live tiller with your help

[pdccr]

Its looking good so far There is one picture where it looks to me as if there is a hinge (and only built one bow thats still in one piece lol) . Its the one

mopre wood tacken off.

Just where the tree starts, but then again after a bit of work its starting to look pretty damn good. Good on ya mate

[outbackarcher]

yeah i was kinda rushing to type it so i could do more tillering.

lewis

[outbackarcher]

here it is braced abit, about 2 inches.
i found a place to tiller to, thabk you 6 foot sliding glass door!

[Coach]

Thats not braced mate ,, braced is when the bow is at rest with the string on

[outbackarcher]

it is braced, im just pulling on it.

[outbackarcher]

here it is full brace, full draw
im so happy it survived!

[outbackarcher]

tomorrow its final sanding and weigh in (maybe some fix up tillering).
do you think i should cut a shelf, or not? centre or a bit more shallow if i am to cut a shelf.
my little sister carly and my mum took all the photos. thanks.

lewis

[greybeard]

Hi Lewis,

For your first attempt you are doing well.

Without seeing the bow ‘in the flesh’ it is a little difficult to offer detailed advice on how to correct problem areas. Although the problem appears to be more mid limb to tip there are other design areas to consider to obtain good tiller over the length of the bow.

The diagram is not to scale but should put you on the right track.

Your current riser design is rigid and creates a stress point on the limbs.

The red dotted line indicates more suitable fade outs on the riser.

Handle.jpg (12.38 KiB) Viewed 3732 times

Can you bring the bow down at Easter?

Daryl.

[outbackarcher]

oh, right cool ill go rasp that tomorrow. yep greybeard, im shooying at easter

lewis

[greybeard]

Your existing riser may be too short to be successfully modified.

Something to keep in mind when you are planing your next bow.

Daryl.

[otis.drum]

mate if i made that at fourteen i'd mount it. you should be proud.

keep taking it slow on the tips and the fade out area.

good luck, i hope it shoots. and if it doesn't, make another!

[outbackarcher]

greybeard,
yeah the riser is 9" and the handle area is 5".

otis,
i would be working on another by next week if i had more spotted gum.
i managed to get one bow out of dfour staves. auctully, i have a short bow that mite make it.

lewis

[pdccr]

Its turning out real well, hope she makes it through the final stages.

[Glenn]

Lewis, the main reason you are getting hinges in your mid limb area is becaues you are working on the mid limb and outer limbs first. Next time do it in reverse, work on making the limbs bend coming off the riser and out to the mid limb first and once they are starting to bend and only then work on the outer limbs towards the tips. This will give you more efficent limbs.
The limbs should bend the most coming off the riser and bend all the way to the limb tips but you want them to bend gradually less all the way to the tips. The limb tips could even be made stiff depending on you bows length, if too much of the outer limbs are made stiff this will place more stress on the rest of the limb and induce string follow...Glenn...

[matt_d]

It's looking much better now Lewis.. You're doing really well for your first bow!
You've got some excellent advice here that hopefully you can apply to your next one to make it even better. Just remember.. BE PATIENT! Try to start with a long string and only work on bending the limbs a couple of inches at a time. If it doesn't look right, stop, fix it first and then keep going. You should only take the bow to full draw once the tiller is perfect.
Matt

[outbackarcher]

glenn,
so the limbs gradually do less work as they go towards the tips ok. ill do that once i get more wood.

matt_d
ok so i if i see a hinge or something, i dont keep on pulling, i make the tiller perfect, then move on.

lewis

[outbackarcher]

ok, i have som pics of me shooting it and the handle. i have cut a shelf on it but all the way to the centre.
and it only has 15mm of set and no hand shock

[Stickbow Hunter]

Good on ya mate, I hope she shoots well for ya.

Jeff

[Dennis La Varenne]

Lewis,

Glenn, Matt and Kimall have pretty much got it right with your tillering effort. The last pic is showing improvement. My only suggestion at this stage of tillering would be, perhaps, to get the outer limb bending more before you go to the inner limb. Glenn's advice is sound when starting from scratch.

Daryl has a good point about handle rigidity and he will help you a lot when you see him next.

Get your tiller going first though. You won't regret it.

Dennis La Varenne

[pdccr]

Its lookin good mate

[outbackarcher]

thanks all its going well and all it needs is the fine tillering and sanding and a finish.
BTW any one know a nice cheap finish to use?

lewis

[Hilly]

You done well keep up the good work

[TomMcDonald]

thanks all its going well and all it needs is the fine tillering and sanding and a finish.
BTW any one know a nice cheap finish to use?

lewis

I used Feast Watson Spar Marine.
It was 20 bucks from Bunnings and did the trick. More knowledgeable guys may have something better,.

[ichiban]

for a finish, find a fair bit of dry tree sap, grind it up as fine as you can then in a bottle you can close cover the sap with metho and alow it to mix for 24-48 hours, mix the solution every few hours after that strain the solution through a rag into a clean bottle and apply coats of this soultion i have found that to get a strong durable finish many coats are needed say 15. but being metho based it drys very quickly. and just reapply a few coats each year.
i find this to be a good home made finish esspesialy when you have cut the tree, seasoned the stave and made the bow, seems like cheating when u use a store bought finish on that kind of bow (to me anyway).

good work,
Dave

[outbackarcher]

tomalophicon,
sounds good mate.

ichiban,
i know just the place to get sap, a tree was once my back drop
theres about 20 holes in it and some are just oozing sap.

ok i have bad news and good news.
bad news first, when i was shooting it on thursday, i was starting to feel the riser pop of
so i unstrung the bow, checked out what was happening and i pulled the riser off without much effort. guess the glue i used couldn take it, just used some super strong wood glue that was lying around the shed.

good news, i have more wood and i stole more wood from the scrap box and made two matching risers. now im going to make two matching bows one for me and one for dad out of spotty.

lewis

[pdccr]

Good on ya mate, what glue did you use for the riser first up?

[outbackarcher]

i think it was weld - bond or something.

lewis

[pdccr]

does tightbond sound right?

[outbackarcher]

no it isnt titebond, i just got some though, titebond 3

lewis

[pdccr]

Can you post some picks of the new riser?