Okay, I decided I wanted to show a little of the 2nd build in this run.
It is originally a copy of the first bow in this build, an old "White Oak" belly on a commercial "Red Oak" piece from the local hardware store.
I'm just a hobbyist who likes wood and wanted to build a couple of nice bows. (Turns out the wife had an interest:) So I use a knife, files, sandpaper, a pencil and an old seamstress tape for measuring.
So here's what happened.
Halfway into the shaping of this bow, I had a run that went to the glue seam. For some reason I don't remember quite right now, I did a strength test, figured it was wide enough, and decided to go ahead and remove equally all the way to the back and follow the rest of the way down. Then looked at the other side, and decided to match it. I was thinking, a light, smooth, fairly fast shooter for my wife.
72" X 1 1/2" X 3/8"
This actually my 4th bow, but going into this project, I knew the first two were disposable.
That said, this one starts with a little story.
Have you ever wondered why they put those labels on chemicals these days?
Well, it's not because many of us were really sniffing the contents. (although there were some who did a lot of dope! (Get it???
That used different types of adhesives in various projects.
Back when I was younger I was of a slightly reckless heart. Not irresponsible mind you, I knew my basics, but there were times when I put together things like solvents and adhesives in a wild attempt to extract some quality or another.
These days I suppose one might call it using what you've got, but I thank God for those days when I figured, "I think it's okay, try a little bit first and see what it does. (The way I saw it, as long as I didn't have to hold my breath, things would probably be okay!
On page one of my first build, -
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,44617.0.html - someone made a comment about mentioning fiberglass in these forums.
I took that advise, (except for build 3 that is my first laminate compound that I'll find the right place for) but still found there was a little bit of room for experimentation.
So I removed the glass, and started out with just the resin. As this was one of those home DIY fix-it kits, this was basically your standard binary compound epoxy mixed for strength and flexibility.
It went on well except that I found I hadn't cleaned the wood well enough avoid some low spots, failed adhesion's, side separations, and later on, complete breakdown of the adhesive to surface characteristics. (The plastic fell off!:)
Luckily this was in three pieces. Okay! Now we get to the pics and the materials.
I had to get something on the back of this bow because although it is well within it's tolerances, I felt it still needed some additional strength and support, if only to bring out it's speed potential.
I liked this polymer, as I had been able to shoot with it on the bow a few times before I decided to move to the next step.
I figured wood glue would be stable enough to allow the polymer to bed within it, allowing the epoxy to move ever so slightly, sand out any occlusions, bumps, and burrs.
There ended up being a sight chemical reaction causing the "set-up" of the glue to be slightly longer and slightly patchy. This would indicate that adhesive and flex qualities might have been affected as well. Sometimes good, sometimes bad.
Either way, the glue helps to go a long way in making surfaces smooth and ink able on a budget. In this case, it also allows me to use this epoxy that otherwise was going to be very ugly!
Here's what I've got so far.
