r/d layout opinions...thanks

[rogers]

Iv been building recurves for awhile now but recently fell in love with longbows, man their quiet. lol  

I was gonna start with the binghams plan but I already have all the stuff to build it so I aint spending the money.  I designed my own, I just took a few things I liked from differt bows and put them together.  Its nothing radical just a mild r/d longbow with a .5 inch deflex and 1 inch reflex, the bow is 62" and 64" off this form.  I am going to use tip wedges to milk performance and cause I have a longer draw, 30.5" with most longbow risers iv played with.

What Id like opinions on is should I use a power lam from the start or should I build one and see how she bends.  As of right now I have a 16" riser, end of fade to the other.  Im probably going to use a total limb taper of .003.  I was thinkin of putting a power lam in to give it a feel of a 20" to 22" riser.  I have no experience with longbows so what do ya'll advise.

I shoot 3 under so I should tiller this with everything even just the same with recurves, right?  Also if you have a round about guess as to what stack thickness I should start with that might get me somewhere near the 45 to 50# range at 28" for a 62" mild r/d with a 16" riser would be very apprieciated!  
Thanks guys and God Bless, Caleb

[mater]

I would not with your long draw. I also would not use that much taper with your draw. The wedges in the tips are going to take away from the working limb length already.  Mark

[kennym]

Rarely does my first shot at a design suit me!LOL

My 64" has a little more d/r than you describe, I'm using .003 total taper in it,it bends very nicely.   I added a glass p-lam on the belly of one finished bow,.050 to 0 in 11" (about 3" past fades on 18" riser) It still bent well,and added about 2-3 fps. I don't remember drawing it to 31",but I'm sure I did.

My 58" with p-lam and t-wedge will go 29" easily.

Here is brace and drawn to 28"

[JamesV]

I just finished a R/D longbow 62 NTN that came in at 50# @28. 17" riser, total stack .385. I used IPE for the core tapered .004 per inch. Shoots great, fast and quiet as a whisper.

[kennym]

James, how wide at the fades with .004 T ? Just curious....

[JamesV]

Kenny,

1 1/8 at the fades out to 12" then taper to 3/8 at the tips. This bow is very similar to the pig-sticker you posted a while back. This is my first bow off the new form.

[rogers]

my thoughts right now are that after finish sanding the limb profile will be about 1 1/8 a few inches past the fades tapering straight down to 3/8 at the tips.  The taper will start about 13" from center or so once blended in.  I figured .002" would not be enough taper since the limbs will be narrower than the 1.5" standard width and would not have as much taper width wise as a 1.5" bow so I would need to use more thickness taper to compensate for the skinner limbs, but I could easily be wrong. Does .003" taper sound right to ya'll or should I lean toward a .004" taper.

Im no expert but the .003 taper just might be thick enough comin out of the fades to help push alot of the work load on out to the inner 3rd of the limb.  I reckon right now it looks like im just gonna play it safe and just put tip wedges in then build it and see how well she bends.

After all if I got a perfect bow the first time it would be no fun. I dont know what I love more,  shooting my bows or fiddlin with the design tryin to make it perfect, purely addictive lol.

Kenny you got an order comin as soon as I get thick taper rate figured out.

[Swissbow]

I think it's difficult to say how much taper you can or should use, because it depends a lot of the profile of the bow. Right now I'm building a bow with a mild d/r-profile that has a total taper of 0.005 and it's 64" long. I wanted a bow that has now visible reflex when strung, with kind of an traditional appeal. When I strung it the first time I was afraid that those tiny limbs would develope a hinge or only bend at the tips. But to my surprise there was no visible difference to the bows with 0.004 or even 0.003 taper and the limbs still show some reflex. Fortunately I had a couple pounds to loose so I could sand the back of the glass and make them bend a bit more.

So I guess you have to build it to find out if it works or not.

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Andy