Fine Tuning & Bows Build-alongs.

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

As the Guava is recovering from belly tempering I'm doing a bit of 100 grit work everyday, she still probably at 80# + so there's plenty of wood to still be taken out  but I'm going slow right now, I don't wanna go underweight




In the meantime I got a nice Deer Rawhide backing on the Red Oak and did more wood removal, getting pretty close to floor tiller









Been putting some serious time on the Vine Maple too, I feel I'm pretty close to be able to start the correcting Heat bending stages,...not sure if I'm going to go with a combo of Steam and Heat gun,just heat gun, or something else I've been thinking about 

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

Nice bow. U need to do a build along with thqt 3D target please. I must make some!!!!

OK now,

Lets see if I remember how I made that 3D target,

the Belly is a Pine 2x4 the legs a split Yew and split Sonoran Oak,the back is a Hickory Slat that I heat bent into shape  ( everything is attached with wood screws ) the connection from the belly to the back is Paduk,cant remember what woods where the slats that made the face frame,the nose is Panic bush,

the chest cavity is framed with wire, that its filled with plastic bags, the skin is a big rug I had,after the skin is in place I filled with a few of those expanding foam cans,...pretty happy how it came out 


Here, I found a video where you can have a better look at it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFPOn39PEVA

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

So, Red Oak bow got some purple heart overlays to match the riser






The bow felt good so I put it on a string, the lower limb was a tad stiff, couple minutes with 100 Grit put it back on the string at a low brace did a few shot pulls and it showed immediately a 1/8" positive 

so now it's braced at 3 3/4" and it's sweating for the day, I periodicaly check it so see if it changes.




since the Guava is close to be on a string too I cut the grooves




The bark is still on in many places, hopefully it will pop of as I tiller and shoot the bow





Now the Vine Maple,.....time to start the heat correcting process







Unfortunately that method didn't work, the bow kept popping out the clamp, so I tried a different approach


It worked and I got the lever a bit past straight to aloud some spring back








I think I'll need to do some correcting at the handle to get the tip aligned.

On the bright side it felt that the Vine Maple was responding well to the heat, I'm more confident now in being able to deflex the inner limbs

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

So, I was kinda stuck today with those bows on the string and in the form

Well I got one more project going  Cut a power lam and a grip for my next Red Oak




Zebrawood riser is on




Than I took the Vine Maple off the clamps, surprisinglyI really didn't notice any Spring back



Still, I definitely need to correct the Handle to align the tips



In the meantime there was no changes after sweating the Red Oak for over 6 hours,it took the kind of set I would expect.

Tomorrow I'll get it to regular Brace and start the pulling/tillering




Next, I still had some time so I got the Vine Maple back up to align the tips




Once again I felt it took really well to heat correcting, I'm very confident now for tomorrow when I'll try deflexing the inner limbs

Tips are aligned now

[simson]

Nice and interesting work here. Good to see you back in your shop and making bows ...

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

Really enjoying this triple buildalong, keep it up man!

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

Thanks guys,

Raining a lot today so no bending of the Red Oak

But I did the deflexing of the Vine Maple




as I was heat bending I decided to bring the wood posts a bit closer to the handle, I did heat the handle too and worked a bunch on the fades.

No Idea how much spring back I'll get so I took the tips a bit past the handle back, also after I did the bending I did a full belly tempering to see if it helps keeping the shape




If this bow comes out it will be pretty cool, a 58" Deflex/Reflex Mollegabet with a Hill handle 

[George Tsoukalas]

Good to see you nack and making bows, Manny. Jawge

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

Thanks George.

Took the Vine Maple off the clamps this morning and I'm very happy with the deflexing, the tips now are about and inch or so in front of the handle




got the Red Oak at full brace and pulled on the tree to about 20"

the upper limb is a bit to strong and the lower limb to me is showing a bit of an hinge, I'll get to correcting those tomorrow,...doesn't look that I'm gonna make weight now 




Now that the Vine Maple is more straight I got it back in the clamps to further correct that offset lever




I than layed out the New Red Oak, gonna go for a 66" with straight limbs to 10" of the tips than maybe a semi Mollegabet look

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

Got the Vine maple on the long string this morning and it looked good so I put it into a low brace, it was slightly ubalanced but with minimal work next time on the string was spot on, the bow is a 58" ntn with equal limbs, it's been sweating at a 3 1/2" brace for a couple hours without change, I'll let it sweat for a few more hours today.

Weight feels good,if this bow makes it it will definitely be of a good Hunting weight, hoping in the 60 pounds range.

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

Also I just finished shooting in the Red Oak,

It came out a bit lite at 50 # @ 27" but it's a nice shooting stick, I was considering clipping an inch or so off the tips to raise weight but I think I'll leave it.

It has 1/8" positive tiller





Here's my Tillering arrows, you can see the marks at 1" increments, I shoot 10 arrows, check tiller than move to the next mark and so on, when I get to full tiller I than shoot about 100 arrows









Now the boring part of final sanding, finish and grip 

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

Started to apply the finish on the Red Oak, that Paduk sure comes out nice under the Tung oil










Also today I finished shooting in the Vine Maple, I'm very pleased how it came out, shoots nice and has good hunting weight, still thinking if I should do one more belly tempering to raise a few pounds or just leave it



all the heat corrections payed off





Now I need to make up my mind on how to finish this little gem 

[H Rhodes]

Good to see your work posted on here again! 

[loon]

Nice maple mollie!
What is positive/negative tiller? Is it overall reflex or deflex? I don't know how you tiller with arrows or what the marks mean...
Is the upper limb on the top in that last picture? Looks like it could be sort of center shot

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

Nice maple mollie!
What is positive/negative tiller? Is it overall reflex or deflex? I don't know how you tiller with arrows or what the marks mean...
Is the upper limb on the top in that last picture? Looks like it could be sort of center shot

Positive is a stronger lower limb used on asymmetrical bows, negative is when you keep the upper limb stronger, by general consense a good idea to do on equal length limbs ( I haven't really explored this yet since I can't remember making an Equal length limbs bow before)......anyway the Vine Maple came out with 1/16" negative, I just did a final belly tempering so we'll see in a few days where the tiller is.

As for the arrows, I bend a bow on the tree up to 18" after that I want to do all the bending pulling the string in the exact way I'll pull it for the rest of the bow's life, so I shoot 10-15 arrows at every mark, checking tiller as I increase, once I get to full draw I than shoot about 100 arrows,buy than if everything still looks good I call it done I