Roy slacking again, so here goes. :nono: :saywhat: :bigsmyl:
Dug out a Cedar (Juniper)board to make a few Veneers, maybe
(https://i.imgur.com/aGoLQiH.jpg)
I just laid up a set of 80# recurve limbs and got them mounted on the riser. i'm doing some different lam configurations on 3 different sets. One set will be 115 # and i'm trying a new recipe to get better longevity . My last set this heavy had compression fractures in the maple on the belly side, so i have a different plan this time. The 3rd set for this riser will only be 65- 70# and I could just use maple on those with .040 glass.
I'm experimenting with this Fossilized woven bamboo on the belly side. So far my tests are showing higher compression strength than maple. The epoxy infused bamboo is seriously hard stuff, but surprisingly flexible. I was afraid it might be to brittle at first, but its held up well on heavy bows so far.
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Did this today, Hard Maple backing clean break across back. Faulty board or too dry, who knows.
looks like you forgot the fiberglass. :biglaugh:
That's always a bummer, Bue. :tongue:
Doh...maple's grain looks angled through the board....
I've been making some Rob cosman style wood hinge business card boxes...a nice change from the bows.....
Bow swap and an injury has me more active online than usual, anyone have any fun projects going?
Going to twist a string up for a flip tipped pacific yew selfbow and do some final tillering later on today, got a very interesting piece of hawthorne ill start scraping on soon been rigorous to get the tips aligned with steam and theres some pretty intense natural reflex which will be fun to tiller
I just put another large piece of Osage in the wood stove... :o :o :o :o that 8" thick log must of weighed 30# and it's 30 years old.
Years ago I got a huge trailer load of Osage thinking there would be a lot of good bow wood. It had been brought up from California and stacked in a shed for over 20 years. She was planning on having furniture built from it originally. Unfortunately.... Most of it was checked beyond use, no stave wood at all. I saved a few pieces for riser wood, but most of it ended up in the firewood shed. Kinda sad really.... But it burns like coal... :thumbsup:
Quote from: Kirkll on February 11, 2025, 11:47:40 AM
I just put another large piece of Osage in the wood stove... :o :o :o :o that 8" thick log must of weighed 30# and it's 30 years old.
Years ago I got a huge trailer load of Osage thinking there would be a lot of good bow wood. It had been brought up from California and stacked in a shed for over 20 years. She was planning on having furniture built from it originally. Unfortunately.... Most of it was checked beyond use, no stave wood at all. I saved a few pieces for riser wood, but most of it ended up in the firewood shed. Kinda sad really.... But it burns like coal... :thumbsup:
Yeah, Osage burns crazy hot. Have to be careful loading up a small pot belly or barrel stove with 100% osage, you'll have the sides glowing red.
I have a new huntin bow in progress but its a comedy of mistakes it seems... :dunno: :help:
Lied about the string because I ran out of my spools so it was about time to put a backing on this pacific yew before I do final tillering and shooting in
Wheeled out some more Osage - could be some nice staves.
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Elm bow with double nocks, works fine.
Are they Sturgeon skins and if so may I ask where you can buy them?
Looks like a nice Osage log.
They are sturgeon Bue, and they were gifted to me by a friend I can find out sometime today and I'll send you a PM
Quote from: Burnsie on February 11, 2025, 09:11:19 PM
Wheeled out some more Osage - could be some nice staves.
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Why does that have the look of a public park? 🤣
Unwrapping the ace bandage showed me how much glue I used hahah, squeeze out cleanup took some scraping and cleaned up the edges of the backing. Ready for some shooting and tillering tomorrow.
Pretty bow. Looks very predatory.
Quote from: Longcruise on February 12, 2025, 06:01:12 PM
Quote from: Burnsie on February 11, 2025, 09:11:19 PM
Wheeled out some more Osage - could be some nice staves.
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Why does that have the look of a public park? 🤣
Local County prairie restoration/walking area. They are clearing out all the invasive trees - honeysuckle, autumn olive...etc, and they also consider Osage as an invasive species to the area. I know some of the guys doing the clearing and they keep an eye peeled for for straight pieces and let me know before they go in the burn pile. I have to drag/wheel them out to the parking area. I still end up rejecting a good amount of them.
That's a nice inside track.
