Ok guys, here's my latest bow. It's 58" long and draws 42@28. Basicly it's the same as my last, but i modified a few things on the design. First i made the limbs wider, because i had troubles with twisting limbs with the last one. Because i didn't want to go thinner with the stack i reduced the riser length about 1 1/2 inch. And finally i decided to build this one without tip wedges. I hoped that less mass in the tips would add speed and the draw would also get smother.
(http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab173/07Hawaii/IMG_0282.jpg)
(http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab173/07Hawaii/IMG_0278.jpg)
(http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab173/07Hawaii/IMG_0280.jpg)
(http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab173/07Hawaii/IMG_0279.jpg)
(http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab173/07Hawaii/IMG_0281.jpg)
I don't have a chrono to measure the speed, but i shoot a few arrows on a target at a distance of 5 meters. With my mac i recorded the sound made while shooting. Then i compared the signal with my other bows and it's by far the fastest bow i have built so far. So it seems that the modifications i made improved the performance of the bow.
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Andy
very sweet looking bow. great that you were able to modify the design and get what you wanted out of it.
Very nice! She looks like she can fling an arrow!
Stan
Come on! More pictures! I rarely take a fancy to a glass recurve, but that's just plain "perty!" I love the lines on that bow; very graceful. Truly, if you have more pictures, lets see 'em! Great work! :)
Very nice Swissbow!
Thats a beauty well done. love the pattern in the riser.
too cool !!! VERY NICE
Great job man!
Sorry Forest, i don't have more pictures of this one. i made it for a friend and it's already packed and ready for shipping. But i have some more pictures of Caroline's bow witch looks almost the same...
(http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab173/07Hawaii/Caroline%20Safari/1-1.jpg)
(http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab173/07Hawaii/Caroline%20Safari/6-1.jpg)
(http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab173/07Hawaii/Caroline%20Safari/5-1.jpg)
(http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab173/07Hawaii/Caroline%20Safari/3-1.jpg)
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Andy
What color is that riser action wood, and where have you been getting it from?
Thanks
Mike
That is such a sexy design, Andy. The colorful riser adds the make-up!
Nice Andy! Real Nice, not much of a recurve guy but that beauty would have a home on my rack and make meat for sure.
Stiks
Nice bow Andy, really looks good !
thinking about it this bow kinda looks similar shakespeare super necedah in its riser shape. although this bow certainly puts my necedah to shame in colors and overall finish. much nicer curving limbs too. definitly a great job on those ones.
Hi Mike, i got it from Kenny and it's 'Desert Camo' action wood.
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Andy
It seems to have allot of string resting on those recurves, that should make it shoot real quick. Nice looking bow design and a great job.
It does indeed fling the arrows down with authority. On the downside the draw is pretty strong right from the beginning, but that also means that there is a lot of energy stored while drawing the bow.
For the next one i will increase the total taper from 0.002 to 0.004 to make the tips even a bit lighter. In my opinion that should make the draw a bit smoother and hopefully add even more speed.
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Andy
Andy, great bow! Everyone perceives smooth draw differently. Sounds like you may prefer smooth in the begining of the draw and adding taper will give you that perception. It will tend to make it stack earlier nearing the end of the draw though, but that may not be a concern for you. Typically, less taper adds preload which implies more speed. So likewise adding taper may rob some speed and can make it picky with arrows particularly heavier ones.
Generally, if you add taper you may want to stiffen the tips. If you go with .004 and the tip wedges it seems like a good combo for performance. There are several 50's style recurves with that combo and they shoot great. It may get noodly at the tips and hard to fine tune if you don't have stiff enough tips with .004 on a recurve. It depends on how hard the curve is and you will surely need a parabolic width taper. If it gets too weak in the tips you can always add a belly overlay of glass and fade it out as it passes the curve into the working section of the limb. Tip weight means little if the curve opens too soon. Weak tip curves wobble badly when the string slams home.
I think you are right on increasing the taper to smooth out the draw but you will probably find that the tips will open up to much and to soon taking away speed with that much taper in a recurve- tip wedges might be an answer to that issue though.
Nice job Andy! that riser has some very attractive lines. Keep up the good work! Mike
Hi guys, thanks a lot for the advice about the taper. Personally i like the bow the way it is, but a lot of people said that it felt kinda hard to pull, especially at the beginning, although it only draws 42@28. So i was thinking what i could do about it without loosing to much of that speed that everybody loved that much.
@Jason: The curves are pretty sharp and what do you mean by 'parabolic width taper' ?
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Andy
You do such nice work!
Parabolic width taper caries most of the width into the curve and more suddenly reduces to the tip. More of a rounded width profile reduction that is close to the end of the limb. A standerd width taper is more of a straighter line from say 2/3 or 3/4 limb to the tip, where you start the standard straight taper depends on design of course. How straight or how parabolic you need to be is a trial and error thing. It is best, if you're not sure on a new inrceased stack taper design experiment, to start out parabolic and reduce the width profile down until you get the tips opening up when and how much you want. The key moment to take note of is how many inches into the draw cycle does the string lift off the belly on both limbs. Hopefully it happens on both limbs at the same time and later in the draw cycle is preferable to get the most from curve.
Tell your friends that preload "early weight" is a desirable trait. Preload ussually means that the string nock will be tracking straighter and thrusting more efficiently at the best time for both accuracy and speed, the end of the shot cycle. Preload is more forgiving of a bad release because the string tends to get on track better at the moment the arrow is leaving the string. It is easier to quiten a bow with preload too.
NICE BOW
Sweet bow Andy!! Ever any problem with the cloth under glass?
No didn't have any problems until now except the mess i had to clean up because i used a lot of epoxy to make sure the cloth was completely soaked with it. The next few bows i will do without it to see if there is any difference.
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Andy
Thanks Jason, for the explanation about parabolic tiller.
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Andy