has anyone reused a riser from a broken bow and put new limbs on it or is this an inadvisable thing to do?
You can probably do it, but it will make the glue up more difficult since a finished/shaped riser is not the same shape/size of what a form would be.
Unless the riser is really special in some way (unique woods, sentimental value), I'd make life easier on myself during the build and make a whole new bow. -Just me.
Travis.......
I have re-limbed dozens of vintage bows and they are worth the effort. A re-limb job will save you the time of building a new riser, most times you can use the original limb profile to build the new form and you can measure the stack to get your stack thickness and taper rate. The stack can be adjusted to produce the exact draw weight you desire.
If you decide to trash the broken bow, send it to me and I will pay the postage and re-build it for my wife to shoot.
James
I have cut risers out of failed bows and re-used them. Make sure to sand off all the old glue and be sure it's still sound.
Dave.