Quote from: dbeaver on February 12, 2025, 07:54:54 PM
Unwrapping the ace bandage showed me how much glue I used hahah, squeeze out cleanup took some scraping and cleaned up the edges of the backing. Ready for some shooting and tillering tomorrow.
That's gonna be a beauty.
Those sturgeon skins look awesome on there!
After dealing with the furnace acting up today I got a little work done on a snaky Osage stave. After cleaning up it's a little narrow and the handle area is quite small. So I shaped out a piece of cherry to somewhat match up then gave it a boil before tightly clamping into place. Tomorrow I'll get it glued up. Once it dried I'll glue a belly side block to thicken up the handle a bit more before I start tillering. There are still a few cracks that need attention before tillering. But it looks better than I expected it to before digging in
Kyle
That's going to be a looker Kyle :o
:jumper:
Finished a 68" Longbow for my boss. 43# at 31"
Experimental recurve ! Its coming along.
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Nicely done. Great string angle at full draw, and good looking DFC chart too. Looks like a winner to me. :thumbsup:
I debarked the six staves I split from an ash log a tree crew had leftup in the reservoir dam area . It was free,still green and asking for a ride.This is my first try at this and while I got two good straight staves and three that might just make curvy kind of crazy bows and one that was only just arrows I did learn about splitting right .I might have done better by paying better attention to where I split it .but it was free and to give myself a little credit there were knots in wrong spots, some tree fungus and bruised areas from the felling actions ,all these things can obviously happen to a log even if it is perfectly straight and this was not perfectly straight but not horrilbly crooked just enough to screw things a bit.
I finally got myself a proper Drilling/Milling Machine, for Bolt-down and ILF.
No more Drilling jigs, that will eventually wear out.
Completely different feeling, deep regrett, i waited so long.
Do you have a power feed for you X axis set up? That is a full monty DRO set up...
This is the one i put on mine. It's a variable speed control that is very nice for milling.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/301148098764?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-213727-13078-0&mkcid=2&itemid=301148098764&targetid=4581046493380274&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=603247657&mkgroupid=1239150647972013&rlsatarget=pla-4581046493380274&abcId=9316139&merchantid=51291&msclkid=c632d6541c6a1e29601fb1b4bd9620cd
What type of vice do you have on that table? Kirk
No Power Feed.
For the ILF Limbs, it works by Hand Operation or with assist of a cordless screwdriver.
I'll see, what else i will be doing with this new toy.
The Vice is a self centering one for about 100€.
Maybe i'll Upgrade this in the Future, but does the Job for now.
Trust me.... the power feed is a game changer with milling ILF risers.... I would recommend looking on ebay to find a good high quality Kurt vise... Your machine work is only as good as your vise holding the product, and well worth the investment.
I've got an older Kurt vise here that i had a couple of 1/4" steel plates fabricated to help me hold my riser blocks at different angles with enough height to keep from flipping your riser end for end. Those so called self centering vises can give you problems. Watch that baby closely.... It's always best to never flip that riser around and mill everything in a straight line. and ALWAYS check dead center and zero out your DRO with every set up after the riser has been placed in the vise. You'll figure it out yourself as you go along. I just thought i'd share a few tips. Any type of machinist work is all in the set up, and learning the feed rates and type of mill ends or cutters to use. For riser work i typically use router bits and end mills for setting location pins accurately.
Here is my set up.... I cheaped out on DRO and used slide micrometers for XYZ axis.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/CuHzJm2a2sJ8Swiu8
Have fun with your new toy! These things are great tools.
Thanks for the hints.
I check for propper Zero and straightness before i drill.
After the Initial Setup, that took me like 1h for perfekt allignment, IT seems to stay true.
The only "milling" at the Moment is the Slot at the but of the ILF Limbs.
Bur this alone, is an absolute gamechanger compared to Drilling this with jigs....
The Vice was 100€ it does the Job, for the start.
I'll Upgrade this in the Future.
I just finished up another Sasquatch SS RC.....
Here is the build album if you want to take a look.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/K24Yz3gEbmN4nEhC9
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Nice bow Kirk.
Finished up a stave vice I've been working on. I also plan to mount a conventional vice on a plate that I can swap out with the square tube. Supposed to rain this weekend, so I may get a chance to try it out.
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Wish me luck.
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Quote from: B-JS on March 23, 2025, 02:09:35 PM
I finally got myself a proper Drilling/Milling Machine, for Bolt-down and ILF.
