Another longbow build-a-long

[Apex Predator]

Here is one I started on another site.  I figured since I have the time, I might as well take you folks along with me as well.

This one was originally slated to get an osage riser and eastern red cedar lams.  I found this piece of canary wood and bought it for risers.  Lea said "perfect" when I ran the idea by her.  It won't get as dark as osage over time, but has some pretty darker streaks.  It's the piece on the left.



I decided to laminate a couple of red phenolic accents in for strength.  Here is the block with some layout lines, and the pieces laid out.







I finished and shipped another yesterday, so now I'm full time on this one.  Here is the glued up riser blank.

[Apex Predator]

I cut the back contour on my riser and put it on my form to check for fit, and noticed a problem.  The aluminum strip glued to the top of my form had lifted in the middle.  There was a 1/8" gap!  I had to pull the whole thing off and glue it back down again.  This time I used CA gel.  Here is the strip setting up.



Here I am checking the fit.  After getting my lams prepared, I will try this fit again to fine tune it.  I'm using four .001 per inch tapers, and will cause the riser to fit differently.



Here are all the parts layed out.  The cedar is awesome!  I ordered this without knots for this design, but there is good color contrast.  They will get much darker under glass.



I use this jig to make matching bevels on my 36" lams to join them in the middle.



This is a bad photo, but shows both lams after sanding.  If the angle is correct, they will match perfectly when flipping one over.  I glue them together with CA gel, and then sand the joint smooth.



Here is one of the eastern red cedar lams wetted with alcohol to show a little better what it will look like under glass.



Good stuff!

[Apex Predator]

Alright, I have scrapped that other "new" camera.  My old one takes much better photos!  

I'll start by showing some better, but not good, photos of the lam joint.  The tighter the better.  I've seen a lot of bows with thick joints, or even seperations here, and I can't stand it.





Next step is to cut out the riser fades on the bandsaw, and sand them until they are see-through thin at the ends.  I use an aluminum faced piece of wood which is cut to the same back profile as my riser.  This backing piece enables me to sand the fadeouts really thin on my spindle sander.  That canary wood is pretty stuff, and you can see it when I can catch it right in a photo!





All the lams have to be sanded lightly on the edges.  See these splinters?  They will cause problems if you don't knock them off.  They will get all in the epoxy and cause thick glue lines, and worse.



There is a lot of work involved in building a bow, even before gluing up the bow blank.  My shop is not heated, so I have to wait for a day where my shop is approaching 70 degrees or buy a space heater before glue-up.  Tomorrow the weather should be good.

Stay tuned!

[SteveD]

Another beauty Marty. Great wood combo

[Trux Turning]

Looking forward to this one- Can't wait to see how those wood combos come out together-

[AkDan]

man I gotta work the next three days lol.....great stuff!!!

[dutchwarbow]

that cedar is soooo pretty!!! grawww!!  :D

very clean work marty, as always!

Nick

[jsweka]

That's a good tip - sanding the edges of the lams.  Something I never thought about before, but will definitely do in my next bow.

Thanks,

John

[Russell S.]

looks great marty,  i like how your bows always look natural.  you have an eye for wood combination.

[kennym]

Gonna be sweet, Marty!      

[bjansen]

Precision craftsmanship as always.  Looks great Marty!

[White Oak]

Love these Marty. Pick something new up every time.  

[DEATHMASTER]

Love your build alongs. You make it look so easy.
Keep it coming.
Tim
DEATHMASTER

[Dano]

Awesome work Marty, I got the popcorn a cookin.

[Bruce Martin]

Not familiar with canary wood but what I see looks awesome. Been a wood/bamboo bow builder but watching these awesome glass backed bow build-alongs is inspiring. May cost me in the future! Thanks for the learning experience, you and others will save a guy like me a lot of headaches.

[TNstickn]

Awesome woods there!!!  

[Apex Predator]

I forgot to show you guys my workbench earlier.  Those lines are what I use to align the two 36" lams when gluing them into a 72" lam.  The blue tape is holding down some plastic wrap so that I don't super glue my lams to the work bench.



Now it's time to cut the lams down to size so they will fit my form.  This form will build a bow 60-64" so the lams all have to be trimmed down.  I start by reading the max length off the side of my form, and then cut the glass.  I use the glass as a template for the wood lams.  The full length glass is marked in the center to use for aligning up on the glue joint on the wood.



I use a dremel to cut off glass and wood lams.  It works very well on the glass, and not quite as well on the wood.  



Here are the power lams.  I started with two .060 parallel hickory lams cut 12" long.  I tape them to this aluminum faced, square cut, 1.5" piece of stock.  I then taper by eye the last 6" of each piece.  I want them to disapear on the ends!

[Apex Predator]

Here we are checking the riser fit on top of the lams it will be on top of in the stack.  There is a little light showing in two spots.  I made it right with some tape.  



Here is everything layed out, including the pressure strips.  Notice the power lams running up the fade ramps.  They will extend four inches past the riser.



Here is a close up of my pressure strip.  Rubber on the bottom, aluminum in the middle, and a piece of pvc lattice on top.



Here is a fit test of the power lam.  See how it fades to nothing, with no gap.  It's the lam just beneath the top cedar lam.



Here is a check of the riser fade ramps.  After wrapping it well with my rubber clamping strips, there will be no gaps.  It's hard to apply enough pressure with one hand, while stooping down and taking a photo with the other.  





With a little luck, I'll lay this one up tonight!

[buckhuck]

Looks great so far!

[Furtaker]

Looking good Marty.