bamboo laminate build along anyone?

[boughnut]

I am watching this build a-long closely.  The site never ceases to amaze me.  I get an idea in mind for a project and within a couple weeks someone does a build a-long or post to answer me questions.  This happens about 85% of the time.

I have a piece of DKnight bamboo and a belly split of an osage stave that I've been thinking should come together for a R/D bow, with a hickory power lam.

I've alread learned a bunch.  Tempering bamboo--I'd never thought of that.  Keep it coming.

Oh, I'll be using a belt sander, so if you can throw in any advice there, I'd appreciate it.

I will be tapering the bamboo tonight.  just watch along ask questions if needed and use the same principles as I am with my sanding block on your belt sander with will be pretty straight forward.  Tapering the bamboo in the manner I will be to me is very important for looks and durabiltiy.  It offers a good looking side profile, if the bamboo is not tapered when the profile is shaped all the suddent the bamboo looks much thicker at the tips than at the fades however we know its not but that is the way it appears and to me does not offer the best of looks.  also bamboo is very tough stuff and if not tappered and thined very thin can over power the belly.

[hedgeapple]

Thanks Boughnut,  I'll be looking forward to learning your techniques.

A few questions:
Do you strap/clap the bamboo to a form when you temper?

And a bit ahead of the process: when narrowing the bamboo at the tips, does that happen kind of naturally during the thinning process?

[boughnut]

To answer your question no I do it a bit different when working with hand tools If i was going to be working with my power tools I would tapper it as a whole and yes that would bring the edges in towards the tips kinda naturally givng you the bow profile.  but as you can see in my pics here I am going to establish the profile before tapering but only to the bamboo not to the osage or ipe.   Once out of the heat box I reflatened the belly as you can see the shavings come off and bit better due to the slightly cround belly you see in the first photo.  that is what happens when you heat temper it the amount of crown you see ont he belly side is almost equal to the amount of crown you took of the back.  If i did not do this first and tried to heat cure my glue the belly would swell then and not now seperating the edges of the bamboo from the ipe lam causing a very pore glue joint.  this is why this is only important if you are going to heat cure your glue.  You will not have that problem if you do not heat it at any point.  ok so you can see I flattened tbe belly out again thinning it a bit more as well.  it is not perfectly flat and that is ok I just wanted to get a general flat ness to it so I could trace my profile out easily.  as you can see in the last photo my rough profile is now drawn out on the belly of the bamboo for a guide line.  there are many way yout can go about working tis down to the profile that you have draw and I will demonstrate a few tonight.  also this allows you to get your bamboo to a perfectly straight profile with your tips lined up with your handle perfectly.  Ok first thing you want to do is find center of your boo 33.25 inches mark it then got 8 inches from either side of that and mark it this will give your your 16" handle and fade area.  make a perfectly straight line from center of all yoru handle marking down each limb area of the boo to establish your center using that as a guide go to the tips of each limb area and evenly to each side of this line make them roughly 5/8" wide.  draw a straight tapered line from edge of each 8" out handle marking to the tip markings this will line everything up.   And you can do what works best for you to bring the edges in to your markings to establish the profile just remember always work with files saws scraper from the back to the belly and from the handle area to the tips if your go the other directions yoru wil get some nasty splinters of the back and sides. 

[hedgeapple]

"And you can do what works best for you to bring the edges in to your markings to establish the profile just remember always work with files saws scraper from the back to the belly and from the handle area to the tips if your go the other directions yoru wil get some nasty splinters of the back and sides. "  That's a great reminder.  I would add sandpaper block also.  I caught a splitter with sandpaper on a hickory bow, Monday.  Now, the 28" working limbs are going to be 26 1/2, which will stil work for my friends 25" draw.  But I had planned to tiller it to 28, just in case she let someone else shoot the bow.

[boughnut]

ok sorry guys skiped a day or two but Have gotten some work done I now have the bamboo ready for gluing just have to work the ipe core and osage belly then shape the handle insert.  Any way you will see in these pics one good way to cut the profile of your bamboo out using a hacksaw.  all you do is about every half inch cut down to the line.  once you do that all the way down both sides you can just take your draw knife and basically split the tabs off carefully once that is done you can now use your sanding block to sand the rest of the tabs off.  I like this method over any seems to be that fastest when using hand tools.  once you have done that you can just reduce the belly as evenly and flat as possible to leave a good flat glue surface all the way down to the edges this will give your bamboo the perfect tapper.  Depending on how crowned your bamboo is this will give you between a 2 and a 4 thousands per running inch taper.  this came out right a 3.   once reduced to the edges rough up your glue surface and move on to the next part.  that is where I am at.  the bamboo looks perfect I used my file and sanding block to reduce it.  getting it this thin really is important to remove the risk of over powering your belly and to help it glue up around the handle insert.  I am supper happy how it turned out after all that hard work and not using hand tools for so long.

[vyadha]

This is pretty sweet! Thanks for posting!

[gordread]

Couple of questions:

1.  I have not been able to find a source of 'raw' bamboo in my area, but I've found some laminated bamboo.  Would this work for backing? (1/4" strips of bamboo made into a 1"x6"x8' board.)  Do you think that I'd have to heat temper this?

2.  Does Titebond III work for glueing up a bow like this?  Or do I have to have some kind of heat curred epoxy?

Thanks,

Gordon

[boughnut]

It might work but you might suffer a fail around any nodes.  the nodes just like knots on a self bow need to stay raised.  so raw is the way to go but what you have there is good for core lamination's.  I dont like using titebond glues my self although they are good.  the key with titebond is to make sure all your glue joints are flush with each other and you do not clamp to hard.  I would use a urea glue for this type of project urac, pro glue, unibond type glues.  all have worked well for me and you do not need to heat treat the glue all that does with these types of glues is cure it faster.  the only glue that really needs heat treatment is the clear epoxy's like smooth on and other similar glues.  If you do try titebond I would go with titebond 2  it is waterproof like titebond 3 and has no sawdust mixed in with it.  If I am right about that titebond 3 has saw dust mixed in that is why it is a darker color and In my opinion would not hold as well.  I could be wrong though as I dont use titebond.  I like to heat no mater what glue I use because it helps to shape the wood and will also help the bow keep more reflex. 

[gordread]

Thanks Boughnut.  I'm going to start my glue up this weekend.

Gordon