arguments Sake-PVC
« Reply #38 on: January 21, 2016, 12:39:16 pm »
That was at 31" draw, so outside Tim Baker's 200 fps 28" 10gpp challenge

Offline Eric Krewson

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Re: For Arguments Sake-PVC
« Reply #39 on: January 21, 2016, 02:01:48 pm »
I have never made a PVC bow and probably won't even though I think they are kinda' neat. $5 for a pretty good bow fills a lot of gaps in what will get people shooting.

Early on I made a pile of wood bows for people who thought they would like shooting a traditional bow, most are probably occupying a corner in a dusty closet now, unused. I wish I had handed out PVC bows to these folk to try out instead of the bows I labored so hard to make.

My best friend has probably made well over 200 wood bows but got in the mood to experiment with PVC a while back. He has since outfitted an army of youngsters with good shooting PVC bows, much better bows than the crappy excuses for kids bows they sell at the big box stores.

Offline paoliguy

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Re: For Arguments Sake-PVC
« Reply #40 on: January 22, 2016, 12:40:05 pm »
I agree with Eric. I've seen a few kids get the bug from tinkering with PVC. A couple of them are now building stave bows now.

Offline Joseph

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Re: For Arguments Sake-PVC
« Reply #41 on: January 23, 2016, 08:06:51 am »
Um...
Thanks everyone (or not ;) ) I guess...
As for me being discouraged, good luck with that :)
Ill just keep my thoughts about PVC to myself :-X and go cry on someones shoulder :'( (jkslol)
Anyway, I've started my own bow, a pyramid spotted gum board with great, straight grain, but I've this horrible feeling it will snap into little heartless pieces as soon as I am done and full draw it.
I'm not actually using proper tools ( a machete with another handle and a wood rasp + bandsaw) but it's getting there.
I promise this is the last time I'll bring up PVC on this site
Anyway thanks everyone.

Offline sleek

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Re: For Arguments Sake-PVC
« Reply #42 on: January 23, 2016, 10:54:30 am »
Seriously? Now look what ya all gone an done. You broke him. It could bave been fun watching his lvc adventures. Now he is gonna keep them to himself.


Proper tools? Whats them? Most folks here know i only use one tool, and thats cause im rather proud of that fact. Your machete should do fine, though they are easily broken if not handled intelligent. So be careful and keep us updated.

Btw. My very first bow attempt... I used an old lawnmower blade. It did the job. The bow on the other hand, i did say it was an attempt.
Tread softly and carry a bent stick.

Dont seek your happiness through the approval of others

Offline mullet

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Re: For Arguments Sake-PVC
« Reply #43 on: January 23, 2016, 09:56:10 pm »
You have to take Pearlie Boy's advise with a grain of the stuff they dump on their highways, he's from Michigan, do I need to say anymore? Have fun doing what you are doing till you are ready to play with wood.
Lakeland, Florida
 If you have to pull the trigger, is it really archery?