Why did I get set?

[gfugal]

Spring Buck thanks for that, I didn't see your post until after I posted my response. you've answered some of my questions raised in my reply. Again I just want to say thanks for all the advice. Sorry If I'm coming off hard headed. I'm just trying to break everything down and clarify it for myself.

[bradsmith2010]

ok you are getting alot of info,,
even if the bow does take some set,, guess what,, it can still shoot great,,
reduce your your goal target weight and draw,, and you should be able to get a nice shooting bow,,
it may not have the great cast your were execting , but the arrow will fly nicely,,
moisture content and variation in quality of the wood are proablly an issue as well,,,

[Springbuck]

  "I rarely see bows wider than 2 inches posted on this site so I was assuming that was more than enough width" 

   Two inches would be plenty with osage, or maybe black locust, or yew, or plum, but even then, I'd carry the full width farther up the limb.

  "Maybe it was the pyramid design that was wrong for the recurves. But I'm thinking it's probably at too high of a weight right now anyway."

    These are the biggest factors. 

   I've read that you shouldn't pull it past the target weight, but I'm starting to think that I should take that further and not even pull it past some percentage, like 70% or 80%, of the target weight until after I get it braced. Do you think that's a good Idea?"

   Sure, why not?  But, I would have, I suppose ANY of US would have had the same problem you did.  It took set early not because you failed during tillering, but just because the design/wood/strain/draw weight combo wasn't a good fit.

  "I'm thinking of adjusting my target weight to be 50 lbs instead of 60 lbs."

   If you had started at 50 lbs, you'd have less set.  The pyramid taper would still be a problem, but not as big a problem.

   Seriously, don't get discouraged.  I did this stuff, and so did many of us here.  Thinking and trying is awesome.

 And remember, I have stuff in my garage I'll happily give you whether you succeed of fail with it.  At the rate I'm (not) making bows, you better come get it before the bugs do!

[Springbuck]

You aren't coming off hard headed.  I personally can't remember things until they make sense.  I have to understand it pretty well, then it all sticks forever.  A bunch of loose rules, or straight instructions means nothing to me.

I'm like a big four year old, always asking "Why?"

 And PearlDrums and Brad are right.  Set is neither unexpected, nor the end of the world.

[bubby]

Well first you are pulling it to far with the tiller that far off, even out the tiller before you go any further, i usually don't put the recurves in till I'm at 20" draw and tiller is spot on or darn close, that way it's pretty close after you bend the hooks in with no suprises and you can go to full brace and adjust any tiller issues that came up with the recurving process. I wouldn't pull that farther than 12" till i got the tiller squared away

[RyanY]

Probably been mentioned already but also consider humidity. Red oak can be extremely variable in terms of quality for bow wood. I've picked up some boards with great grain straightness but narrow rings and even at long lengths and light draw weight they took some set.

[willie]

Should I also try avoiding even going over 70-80% the target draw weight until braced with good tiller.

Perhaps even a bit less?

On a short as possible longstring, the most recent bow I tillered had the tips move back half way to where they would be at full draw, with approx half the design draw weight. This was done as a bit of an experiment and before first bracing. Good visualization skills are neccessary to see the finished bend in a bow at brace height, as I found that there was very little wood left to remove to finish out. This was on a straight bow BTW. As other have noted, your recurve design means that your tips have to come back further to get to a normal brace height. Someone with recurve experience may wish to comment on the viability of tillering at a very low brace with your design. Of course,  the lower the brace, the harder it is (for me, anyway) to predict the finished curve shape.

[gfugal]

Here's a picture of it braced. When trying to fix it, it looks like I was going too fast and started to develop a hinge in the middle of the top limb (now left side). To fix it, do I just rasp on either side of it? Or should I just focus on the side towards the fades? I'm thinking it could bend more in the inner limb

[BowEd]

OK.Looking a bit better.I see the bow is reversed.According to where your arrow shelf was and is now.In the first pic it had a negative tiller.Now it has a positive tiller but not near to the same degree.
Try this if you don't trust your eyes.You will in time but till then make a pencil mark on the side of your bow limb at the fade on each side of each limb.Measure out every 6" make a mark on each side of each limb.Make at least 3 marks this way all along the working limb to the base of your recurves.Now at brace take your tape measure and measure from center of belly to your string.Compare one limb to the other with those measurements.
Those three marks on your top limb should measure slightly longer than your bottom limb at each mark for an over all positive tiller.
Not knowing what you want for a positive tiller figuring you have equal limb lengths I usually go for about a 1/8" positive tiller that way over all.Others may like different ratios of positive tiller.That's just me.
Reading through other comments I agree that there are different ways of avoiding excess unneeded stress put on a bow to brace and after to tillering.To avoid that and to explain that all would be better done in a shop I'm afraid.It'll come with experience too.
Set happens as George says and many others.Especially on recurves.Noone gets around that.Your pretty darn close.

[gfugal]

So positive tiller is when the top limb is weaker, and negative tiller is when the bottom limb is weaker? And we want a little bit of positive tiller?

[DC]

Do you have much more to take off? How far have you drawn it and what is the weight? If you still have quite a way to go then put a bunch of X's on the belly of that hinge and don't scrape there for a while.

[gfugal]

Do you have much more to take off? How far have you drawn it and what is the weight? If you still have quite a way to go then put a bunch of X's on the belly of that hinge and don't scrape there for a while.

I haven't drawn it that far yet. It's 10 lbs at 11 inches which is weaker than I would like. I'm figuring if I drew it to full draw now it would be close to 50 lbs but I figure that little hinge will start to manifest itself at a further draw so I'm going to have to take some off. I'm hoping to have the bow be 45 lbs, but it most likely will be 40 lbs.

[DC]

I'll bet you can do it. Just don't scrape on the hinge until you catch up to it(or however you would say that)

[BowEd]

Yes a slight positive tiller is desired by most.Just the way it's done.Having it be a lower poundage bow in the end will reduce set to a degree.How much I can't say.The wood will tell you.When you get the tiller to be good and balanced then go ahead and pull closer to your target weight at whatever that draw length is.Healthy recurves usually always have higher string tension and higher draw weight in the beginning of the draw more so than straight limbed bows.An educated quess here thinks you are'nt too far off saying you have around a 50# bow there yet.
How much set will be revealed at that time then too.It is quite a bit of strain on the length of limbs you have there with it being red oak.
 

[Springbuck]

That's a good way to say it, DC.