No more Drilling jigs, that will eventually wear out.
Completely different feeling, deep regrett, i waited so long.
Good move, I love mine...makes all things good again!
Agree with Kirk... the powerfeed is a game changer, I found mine on alibaba for 130.00
good milling!
Quote from: Bryan Adolphe on March 18, 2025, 08:38:15 AM
Experimental recurve ! Its coming along.
[attachment=1,msg3066830][attachment=2,msg3066830][attachment=3,msg3066830]
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Nice looking setup there...still working on my static design..
I generally build recurves mostly, but laid out a takedown hybrid.
gonna be 61.5" 45@28"
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Looking good.
Very nice,
BO-R. I sent you a PM
Waiting for my rawhide backed bow to dry and started roughing out a green ash stave theres bends and a twist to steam bend out so it's a challenge for my 2 nd bow but I'm gonna try I'll use my steamer that I use for rust blueing barrels.its also got a twist that needs untwisting by about 3/4" just ahead of the handle, bending and untwisting wood is a new skill to me but I have the equipment at least, any advice is welcome.
a bit of advice for your 2nd attempt.
Some say wet wood wet heat and with that steam for a bit longer than you think. the difference between 38 minutes and 45 minutes can sometimes be the difference between cracking fibers or working with rubber wood. Keep it a tad thick so if you do get some stress fractures you can shave down past them and still achieve your desired thickness. you could boil the whole limb if you fancied but that takes some interesting setup. Take care of one major correction at a time and let it sit in whatever clamping setup for longer than youd like as well, ive jumped the gun and erased heat corrections ive made many many times.
My widebelt sander ran the belt off the end this morning, investigation found an air solenoid was leaking, hoping it was a hose but nope.
Nothin $115 wont fix but I'm down for 3 days .
It is 14 years old tho...
I'd buy a new one but they are over 8K and I may not have 14 more years in me! :laughing:
Quote from: kennym on April 09, 2025, 11:10:09 AM
My widebelt sander ran the belt off the end this morning, investigation found an air solenoid was leaking, hoping it was a hose but nope.
Nothin $115 wont fix but I'm down for 3 days .
It is 14 years old tho...
I'd buy a new one but they are over 8K and I may not have 14 more years in me! :laughing:
What kind of sander is this Kenny? Air solenoid ???? :dunno: :dunno:
Griz widebelt. The air runs the belt back and forth an inch or so. Thought about disabling it but figured I could screw it up... :biglaugh:
Shaped a bow today. Overshot my desired draw weight by 18lbs and I'm not sure why. May need more taper. I had one tapered lam @ 001. May need to try two tapered lams.
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Got sander up, Grizzly service is awesome. Ordered part Wednesday, got it Thursday with 2 day shipping :thumbsup: .
Didn't fix it so called tech support this morning and the techy went over the whole problem and we tried some different things.
It started working but I'm still not sure what fixed it. I'm thinking low air pressure wasn't cycling the solenoids.
But anyway it is back to work now! :biglaugh:
I'm thinking low air pressure wasn't cycling the solenoids.
Wonder how that happened?:)
Operator error I think, it had an air cylinder that got loose on one end, and I lowered the pressure while figuring out the noise. Never turned back up, but it worked for a long time like that... :tongue:
So I'm still not sure what fixed it... :biglaugh:
Good job big dog:) :thumbsup:
New design glass bow on the tiller for the first time. 64» ntn. Came out with almost even tiller on both limbs, just a tiny bit of adjustment to be done. Pics show bow drawn to 20-29 and 30 inch draw.
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I like the way it bends.
Nice looking bend to that one. :clapper: :clapper:
Did you use tip wedges? and....What taper rates did you use?
Kirk, here you go. The tapered lam has a .003 forward taper and the last 6 1/2 inches before string nocks goes into a .004 reverse taper, kind of a integrated wedge.
Specs: lengt 64 inches ntn.
From belly side:
Bjorn glass .040
European Walnut thin veneer
Tapered bamboo
Riser 22 inches
Bamboo parallel
Bamboo parallel
Stabil kore
Walnut veneer
Bjorn glass
Riser is made from 3 pieces of Jatoba glued in I beam configuration.
As this one is the first off new form we shall see how it work out.
Have adjusted it today so tiller is dead even on both limbs measured from three points both on brace and 20 inch draw.