Bamboo-lemonwood-bamboo deflex reflex
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 8:37 pm
Evening all,
Glued up a little experiment today... been toying with the idea of doing a bamboo back and belly bow for a while and then decided to make a deflex reflex as well because I've never tried making one.. SO MANY LESSONS LEARNED ALREADY!! A few include:
Lesson 1, Need to make the fades longer next time and finer curves so the bamboo belly conforms to them easier...
Lesson 2, I need LOTS more clamps for these bows
Lesson 3, you use a heap of glue on these bows
The bow will be 66"ntn when completed and the construction method was as follows:
1. Cut a 2mm thick lemonwood core lam and mark out the profile of the bow
2. Cut out the profile of the bow on the outside of the lines
3. Flatten bamboo for back and belly laminations
4. Transfer profile to back and belly laminations and cut them out, again on the outside of the lines
5. Taper the bamboo with the profile to make almost a sharp edge around the outside (ensuring the tips taper out enough to get them bending I HOPE!!)
6. Quickly design and cut out a riser block (then find a issue mentioned above and try to fix it on the fly )
7. mix and apply glue to the backing lam then add the core lam and then apply glue to it.
8. apply glue to the riser block and put it in place
9. Apply glue to the belly lam and then set it in place on the riser block. Tape the centre of the bow so the lams cant slip and also tape the tips. cling wrap the lot so the bands wont stick.
Heres where things got interesting
10. Discover that the "remedied" curves on the riser block are still too sharp (I think) and slightly freak out because everything has glue on it now and cant be re shaped.
11. Decide to persevere and strap up the limbs to the problem area and then battle with clamps trying to get the bamboo to neatly wrap around the curves on the belly side.
12. get the belly clamped almost there at the fade curves and decide that's as good as i'll get it and then discover I cant use the form method I wanted to because of the clamps being in the way...
13. add more strap to the limbs and then use the strap tension to hold the reflex curves (worked surprisingly well!! )
14. leave the bow to do a gym session
15. mid gym session have an idea to remove the clamps by strapping right beside them to hold the lams close then remove the clamps and bind over where the clamps were.
16. Put clamps back on a crank them as tight as I possibly could and I think I got the bamboo in place (i'll know tomorrow when it all comes back off)
17. quickly cut some blocks of timber to use as the original form design and put them in place...
Here's the end result!!
more to come!
Col
Glued up a little experiment today... been toying with the idea of doing a bamboo back and belly bow for a while and then decided to make a deflex reflex as well because I've never tried making one.. SO MANY LESSONS LEARNED ALREADY!! A few include:
Lesson 1, Need to make the fades longer next time and finer curves so the bamboo belly conforms to them easier...
Lesson 2, I need LOTS more clamps for these bows
Lesson 3, you use a heap of glue on these bows
The bow will be 66"ntn when completed and the construction method was as follows:
1. Cut a 2mm thick lemonwood core lam and mark out the profile of the bow
2. Cut out the profile of the bow on the outside of the lines
3. Flatten bamboo for back and belly laminations
4. Transfer profile to back and belly laminations and cut them out, again on the outside of the lines
5. Taper the bamboo with the profile to make almost a sharp edge around the outside (ensuring the tips taper out enough to get them bending I HOPE!!)
6. Quickly design and cut out a riser block (then find a issue mentioned above and try to fix it on the fly )
7. mix and apply glue to the backing lam then add the core lam and then apply glue to it.
8. apply glue to the riser block and put it in place
9. Apply glue to the belly lam and then set it in place on the riser block. Tape the centre of the bow so the lams cant slip and also tape the tips. cling wrap the lot so the bands wont stick.
Heres where things got interesting
10. Discover that the "remedied" curves on the riser block are still too sharp (I think) and slightly freak out because everything has glue on it now and cant be re shaped.
11. Decide to persevere and strap up the limbs to the problem area and then battle with clamps trying to get the bamboo to neatly wrap around the curves on the belly side.
12. get the belly clamped almost there at the fade curves and decide that's as good as i'll get it and then discover I cant use the form method I wanted to because of the clamps being in the way...
13. add more strap to the limbs and then use the strap tension to hold the reflex curves (worked surprisingly well!! )
14. leave the bow to do a gym session
15. mid gym session have an idea to remove the clamps by strapping right beside them to hold the lams close then remove the clamps and bind over where the clamps were.
16. Put clamps back on a crank them as tight as I possibly could and I think I got the bamboo in place (i'll know tomorrow when it all comes back off)
17. quickly cut some blocks of timber to use as the original form design and put them in place...
Here's the end result!!
more to come!
Col