Homemade takedown system?

[alex b]

Wanting to build a take down but the sleeves are a little pricey. Is there a way to make a takedown from things bought at a hardware store?

thanks
alex

[No-sage]

A piece of metal conduit flattened into an oval would work.

You could get a piece off a jobsite for free.

[William F. Adams]

I've seen one build-along using rawhide to make a take-down sleeve:

http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/reply/303271/t/Re-Raw-Hide-Scarf-tube-take-down-red-oak-bow.html

William

[recurvericky]

Check this link out. Several bowyers including Big Jim use this system. Black Widow does also. There is an article in Tradworld on this type of system.

http://www.piratesofarchery.net/bb/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=8014

[KyleAllen]

recurvericky, that is an awesome link man! Love learning something new.

[John Scifres]

I remember when I first saw the fiberglass sleeve wondering about its durability.  Has anyone had one of these for a while?

[Pat B]

I remember that article in PA years ago.  
  Rusty Crane and Mike Westvang had another article in PA where they made a take down sleeve from 1 1/4" rigid electrical metal conduit. You can get scraps of this from the trash pile behind an electrical contractors shop for free.
Contact Mike and see if he still has that info.

[hova]

john : i used to do fiberglass a lot for large things (and very heavy things). as long as you do 2 or more layers , its extremely stiff. i always used S type fiberglass , as thin as i could find it. if you cut away 1/8" whee the fg was going , with regular stuff you could probably get 3 or 4 layers. the thin stuff closer to 6 or 7 layers , but youre still shaping the outer one or two layers.

as long as you mix the resin and catalyst well (with a weighed ratio , not volume measured) , it dries rock hard.

theres a lot of vid's on youtube about fiberglassing speaker boxes , which was part of what i used to do. there used to be one where the guy had just gotten to the fleece stage , and he kinda half-a$$ed it , by using spray foam , but anyways , once the fleece and resin haredened , he could stand on it.

put it this way , when i wrecked my golf , the only thing that wasnt damaged , was my speaker box , and it was only 3 layers of regular fg.


very very strong stuff. ill be whipping one of these out as soon as i get something worth cutting in half...on  purpose...lol..

edit: i dont know how much of a difference it makes once its all slid together , but i would probably make the top limb the removable one . if theres a reason not to , please let me know.
-hov

[Pat B]

I think making the bottom limb removable so no moisture gets down inside the takedown sleeve if cought in a rain.

[hova]

that makes sense. i was just thinking that once unstrun , it might just come apart. i would imagine a nice tight fit and a little turtle wax would give it some hold...

-hov