Tiller help please

[mikekeswick]

Golden rule - never pull it further than you need to see a mistake!!!!

[sleek]

Quit scraping that right limb, and heat treat the left one. It will force the right one to bend more. Then slowly ( as noted on your bow above the tree ) remove maybe 15 scrapes at a time taking pics often. You will get it.

[adb]

I wouldn't recommend heat treating just one limb. I don't think that is the way to correct this problem. You need to remove wood from the right limb until it matches the left.

[PEARL DRUMS]

I wouldn't recommend heat treating just one limb. I don't think that is the way to correct this problem. You need to remove wood from the right limb until it matches the left.

No question about it. Heat treating one limb WILL come back and bite you a 1000 shots later.

[adb]

Your bow is a good example of uneven tiller. It will have a shorter life, it will have increased handshock due to the uneven tiller, and it will not balance well in your hand.

Fixing it is not hard. You only have to make both limbs bend the same. You have to match the limbs to the weaker one now. You should try and keep your tiller even throughout the process, and stop pulling the limbs further until you do. What will happen now is... you'll lose draw weight by having to even your tiller.

[BowEd]

The heat treat road is not the road I'd take.My saddle[where handle sits] on my tillering tree is slanted too.Could fix it but just put a spacer of some kind to even things up.The ending procedure of your bow was explained to a tee by Camaroo.But even still the way this bow sits there you can see the right limb is stiffer.Just balance it and be done with it.Use a tillering gizmo if you got to.

[dirthas]

Thanks for all the input everyone... this is actually a bow that Ink is helping me make and since the first picture was posted I've taken some the the advice above and worked on the right limb. I've taken another picture with the "progress", and now that I'm looking at it on a computer, it seems to me that I need to just keep slowly working that right limb. Here it is below: (link: http://imgur.com/LrGrVI1 if the pic embed doesn't work)



Another thing that has developed is that when unbraced, the left limb reflexes a bit from the plane of the back of the handle while the lower limb is in the same place. It makes it look as it the limbs have taken uneven set and I believe it is a part of the problem with the tiller. Any ideas as to how this can happen?

[Cameroo]

I'm not sure if I understand exactly which limb is doing what, but one limb will definitely take on more set if it is doing the majority of the work.  From the pic you just posted, you can clearly see that the left limb is bending much more than the right.  This should have been dealt with before even attempting to draw the bow as far as it is in that picture.

As Mike stated above - Never draw a bow back farther than what is required to see a problem.  Also never pull harder than your intended final draw weight.

These are two mantras that should be burned into any bowyer's mind.

Keep scraping that right limb to get it bending.  You are going to lose draw weight, but at this point just consider it a lesson for your next one Learning how to evenly tiller a bow is much more important than making weight!

[4dog]

Thats the longest 8hr bow build i have ever seen!!  You been hangin with Jason way too much.  Lol   

[SLIMBOB]

adb gave you some well heeded advice above.  Your tiller at this stage should be much closer than you have it.  It's fixable.  In the future, I would recommend getting a string on it at low brace, 2-3 inches.  Straighten out the tiller.  Pull it a few inches, check and straighten out the tiller.  Pull it a few inches farther, check and fix the tiller.  You may only be at 7-8 inches or so at this point, but your tiller will be very close.  Go to full brace when you can, pull it a few inches, check and fix the tiller.  Continue to repeat in small measures until she's done.  In addition to avoiding the tiller problems you have now at full draw (way late in the game) you will also eliminate the concern of losing a lot of poundage and coming in under weight as you correct the problems.  Something your fighting now.

[H Rhodes]

Lots of good advice has been offered.  The only thing I would add is that, in the future, employ the little four inch block or tillering gizmo along the belly and do more looking and checking and less pulling and scraping.  It's easy to get in a hurry and mess up a good thing.  I am guilty of getting in the habit of mindless scraping and rasping.  Lately, I tiller by only scraping where I have marked when I see a problem area on a limb.  In reducing weight on a bow that is pulling evenly already - I try to match the number of scrapes, strokes with the rasp, or passes down the belt sander for each limb.  Good luck with your bow.