I'll be putting my first bow in the oven soon thank you all for a sewing my questions thus far.
Here's my question, what makes a a lam-glass bow fail?
I'm asking so I can possibly avoid losing my first one after reading the "I am done!" post. I'm just thinking there has to be a few basic DONTS that cause bows to fail and a few DO's that help ensure you end up with at least a shoot-able bow.
Can some of you experts shed some light before I start cutting limb profiles and ect.
My advice is use plenty of glue. I always have a fear of getting a starved glue joint. Make sure the ends of your riser fades are paper thin so the lams have a smooth transition to the limbs.
What D said.... Relatively speaking, glue is cheap. If the glue joints are good all the way across (no voids, and you keep any miscellaneous 'grit' (sawdust, dirt, etc) out of the glue, you should have a successful bow. My first failed because I had a couple of starved spots.
the only bow I've had fail was my third and came about because I used too thick a belly lam and had a real hard time trying to keep belly lam and glass from slipping down the fades. this was early on in my building and I never knew about cable ties etc. From the constant attempts to get it right I ended up with glue starvation at the fades eventually de laminating after about 6 months.Agree about using ample glue during lay up.
Always butter (glue) up both mating surfaces. Mating surfaces should be clean without oil from your hands (after touching your face, nose, ears etc...) The fades should be a gentle curve with no rough spots. The fade out on the riser tips should be see through they are so thin. Read your glue mix directions, then double check to make sure you read them right.
make sure your glue is mixed real good and then mix some more.
Only one I had fail I did not observe proper sanitation and had some wax or oil or something get on the lams prior to glue up.