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Main Boards => The Bowyer's Bench => Topic started by: Sharp Shooter on December 27, 2012, 06:06:00 PM

Title: I'm about to pull out all my grey hair
Post by: Sharp Shooter on December 27, 2012, 06:06:00 PM
Guys what am I doing wrong? As you can see the tip of the bottom limb is to the right of center, is that not the weak side? Shouldn't I be working on the left side to bring the string back to center? I'm lost!! Tony
(http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/aa473/SharpShooter6/001-8.jpg)
Title: Re: I'm about to pull out all my grey hair
Post by: Robertfishes on December 27, 2012, 06:39:00 PM
I sand the side of limb my self. I assume this is a bow under construction? Try twisting the limb to straighten it, sometimes that works even on a new one...if you have to sand ,sand the edge on the bottom of pic..i will post a diagram in a few minutes   (http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt46/Robertfishes/limbalignment_zpsbf04dc65.jpg)
Title: Re: I'm about to pull out all my grey hair
Post by: Bow-n-Head on December 27, 2012, 06:58:00 PM
The bottom string nock looks to be a bit higher the the other. Check them for exact evenness. Lay the unstrung bow on its' side on a flat surface. Check the distsnce from the center of each limb tip to the flat surface. If not equal, you strayed from your center line. Hope this helps.
Title: Re: I'm about to pull out all my grey hair
Post by: Roy from Pa on December 27, 2012, 06:59:00 PM
That is really off center, run a string from limb tip to limb tip with the bow unstrung. You may have glued it up off center.

(http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f165/ROY-CHRIS/limbalignment-1_zpsb4b8dc8c.jpg)
Title: Re: I'm about to pull out all my grey hair
Post by: Robertfishes on December 27, 2012, 07:16:00 PM
Roy beat me to it, i edited my post with the same pic...looks like we saved the same picture.. photobucket took for ever, guess everybody is down loading their Christmas pictures??.. If nocks are even, you can follow the information off of the pic Roy posted..I had one with a similar twist in it, I changed the string and it pulled straight, don't know why that worked but it did..I had another I was building that had a slight twist to it, I strung it up, twisted past center, left it strung up over night and that fixed it..I still have all the bows I have built and so far all pull straight. I have barely filed a string groove into the belly glass on my last few recurve builds
Title: Re: I'm about to pull out all my grey hair
Post by: Sharp Shooter on December 27, 2012, 07:18:00 PM
I have deepened the nock on the rt and sanded the left edge can't tell that I've gain any, just wanted to run it by some others to make sure that I was right in my thinking. Thanks Tony
Title: Re: I'm about to pull out all my grey hair
Post by: jsweka on December 27, 2012, 07:26:00 PM
That's the reason why I have built one, and only one, recurve.  Messes with your mind too much.
Title: Re: I'm about to pull out all my grey hair
Post by: Roy from Pa on December 27, 2012, 07:45:00 PM
Well Johnny Boy, can't take too much to mess with your mind:)
Title: Re: I'm about to pull out all my grey hair
Post by: jsweka on December 27, 2012, 08:16:00 PM
Yeah, my mind is easily twisted.
Title: Re: I'm about to pull out all my grey hair
Post by: Sharp Shooter on December 27, 2012, 08:43:00 PM
I'm thinking it's in my string nock, I'll rework them tomorrow and see if that helps. Thanks Guys!!Tony
Title: Re: I'm about to pull out all my grey hair
Post by: LC on December 27, 2012, 09:00:00 PM
Is this a take down?
Title: Re: I'm about to pull out all my grey hair
Post by: Sharp Shooter on December 27, 2012, 10:07:00 PM
Yes, it's a take down.
Title: Re: I'm about to pull out all my grey hair
Post by: LC on December 27, 2012, 11:00:00 PM
The first thing to check is that your string nocks are perfectly square to each other. If one is higher that the other you create a strong pull on that side.

Talking from experience I suspect one of two things. First your limb pads may not be on the same vertical angle. IF your limb pads are off even a hair you will not be able to correct with normal limb adjustments as shown above. The above corrections will work if a limb is just stiffer on one side.  The key to preventing this is to make one side of your riser perfectly flat and using ONLY that same perfect flat side to disc sand both pads using the same flat side never flipping the riser. A perfectly flat riser block should lay on a perfectly flat surface and you should not be able to "rock" it by pushing anywhere on the riser block. Keep in mind you may have two perfectly flat sides to a riser but one side is not perfectly square with the other side. If you disc sand one riser pad from one side flip the riser over to sand the other riser pad you might have this problem.  Hard to explain but hopefully you get the idea. You can still save the your riser IF you can first remove alingment pins by heating, then clamping your riser ridigly to a flat surface with the limb pads extended past the board. Then truing up the pads on a disc sander so they are both on the same plane.

Second possiblity is that one or both limbs are not straight to the riser. Again a perfectly flat board jig will be able to check that. If thats the case you may have to remove a pin, plug and redrill to straighten.
Title: Re: I'm about to pull out all my grey hair
Post by: Sharp Shooter on December 30, 2012, 10:49:00 AM
Starting over with a new set of limbs. Tony
Title: Re: I'm about to pull out all my grey hair
Post by: jsweka on December 30, 2012, 05:45:00 PM
Man, that sucks.  Are you sure your current limbs are beyond hope?
Title: Re: I'm about to pull out all my grey hair
Post by: Sharp Shooter on December 30, 2012, 06:17:00 PM
I may can salvage them for a lower poundage bow for someone. The bottom limb is a lot narrower than the upper (1/8"+)and still nowhere near straight. I put another set of limbs from another one of my bows and they're working great. Here's some pics. Tony
(http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/aa473/SharpShooter6/002-5_zps770fbbd7.jpg)
(http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/aa473/SharpShooter6/003-5_zpsae661d84.jpg)