Thanks again, gents. Any feedback is appreciated whether it be positive or constructive.
Jeff W, I don't know about a build-along. I'm pretty lazy and disorganized when it comes to keeping records and taking pics. I usually have a few projects on the go at once and have a hard enough time staying focused as it is
n2Jeff, It wouldn't hurt to pick up a box
There really isn't much to building with the stuff. How heavy or light you go depends on the wood you're backing with it and the cross-section. 1/8 - maybe a little thicker - is about right for D-sections made from Cherry, Ash, hickory etc. 3/16 - 1/4 seems to work well with woods like Canary, Tigerwood or Padauk. I've used it to back lots of my R/Ds as well, but it's pretty finicky on short limbs if the draw goes over 45#. It tears if it's too light and overwhelms as it approaches 50% of the limb's thickness.
As a tempered belly lam, it has incredible memory as long as you leave a little char and get full penetration with the heat. Working fast and hot seems to be the ticket, but not too hot lest you burn up the glue holding the strips together. I use a hotplate with the piece worked about an inch away from the element. Side-to-side motions gives an even heat to the section you're working. Once it starts to smoke it's time to move to the next section. It does tend to go concave toward the heat source when it's tempered on a form. I try to balance penetration with exposure time to minimize that.
I've found the Trillium brand to be the best/most consistant in terms of lam-orientation, quality of glue used to bond the lams, and thickness of the top layer which is always between 1/4 and 5/16. The middle and bottom layers are almost useless so there's a bit of waste. Trillium packs each box with 2, 3, 4, and 6 foot lengths...perfect.
As to working it, it doesn't like scrapers. Scraping the back risks chunking out nodes and it's quite delicate after it's been tempered. Light pressure isn't bad though. It'll also give up a lot of weight real fast as a belly lam. For stock removal I use a piece of 2x4 with 3x21 sanding belts slipped onto it for most of the removal. Cut a short piece slightly over-sized and radius the edges on the ends until the belt slips onto it but still snug enough that it won't spin on the block. I pre-taper the belly lams before tempering and start with a little more than 50% of the limbs' thickness so that by the time the char is blending with the inner fibers it's properly proportioned, bending nicely and hitting weight early.
The strips are usually oriented on edge but you gotta watch out for odd orientations like this; lll-lll. Usually not a problem if the odd one is in the middle of the lam but sometimes it will give trouble if it's on the outside of a limb that takes a sudden taper.
Anyway, I hope some of the info is useful. It might save you a bunch of grief leastwise.
Thanks again, every one for your comments. Much appreciated,
Bruce
