Another attempt at a laminate longbow

[Beazley hunter]

Hi y'all. I'm going to attempt to build another bow. My last attempt at a laminate longbow was with self cut hickory laminates, poor design and very little knowledge. Needless to say, it failed. Since then I've done some more reading and research on designs and different woods. I've come up with a design and will be ordering the laminates this time. The bow will be a 68" nock to nock longbow with a slight reflex reflex design. I will be using the following materials in order from back to belly:

0.050" clear UL Bo Tuff
0.060" Bocote
0.130" Action Boo (0.002" taper)
Wenge riser
0.060" Action Boo
0.060" Bocote
0.050" clear UL Bo Tuff
Smooth On epoxy and hot box for every glue line

I'll be using 1/8" wenge tip and riser overlays with a 1/16" strip of action boo underneath. I'm thinking draw weight will be around 70 lbs at 30" draw. My question is, will this combination of materials shoot fast and smooth and will the different woods look good together? I haven't ordered anything yet, but I will be posting progress once I get started. Thanks for reading.

[Wolftrail]

Not sure about that combo but I'm sure others will chime in.
70 lbs        whoa I would of had a hard time pulling that in my prime, and I kept up with guys 30-40- pounds heavier than me.

[Beazley hunter]

Is 70 lbs overkill? I plan to hunt elk with it.

[Crittergetter]

I would Reduce your veneer ( bocote) thickness to .025-.030, and I'd reduce the glass to .04  ( at least on the back) and make up the difference in the boo if you still want that heavy of a bow.  70 is pretty heavy for your average shooter

[Crittergetter]

Also be sure to reinforce your tips with some g10 or phenolic

[Beazley hunter]

Ok how does this sound? (Back to belly)

UL Bo Tuff 0.040
Bocote 0.030
Action Boo parallel 0.070
Action Boo 0.002 taper 0.130
Riser
Action Boo parallel 0.060
Bocote 0.030
UL Bo Tuff 0.040

This reduces my overall thickness to 0.4" which should reduce draw weight to 60-65 lbs if I'm correct.

[Beazley hunter]

How many laminates are too many? Seems like the more glue you use in your stack, the more it will take away from the true action of the wood.

[kennym]

70 isn't  overkill if you can make it full draw when the slobbering bull is screaming at you. I would make sure you can draw 70 effortlessly before building or hunting with one.

The bow design will dictate how much weight you achieve with .400  ,  got any pics of form?

Good luck and good hunting! Elk are majestic , but I haven't  gotten in position to loose an arrow yet.

[kennym]

And there is a balance between too many lams and not enough , IMO . I use 4 wood lams in my bows, too few and natural weakness in wood can cause probs and too many will add weight from glue lines.

[jsweka]

Originally posted by kennym:


The bow design will dictate how much weight you achieve with .400  ,  got any pics of form?

Kenny is a wise man.  I was thinking the same thing as I read down through this thread.

You never really know what your final draw weight will be off a r/d form until you build that first one.  Once you build that first one and know the final draw weight of it, you can then adjust stack thickness, while keeping everything else the same, to hit a desired draw weight.

[Beazley hunter]

[Beazley hunter]

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[kennym]

This is a wild guess but I think you will be close.

You will have to build one and make adjustments from there. Or I do anyway! LOL

[Beazley hunter]

I'm going to take your advice and build a prototype first. I'm having troubles finding inexpensive laminates though. Any idea where I can find some cheaper than $20 a laminate? Thanks for all the help and advice y'all.

[monterey]

KennyM has excellent pricing on anything you need to build that bow.  I too think you will be close to 70#.  If you are going to stay with that 5/8" tip width, you might want to go to a total taper of .003.

[Beazley hunter]

Holy smokes! I didn't see his website. Right on I'll check it out. Thanks

[Beazley hunter]

Kenny, if I'm trying to use bocote veneers, should I use two thick (.130") actin boo laminates (one or both of them tapered) and two thin (.030") Bocote laminates plus the glass (.040") on the back and belly?

[Beazley hunter]

A continuation of the last post; Or do you not count the veneer as one of the four laminates you use?

[kennym]

Yes, count the veneer as one of the 4, and I would go thin on the bocote. Make sure your riser fits form (dry run) with the laminates under it. In the middle of glue up is a bad time to find that it doesn't fit to suit you! LOL

[KenH]

For a really cheap prototype, I use ordinary junk pine lams ripped out of a 2x6 between cheap black glass.  That will tell you if your jig works properly and your stack calculations are good.