Been wanting to dive into building a bow for some time. Took the first real step forward tonight, called Kenny and ordered form template and plans for building my bow form.
Reading through a bunch of stuff here has certainly motivated me to get started. Its a long winter, wish me luck. Im a lil intimidated by it all.
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Good luck! Don't forget to post pictures of your progress.
Dave.
Got my template and plans from Kenny today! Thanks Kenny, that was quick. The rest of my form parts will be here Friday, and weather permitting will be making the trip to get plywood Thursday. With crap weather rolling in again ove the weekend, I'll be sequestered in the shop getting a form together, and possibly hot box. I feel like a kid at Christmas. I'll post some pics as I build the form.
Looking forward to following along.
Best of luck.
I always chuckle when some one says they'd like to build A bow. They're like potato chips, you can't have/build just one. :biglaugh:
Picked up plywood today, as freezing rain coming tomorrow. Its a 2 hr each way trip to Menards, and after loading plywood and a couple tools, along with a pallet of wood pellets, I couldnt get back to my shop fast enough. Got the sheets cut down, will glue them up tomorrow at some point. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200109/e5dc91f8c06d1fa7d91240b3d70ffcab.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200109/762949d81e163425de90b878f4aceacd.jpg)
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Good start!!
4hrs for plywood! Thats resolve! You should be a formidable bowyer with those personal attributes.
And I like your quote. B.S. is a unique musical poet.
Flem I live in the western Upper Peninsula of MI. There is nothing close. Running an hour or two each way for certain things is just life in Gods Country. I'll take that over the concrete jungle any day.
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Shes glued screwed and clamped down to bench. Guess all I can do now is clean the shop up. If I ever get my hands on those lil gremlins that sneak in here in the dead of night and mess things up I'm gonna skin em and make some warm mitts outta their hides.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200109/4aa56fb525faf83fbf9a5353da040363.jpg)
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Used be a lumberyard in Ontonagon. Hawley Lumber. Burned to the ground.
Hawleys buildings are still here but they closed down a few years ago.
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Getting ready to run this form thru the bandsaw. My saw is a 14" Grizzly, with a really small table. So had to field engineer a support system so its not floppin around line a head shot rabbit as I cut it. I think this should do the trick. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200111/6db48ed4f19ef683a0deac8dbc30bf39.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200111/4b7ead3bb1725361857b2c44fbd87406.jpg)
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That helps a bunch right there!!
So I got this beast cut out. Went fairly well. Tried keeping blade a fuzz proud of the line, but a lil drift and it varies a lil bit. 1/16th or a fuzz more in spots. Cut was not perfectly square due to blade shifting a lil bit. . Not a huge deal. Can smooth that out on bottom half of form with template and router. I'll slide template down 1/8" below my original line along bottom and take any flat spots and square it up with router.
My question is, the top section. How exact does that need to be compared to bottom half? Will sanding it a bit, plus hose/pressure strip take care of any imperfections in top half, or does it need to fit tight to bottom half of form?
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Doing fine. I do not know if you have seen this, great help.
https://www.kennysarchery.com/buildalong
https://www.kennysarchery.com/buildalong
Doing fine. Did you see this, great help.
The top part of form isn't critical to be smooth, just check space for hose before you bolt together. It will change things a little on some designs when you put the space in there. More on curvy bows. Seems like I have to trim the top one at the ends slightly sometimes.
And do a dry run with all parts to be sure everything is getting pressed well before mixing up glue!!
Looks good. As Kenny said, all ways do a dry run
Ok had to dig my thinkin cap outta storage, which I did while snowshoein a 2 mile hike in the high country. Sometimes walkin away from a project and spendin time in the woods is the best plan.
So what I did, is taking the template for the bottom half of the form, and used the router with a guide collar and spiral bit, made a mirror image template for the top of the form.
My flush pattern router but will not be here till Monday afternoon. So now I wait. But should have a nice matchup of both halves, although as Kenny mentioned may need to trim top at ends to allow room for hose. Will take that as it comes once I install hardware.
