Takedown Project Part III

[looseplucker]

OK - got the limbs etc rebuilt and stuff. Put a string on to look at limb strength. The overbuilt upper limb (premature senior moment) was way stronger. Did some scraping and things - and comparing with the calipers. Anyhow, here are some pics which includes the bow with a 6" brace or so. The upper limb still looks a bit stiff - when I measure string distance from the belly either side of the handle the upper limb is just on 1/4" shorter - so within the specs according the The Good Book.

Anyhow - I've had it out to about a 10" draw and its on about 25# or so. I want it at about 45# @ 26.5.

Length is 59.5ntn

Comments/suggestions welcome

[pdccr]

Mate that thing is looking bloody nice, i must say its certainly come along way. Well done

[looseplucker]

Thanks mate.

Its been a haul - and had all the usual ingredients

Blood (I cut myself on the bandsaw),
Sweat (hot in the garage),
Tears (it hurt when I cut myself and nearly cried when the lower limb snapped) and
Blasphemy (when I broke the lower limb I used every word I knew, but in novel combinations)

A little more work tonight - but I am honestly nervous about going further with the tillering - Actually, this is where I get into strife. I want it to pull 45@26 or so - but how to do that - I mean I have pulled it out to 10 or so inches of draw and its about 25# or so (my scales are not the best) - and am just plain bloody nervous about pulling it any further.

[pdccr]

After my first bow breaking i started getting that aswell. But more so if you spend a lot of time on it, as you have. I think you just have to take it slowly, maybe do what lewis did and do a bit of live tillering to get some more advice. Just some food for thought.

[Steven J]

Tiller looks good. The only problem I see is that you are holding it back to front

Don't be nervous about taking it further. Better a broken bow than one sitting around waiting to be finished.

Steve

[longbow steve]

Hi John, Looking pretty good, I suppose you can treat it as a self bow and slowly creep up on full draw while checking the tiller and adjusting where you need to. So your pretty much looking at a high 50lb bow at the moment, it doesnt take much to get them down when working the belly and you could always trapezoid the limb slightly to lose weight without compromising stability.
Steve

[Gringa Bows]

looks very nice mate,hope its a shooter for you.................................Rod

[looseplucker]

Thanks Chaps

If you hear a loud bang coming from the direction of Canberra, with lots of swearing followed by a bandsaw, that will be me.

Alternately you may hear a loud "Yeeeeehaaaaaa" which means the news is good.

I like the idea of creeping up on the tiller - I presume that is the process of inching it out on the tiller stick, making the adjustments as one goes, but not going over the intended draw weight?

My only issue is that I am leery of checking where 45# of draw is at on this bow, as I don't want to snap a limb again.

[longbow steve]

Hey John, Yeah dont go to much over intended draw weight, from what you have told us I guestimate 45# to be around 20"?
Keep us updated Steve

[pdccr]

I would just see how it goes, make sure to post some pics of the tillering so i can admire it.

[ichiban]

yeah as long as the limbs are bendin evenly and all that blah it shouldnt snap....and if it dose well you work out why and how to stop it from snaping next time.
you learn more from a broken bow than a working one.

[looseplucker]

Colleagues.

There was no snapping or blasphemy - or even a yeeeehaaa!

But - I got the stiffness out of the upper limb - the lower limb need a corrective tiller at that point - and took the thing out to 15" draw and it was pulling about 25# at that point. I had braced it at 5.5".

Pictures 001.jpg (37.21 KiB) Viewed 2542 times

Kept working it and got it to 18" of draw and the tiller was behaving beautifully. I wanted it at 20" which is where I would send a few arrows through it - and then re-check the tiller.

Had a couple of confusing moments as I made a string for the bow - but it kept stretching and lowering the brace height (its linen - which stretches a bit).

Anyhow, I got the bow out to 20" and it is pulling 40# or just a tad over. I breathed a long sigh of relief.

Pictures 002.jpg (49.4 KiB) Viewed 2541 times

Pictures 003.jpg (50.26 KiB) Viewed 2539 times

The major issue I had essentially, was a huge mental block about taking it further - snapped too many at this point.

Here are the photos along with some of the string I made from single strand yarn that went into 6x7strand subplies, 3 plies and then the final string.

Pictures 006.jpg (48.2 KiB) Viewed 2540 times

Pictures 008.jpg (48.38 KiB) Viewed 2538 times

Pictures 009.jpg (46.38 KiB) Viewed 2536 times

[longbow steve]

Looks very nice John, Looks like you will get the desired draw weight aswell. Keep it up and stop biting your nails

[looseplucker]

But its stressful Steve!!!

[longbow steve]

Think of it as training for your hunt.

[ichiban]

hehe looking good so far fingers crossed.

[pdccr]

Looking good mate.

[Gringa Bows]

looks like its a goer.....................Rod