Helping my nephew build a TD recurve,IT'S DONE!!!!!

Greg Szalewski · January 11, 2009, 10:09:00 PM

I am helping my nephew Dave (Red Devil) build a take down recurve. He has been shooting trad. gear now for over two years and is out growing the Browning recurve I got him so now it is time to make him the bow of his dreams. I have the forms and tools, he has to design the riser and of course pick out the materials. He decided to go with Zebrawood and Padauk. We ordered the lams and riser from Kenny McKenzie and got to work glueing it all up. I am having him learn the entire process and having him preform as many of the opperations as possible. Here he is preparing the riser for the overlay on the back side.

This is the overlay and pressure strip I cut for clamping.

And it all clamped up.

I will add pictures as we make progress.

bjansen · January 11, 2009, 11:00:00 PM

Looking great...and a lucky nephew!

kennym · January 11, 2009, 11:30:00 PM

Can't wait to see it!!

Leland · January 12, 2009, 07:10:00 PM

I'll be watching this one,can't wait to see how it turns out.
Leland

PV · January 12, 2009, 08:15:00 PM

That's one lucky nephew!! From the looks of the riser glue up he's got a good teacher.

Greg Szalewski · January 12, 2009, 10:11:00 PM

Here I am sanding the glue off of the limbs to prepare them for drilling.

The limbs are zebrawood.

This is how I lay out the centerline of the bow.

First string and tiller stick.

Looks good this way.

SteveD · January 13, 2009, 04:51:00 AM

Lookin good

RGK · January 13, 2009, 08:45:00 AM

Looking great so far.

PV · January 13, 2009, 09:01:00 AM

Looking good! What make of drilling jig are you using? How do you like it?

Greg Szalewski · January 13, 2009, 01:06:00 PM

Thanks everyone.
The jig was made by a friend. It is self centering and works pretty good but not fool proof, I still have to check and make sure the center piece is laying parralel to the sides.
GS

PV · January 13, 2009, 02:14:00 PM

Thanks Greg.

JDP12 · January 13, 2009, 07:01:00 PM

Wow Greg looks great!

kennym · January 13, 2009, 07:43:00 PM

Lookin great Greg!! Glad you are including your nephew in the build,he won't ever forget!!

bjansen · January 13, 2009, 08:42:00 PM

Boy that zebra looks sharp under that glass...thanks for the build along!

Red_Devil · January 13, 2009, 09:24:00 PM

Hey everyone, so far everything has gone pretty well with the bow. You are right, I am one lucky nephew and that doesn't really even begin to describe. It is sure great having an uncle that I can do things like this with and it is tons of fun. I am really blessed to have such a good teacher for such an awesome sport.
Thanks for all the kind words, we'll be sure to keep updating.

Greg Szalewski · January 18, 2009, 08:45:00 PM

Red Devil (my nephew) only had a couple hours to spare to work on his bow this weekend so all we could do was put the tip overlays on and lay out the riser contour. I cut 2 strips of padauk .080 thick very carefully on the table saw and used a piece of left over zebrawood from the lams for the top piece. To support the face of the limb and not straighten it out while clamped I grind a radius to match the limb on the block of wood I use for clamping.

Laying out the riser.

Roughing up the limb tips for the overlay.

Cutting the overlays on the bandsaw.

Overlays glued and ready for the hot box.

Greg Szalewski · April 22, 2009, 09:54:00 PM

It's been quite some time to get this bow finished but it is now done. Getting a teen over to work on this has been the greatest challenge. So I finaly roughed it out figuring he could do the hand sanding. Well he did after I showed himthe second time how to progress with the sandpaper after removing ALL the scratches before moving on to a finer paper. The super glue applying and sanding went much smoother.
Here I have him shaping the limbs to my lines.

Roughing the contour of the riser.

Roughed out bow ready for sanding.

Sanding

Applying the super glue and sanding.

Greg Szalewski · April 22, 2009, 09:56:00 PM

There it is at full draw.

Finished pics

Well there it is. I think his motivation got bumped up a notch when he found out he is going to be one of the lucky one going on the PBS youth hunt in UT this August.
The bow is 62" and 53# @28". Materials are zebra wood and padauk from Kenny M. Shoots an arrow real nice. This bow should give him many years of good service. The riser design was his choice as well as the grip.
Good Hunting David(Red Devil)

bjansen · April 22, 2009, 10:24:00 PM

Great job Red Devil and Greg...what an amazing bow...you guys can really shape a riser!...It looks excellent.

Whip · April 22, 2009, 10:33:00 PM

That is beautiful!

Great job to both of you - it really is be a very special bow for a very special hunt!