Short, skinny, Hickory, Osage, Ipe tri-lam reflex/deflex FAILED!!

[Tommytinker]

Ok... So I'm mid 'experiment' with this bow. It's made with off cuts which were a byproduct of other bows. It's a reflex/deflex style bow, 50" tip to tip, 1" at the handle, tapering to 1/4" at the tips, semi bendy handle, semi working recurve with the last 4" static.

Osage core heated into deflex at the handle and tips heated into recurve, and tillered, then the whole thing 'Perry reflexed' during the glue up with the hickory backing, pulled into an exaggerated reflex, then re-tillered and then the ipe belly lam glued up, pulling it into a more reasonable reflex then the final tiller. I don't remember where I read about pulling into exaggerated reflex with the backing lam glue up, then pulling back into a realistic reflex with belly lam glue up. Kind of taking the Perry reflex a step further. May have even dreamed this, not sure, but it's happening!

I'm aiming for 40# @ 24"
What do you think my odds of success are? I know I'm pushing the limits of a short skinny bow.

[bowmo]

That should be fine at that weight and draw. Skinny is the only way to go with bamboo style glue ups anyway. Just make sure all the material is of good quality and you should be fine. Shouldn't be any reason to heat it into the shapes your looking for tho, just make the core thin enough to bend and force it into the desired shape as you glue it up.

[Tommytinker]

It's mainly the static tips I needed to heat bend, I left the Osage considerabley thicker at the tips. Thanks for the vote of confidence! I'm still scared it's going to go kaboom on me! 

[blackhawk]

If you do your part right that will work fine...in fact that's about the right width for the materials used and intended specs

[Tommytinker]

So, she failed. I believe I rushed in, removed too much wood at that spot, causing the belly to fail and pull up a splinter on the back with it. I also think the core lam may have been a little too thick as the ipe was getting real thin in general and still pulling a lot of weight on the long string.

[Tommytinker]

[Tommytinker]

You can clearly see in this photo just how thin I took the belly in this spot.

[Tommytinker]

Ok! I've decided I will not be beaten on this one! The splinter on the back seems to be minor, I think a little patch will hold it down. I'm in the process of removing the belly lam, I'm then going to thin down the core and apply a new belly lam. Any thought on this? Am I wasting my time?

[Parnell]

Were the edges of your hickory back well sanded before you began the tiller?

It looks like you had some "divets" in the ipe belly where it became thin...if that is so, you want to keep that smooth during the scraping-tillering.

R/D's can be a trick to tiller.  How much of that reflex was working before the deflex portion of the limb is moving?

Good luck!