first attempt at a build along

eman614 · April 08, 2009, 09:13:00 PM

alright guys i've been looking at everyone elses buildalongs, which i love. so i decided that i would give it a try. this boy will be for my little brother. he is twelve. the first thing i had to do was build a form. i had a piece of left over mdf that was 24in wide by 48in long. sorry no pics of the first little bit but, they are to come. used a table saw to rip it into two 11in pieces then, glued the two together.since there was nothing to do while the glue dried, i made a form template. i used the method that kennym showed on his last post about forms. this was all yesterday, by the way. i figured out that the longest bow i could make with the profile i made and the length of mdf i had would be 52 and1/2in which should be just right.
that was yesterday lets fast forward to today. i unclamped the mdf and scraped off the excess glue. then i drew a centerline on the mdf co i could mathch it up with the line on my template. i cut it out to within 1/8in of my line using a jig saw. then screwed the template in place and, used a patern bit on the router to finish it up. now for some pics.

this is a pic of the profile, and thisone shows just how curvy it is

. it has two in of deflex, and 2 1/2in of reflex, back past the handle. as you can tell i will be using the innertube method for clamping, like apex predator does.
well this is the start. this will probably be a slow moving buildalong as i am supposed to close on a house friday and my wife has a list of things for me to do about as long as my arm "[dntthnk]"

. also have to order the wood from kennym
wish me luck, eric

kennym · April 08, 2009, 11:05:00 PM

Hey Eric,
Looks good!! Keep us posted on how the MDF works,so far no probs here.
Good luck,but the way the first one looked,you won't need much luck!!

Apex Predator · April 09, 2009, 10:08:00 AM

That is going to be sweet! Keep us posted.

SteveD · April 10, 2009, 05:17:00 AM

Looks good

eman614 · April 11, 2009, 06:34:00 PM

thanks guys. i got a little bit of an update. yesterday my wife and i finally closed on the house we'd been trying to buy for about three months now. so last night we grilled out and had the family over
well my little brother(that i'm making the bow for) and cousin were playing soccer and this is how the night ended

. so now i have at least 6 weeks before the bow has to be done. luckily my 8 year old cousin said he would be willing to test the bow out so, ill go ahead and get started on it as soon as the wood gets here from kennym

kennym · April 11, 2009, 08:47:00 PM

Owww! Did you tell him he can watch the cousin shoot? Just kiddin!

Materials shipped yesterday,you should see em about Tues.

eman614 · April 11, 2009, 11:14:00 PM

i actually did tell him that. he didn't think that was too funny. kenny you got some crazy fast turn around time!
thanks a bunch, eric

Aram · April 13, 2009, 03:36:00 PM

Ouch!
Here's a bit of inspiration for him. This is my son at Baltimore when he was about the same age.
Ru at Baltimore
Get well soon,
Aram

eman614 · April 13, 2009, 03:42:00 PM

aram, thats pretty good i'll have to show that to my brother. he'll get a kick out of that.
thanks,eric

eman614 · April 15, 2009, 11:45:00 PM

wooohoo. finally kenny's wood is here. i say that like i've been waiting more than a day or two. i ordered on wed. of last week and, he had themd shipped on friday, that is what i call customer service. many thanks kennym. i ordered a piece of padauk for the riser but, kenny said that he had been having trouble with it checking. so he sent me a piece of osage also. just in case. i sure hope i don't need the osage, cause the piece of padauk is beautiful. not to mention my brother likes it too! i would have taken pics but, my camera had a dead battery and it is on charge now. i will post some tomorrow. mow that i have done some talking i have a question. do i need to make my riser shorter(14in) since the bow is shorter or, can i leave it long(18in)? thanks for the input.
eric

razorsharptokill · April 16, 2009, 08:52:00 PM

I fully expect to have a package delivered some day minutes after I click the send button. Much like "Wile E. Coyote" in the road runner cartoons when he orders some thing from "ACME".

Kenny has very good turn around time when he recieves an order.

kennym · April 16, 2009, 10:31:00 PM

If you shorten the riser,it will lower #age from a bow from the same form.

On a brand new form ,???

Keep really good records,on paper!! LOL

eman614 · April 16, 2009, 10:36:00 PM

well, the padauk has not checked yet. according to the mail lady it got here tuesday so, i missed it for a whole day before i finally found it. i decided to do a shorter riser as i did not want to decrease the amount of working limb that i had. the only problem with that is it doesn't leave me much room to make my fades. so, i opted to make one that just had a narrow piece between the limb lams. once it has been glued then i will add some more wood to the belly for the handle. i gave the padauk one last day today to get used to the climate here like kennym suggested but, tomorrow is a different story. i will cut out the riser and work on some other things tomorrow. i will be sure and post pics then also.
eric

eman614 · April 16, 2009, 10:42:00 PM

kenny we must have been typing at the same time. like i mentioned i intend to use a shorter riser and, since this is a new form i will probably use the shorter risers on it all the time. this is more or less just a test bow. if it comes out the right weight then fantastic if not that'll be fine too. can't wait to get started tomorrow.
eric

eman614 · May 20, 2009, 07:24:00 PM

well its been a month or so since i've been on here. between buying a house and having to work on this sucker( my wife's orders). i haven't had much time to work on the bow or post the progress that i have made. but here are some pics to get you guys up to speed.

here i am using the bandsaw to cut out the riser

this is afteri did some sanding it fits the form pretty well

this is the riser overlay and tip overlays

this is the the bow in the press as i soon found out i should have used more rubber bands.

here is the bow glued up and out of the form.

this is a pic of the riser

this is a crappy pic but it shows the crappy fade outs. this is where i should have used more rubberbands probably would have decided to go along with the bow anywayshelped

i glued a piece to the belly and shaped it out

eman614 · May 20, 2009, 07:34:00 PM

i must say that the padauk looks great here is a good pic of it

this is the riser overlay

this is the riser shaped some more and sanded the sight window is also cut

here is one more pic of the padauk, this stuff looked great. many thanks to kennym. maybe one day i'll finish the bow. for now that is all the pics i got. hopefully there will be more to come soon

eman614 · May 20, 2009, 07:36:00 PM

here is that last pic of the padauk forgot to put it in the last post

razorsharptokill · May 20, 2009, 09:53:00 PM

Man I really like that riser!

Dmaxshawn · May 20, 2009, 10:15:00 PM

you make it look simple that way in the glue up. My sons bow is glued that way and have been thinking of trying it that way. You have now inspired me to. Did your weight/stack formula change?

Shawn

bjhaug · May 20, 2009, 10:16:00 PM

eman, wait until you get finish on that padauk- it'll look even better!