Ozbow

hi all
I am new to this forum so will start by saying hello to you all my name is andrew and I am from the central coast of nsw. I am look at build a bamboo backed bow and wanted to ask if when preparing the bamboo i should run it through the thickness-er till all pith is removed and it is flat ?. i have purchased some techniglue and am on the lookout for some belly timber any advice is much appreciated
cheers
Andy

Hi andrew welcome to the forums

I can't really offer to much advice on preparing bamboo for a backing other than the method I have used. I simply split the bamboo (in halves or quarters depending on the diameter) then grind down the 'edges' with an angle grinder and sanding disc & finish flattening it with a hand held belt sander. You'll have to speak to some of the more experienced gentleman here as to how they go about it. Hope this helped out a bit

Welcome to Ozbow Andrew. If you do a search of the forums you should see some build-a-longs that should help. I think you will find that a thicknesser may not work the best as it may tend to tear the bamboo and also because of the varying thickness of the bamboo at nodes etc. I think sanding would be a better option.

Jeff

Hi Andy, welcome to Ozbow.

Split or saw your bamboo pole into suitable widths and start flattening the inner surface with whatever suitable tools you have available i.e. belt sander, electric planer, spoke shave etc.

Mark the limb plan [slightly oversize] on the bamboo and cut to shape. Draw marks across the back of the bamboo at six inch intervals and these will be used as checkpoints to control the thickness and taper.

Continue flattening the inner surface until the edges of the bamboo is about 1/ 16” thick. Make sure the finished surface is flat or slightly concaved.

The following links are to some bamboo backed bows.

http://www.ozbow.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=14522
http://www.ozbow.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=13037
http://www.ozbow.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14895

Daryl.

Morning Daryl.

greybeard wrote:Hi Andy, welcome to Ozbow.

Split or saw your bamboo pole ......

Thanks for that post. It saved me the trouble to find them and I have directed a few interested people in the the direction of your post.

You can mill the bulk of the boo down with an electric handplane, then change to a sharp block plane. Very precise results but requires a very sharp plane blade, re sharpening.
If you choose planing you will need a long strip of rubber to lie flat on the bench. This allows the crown of the boo to bed down and won't rock side to side whilst you plane.
You can also use a jointer to flatten and remove the bulk of the pith, just don't feed it like you would feed a long bit of timber, as the tip of the boo can bend into the cutter head and get chewed up. Instead carefully lower the boo at the halfway point, this will give you plenty of material on the outfeed table to avoid the boo getting chewed up. Flip the piece around and repeat for the other half. Do this as many times as necessary, then change to handplane or sander.

Many guys use stationary sanders which look like an upside down belt sander.
Dean Torges Dvd on bamboo backed bows is an excellent start for anyone wanting to make a boo backed bow.

Hamish.