Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: darwin on May 10, 2012, 09:49:25 pm
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Hello this is my first post and first bow, though I have been reading posts and researching for some while. I'm working on a red oak board bow and everything was going great then I began tillering and saw one limb had a hinge and the other was much stiffer than the other I thought no big I will remove some of the wood from the stiff limb and remove wood around the hinge and just keep going till the limbs are even but after three days of trying I feel like I have made no progress at all :( please help I'm in a apartment so all I have available is hand tools
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Do you have a camera? It's very hard to offer advice without seeing the bow. Need to see it unstrung, strung and pulled to the point you're now working. Would love to try and help though.
George
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Welcome to PA. Pictures, as George said, will get you all the help you can use.
Lane
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Not sure how to post pics it says mine are to large
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Do you have Microsoft Paint on your PC? If so, there's a resize button and if you size the picture to 640x480 pixels it should be small enough. I usually make a copy to resize. Actually, that's what I used to do. Now I upload my pics to FlickR and they resize it for me. Photobucket does the same thing and is cheaper.
George
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I'm actually posting from my phone which is also my only camera and I currently have no way to transfer photos from it to my computer, I'm pretty sure that I have diagnosed my tillering I'm just unsure what the best way to did it is ? I have been using a rasp, scraper and sand paper for three days with what feels Like no progress
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Sorry I'm a mess
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If it's a smart phone, get a photobucket account, there's a pretty decent app to upload the pictures. The hard part on the phone is cutting and pasting the URL for the picture. I do all my pictures on the phone too and upload directly to FlickR on the phone with an app. Then I go to the FlickR site on the computer and grab the URL to post there.
George
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You are up against the classic problem of making bows.
Consider yourself lucky that you have no power tools, as you would have ruined it by now.
Sometimes it does go slow, but you only learn how much wood you dare remove by experience, and generally the point where you think "damn, nothing is happening, I need to take more off" is exactly the point you need to be slowing down!
Be sure to flex the bow plenty to let it settle, check the thickness of the limb is being reduced in an even taper. remember that a few rasp strokes at mid limb will make more difference that the same amount near the grip.
Try measuring the thickness every 6" along each limb with a pair of vernier calipers, it may give you some idea of what's going on. (Even the digital ones are quite cheap these days... and they don't count as power tools, so it's not cheating ;) )
What weight are you pulling it back to? How far? and like the others say, we need the pics!
Bottom line is, it's not a race!
Good luck.
Del
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Go to http://tinypic.com/
Select the picture.
Click "Upload now!"
Follow the tips on the screen.
Copy the URL of the picture with the [IMG]-tags.
Paste that entire URL, [IMG]-tags included, into this topic.
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(http://i47.tinypic.com/2r5s4dx.jpg)
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I have long arms do I need about a 29 in draw as for weight I dont really care less than 45 would be fine that way its easy to shoot, this was really a test bow for me so I could learn more about the process so I am not to worried about the finished result I just want a good tiller even if that means the end result is a child's bow ( I could give it to my little sister if that was the case)
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The left limb looks good. Very good. Now match the right to that. On he right-md limb on too much bend. From the handle out needs more. Once you fix that you'll have to catch up the other side. More on my site. Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/index.html
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that was about my thought too but no matter how much wood i take off i cant seem to fix that bend.
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The centre section is way too thick.
Measure at 6" intervals, the thicknes should reduce by about 1.5 to 2 mm every 6" at a guess.
Put a big W on the last 1/3 of the right limb and don't touch it.
Self evidently if you reduce the rest of the right limb to the same thickness as the last third it WILL make a difference.
But don't go that far, just be patient and take the advice that's been given.
Del
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The picture really helps you see where you need to work doesn't it? Del makes a great point about marking the limb where you don't want to remove wood. I write a big NO everywhere I need to avoid and then diagonal lines everywhere I want to remove wood. Then I take the diagonal lines out with the draw knife, rasp or scraper (depending on how close to the final draw weight I am). No matter how you identify it, don't touch where the limb bends too much. Jawge and Del have given great advice. Follow it and you'll make a good bow. :)
George
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Thanks guys
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My take, left limb, bending very little from mid limb to the handle, need to get that area working.
Right limb, hinged about 8" in from the tip, bad, bad,bad.
Make one of these.
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=001047;p=0
Set the pencil depth on hinge on your right limb, use the same setting on both limbs, don't readjust it until it stops marking anywhere on both limbs. You are going to drop some serious poundage getting the limbs bending correctly but you will learn a lot in the process.
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Thanks everyone for their help I'm almost finished tillering now I've gotten rid of the hinge and both limbs are drawing close to equal with the future bottom limb being slightly stiffer I will post a pic when I finish up tonight