Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: autologus on September 18, 2012, 10:07:25 am
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I stopped by Home Depot on the way from work yesterday to see if they had anything decent to work with and after about 15 minutes of looking I found this very nice quartersawn 1x3x12 Red Oak board. It had very straight grain for about 3/4 of the length so I took it home.
I halved the board and ripped the very straight grained half into 2 1 1/4" boards and the other half into a 1" and a 1 1/2" board. My daughter has been wanting a bow so the 1" was for her a 30# bow.
I got it roughed out on the band saw 55" ttt, 5" handle, parallel limbs to 9" from the tips then straight taper to 1/2" nocks. All was working well the tiller was looking good it was a little stiff from mid limb to the tips but I was working that down and had it starting to bend nicely.
It was pulling 30# at 20" and I was starting to reduce the weight to get it to 25" and that's when it happened. TICK I took it down, unbraced it and ran my hand across the back and felt the little crack. It had a very small knot on the back that I hadn't even noticed.
Well the bow was a failure, but I will get something good from it so I pulled out the heat gun and decided to get some practice on bending the tips. The first one I clamped down on my form and decided to hang a bit of weight to the other end and heat the limb and let the weight slowly bring the bow down to introduce the bend. It apparently was too slow and I ended up over cooking the limb and it formed 3 cracks across the belly in the bend.
The second limb I tried a different approach, I clamped it down and started heating this time applying a little pressure with my hand and low and behold I was able to feel when the bow wanted to bend and started applying a little more pressure and it came down nice and smooth with no overheating or cracks.
I did not get any pictures of the flipped tips but here is where I was at when I heard the dreaded TICK. The little dot at the edge of the limb on the closeup is the knot that failed.
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y94/autologus/20120917_232955.jpg)
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y94/autologus/20120917_232922.jpg)
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y94/autologus/20120917_232910.jpg)
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Do you have a good pic of the splinter that lifted? It might be possible to trap the back and eliminate the problem. Josh
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Not too muck good to say about "tick". When your bow goes tick, that's bad. When you or your dog get a tick on you, that's bad. The clock ticking away just reminds you that time is running out. Stupid tick... >:(
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Unfortunately the crack ran a third of the way across, I just would not have felt good possibly handing my 14 year old daughter a Red Oak time bomb. For $4.50 worth of wood and 4 hours time the lessons I learned flipping the tips was worth it, besides I still have 3 more boards from that original board. That is the good thing about Red Oak boards failures are not very costly.
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Tom, don't forget about that pestering facial tick ;) >:D
Sorry bout your tick auto, but looks like you got some good lessons from it. That's a winner anyway :)
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Not too muck good to say about "tick". When your bow goes tick, that's bad. When you or your dog get a tick on you, that's bad. The clock ticking away just reminds you that time is running out. Stupid tick... >:(
Couldn't agree more
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Bugs in your bow wood are bad, no matter what kind. Powder post beetles, borer wasps, and now ticks.
Sorry, friend. You'd be a pretty nasty Dad if you handed her a ticking timb bomb of a bow. Better luck on the next one.
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I always anticipate that sound. The great thing about red oak is that it is so cheap and readily available that you can get a new one up and working in no time!
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Should we all chip in and buy him a can of tick spray?
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I hate ticks. >:(