Still a ways off from gluing one up, will order glue, lams etc first of the month. Vet bill for my dog shot my shop budget for the rest of this month . Plus the fun governor is startin to get inquisitive. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200111/41099533fb4a6d996132a81392dbfbc6.jpg)
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Spent the day in the shop working on the form, got the edge of top and bottom routered, sanded and fine tuned.
Spent a couple hours playing around with riser templates,got one cut out but still not 100% sold on it.
Tomorrow a little router work and should be able to get hardware drilled and installed. Gonna wait on cutting in the riser shape on the top half until I have a template I like a little better. Will put a couple coats of urethane on it, and then finish up the hot box. Im moving really slow, part because I do not wanna screw it up, and realized Im pretty rusty when it comes to using the router. Just have not done much with them. Will add a few pics tomorrow.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200116/ce037713f0d0483f56a1967649cd7c88.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200116/d72f8e6df354aa98a778997e49755460.jpg)
Press is almost done. Some detail sanding in a few spots, add formica strip and once I get a riser template made I'm happy with mark that out and cut top for riser. Still need to trim a lil off the ends on the top section. But its lookin close to ready.
Waiting on some light fixtures for hot box which will be here Friday afternoon and can finish that up.
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Could be the picture or the angle but to me it looks like the space between the top and bottom halves is less at the ends of the form.
It is in that pic. I trimmed ends after this pic. This morning gave it a good lookin over and top was a hot mess. Talked to Kenny, he got me back on track. Was able to save form by re-working the top and now its good to go. Scribed and re-cut the entire top, and now its within 1/32 the entire length. Was worried I may hafta scrap the whole thing. Back on track. Learnin, havin fun and havent even bothered plowing snow outta the driveway.
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Glad you got it good to go! When is lay up?
He has to snowshoe to the shop , so give him time...:)
Kenny lol. Luckily the shop is attached to the house. But I gotta snowshoe to the barn
Monterey, first glue up sometime next month.
A few other jigs etc to figure out how I wanna make, then plan a trip to get more plywood and a few other shop supplies I need so once I bake one Ihave everything I need on hand.
Plus gotta take time for some ice fishin and bunny huntin. Kt much more fun than huntin snowshoe hares on snowshoes with my longbow.
Long winter here in the Yoop, I get full use of it.
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Bein that its been snowin like crazy, figured I'd get my cooker wired up. Still need to insulate it but thats gonna wait a bit. Used a temp controller I made for beer fermenting, it will hold temp at whatever I want and can set variable up and down to within .5 degrees. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200118/31d2e711b0b4279c454665488c2a13d6.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200118/c539200245b5f03ba38b0d6da73a754a.jpg)
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You do nice work, John. I expect you will get good results with your bow too.
So after building this hot box out of leftover materials and seeing how big a pain in my backside it was taking up floor space in the shop, im changing gears.
I needed more. Bench space to pile things on. So started building an 8' bench and will incorporate the bow cooker into that with front load instead of top. Can re-use most of the plywood off the first. Can store form inside it clearing up more room.
Thats the beauty of winter, I can spend a lot of time in the shop on cold windy days. The nice days are for bunny huntin and ice fishin.
Will finish this up prob tomorrow, although the top is temporary till I can get to Menards. I'll top it with a double layer of 1/2 MDF and a few costs of poly. Makes a nice flat smooth assembly bench.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200122/9380d4a4c65b2685c9d5af56d5cf65f3.jpg)
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Hot box looks good. Looks like you are going all in. :)
Heres hot box 2.0. I like this a lot better and added 8' of additional bench space. Still have to insulate it, with 5 200!watt bulbs it took 40 minutes to get up to 100 degrees. At that rate, my power company gonna love me. I'll grab a couple sheets of foil backed foam board insulation when I get the MDF to build the permanent top for it. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200122/77230b8b3e3930464f025175d56629f7.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200122/38722454bf47742d386000d97c0377f5.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200122/cb4a4304d524e13d3e4ebf97bd1d5b78.jpg)
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