Tillering without a tiller stick?

[punch]

How many of you tiller without a tillering stick or tree? How much harder is without one?

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I do use a tiller stick. But it's only to check weight. To do the rest I use te back glass of my truck as a mirror. I have no problems with it, but it does make it so the weather has to be nice to get anything done. I do plan to make a tiller tree, mostly so I can set it up for a pulley system o be able to tiller out some heavy bows later.

Kyle

[Emmet]

I use one very little if at all. I don't think its at all harder, maybe faster.
I tiller in the living room while I watch movies. I use the bathroom mirror to see how it looks.
It takes 2-3 movies to get it close.

[Dustinhill]

I don't have a lot of experience, but what has worked for me is taking a video with my phone and then pausing it and taking a screenshot. i have an arrow shaft with 1 inch increments marked on it, and I just pull back as far as I need to depending on where I'm at in the tillering process. I figured the video screenshot option is good because the bow never gets held at full draw like it does with a stick.

[bushboy]

I floor tiller,heat treat,floor tiller and go to low brace.then touch it up by looking at the brace.unstring often to check where it is starting to deform.the brace shape and set tells the tale.maybe not the best method but that's my way of doing it.

[PEARL DRUMS]

I have a few 1 x 2 board pieces that vary from 6" up to about 12-14". You can use them as a tillering stick of sort by sitting one end on your grip and other pushes the string away causing the limbs to bend. Basically like a tiller stick, but no notches. Chunks of PVC will even work. Just something to hold the bow drawn a few inches so you can check it with a straight edge and/or your eyes.

[Pappy]

I floor tiller, then use a tiller stick out to brace. Then to the tiller tree to about 20/22 inches and after that mostly by hand /feel and eye.
 Pappy

[Badger]

   I think I do a better job when I use a tiller tree but I very often just floor tiller to brace and then finish the bow up on my lap with a scraper.

[George Tsoukalas]

i've used mirrors, digi photos, windows at night, shadows during the day, drawing over my head, etc. But those are usually after full draw as I don't want to be near the stave if it is going to explode.
So I use the rope and pulley after the floor and long string tiller.
Jawge

[Pat B]

I use a tiller tree early on to exercise mostly but from brace on I use it constantly to exercise and check tiller. On very rare occasions I use a tiller stick but only when using a tiller gizmo on difficult staves.

[Dances with squirrels]

Tillering tree beginning to end.

[DC]

Tree, all the way. I even do a lot of my "floor tillering" on the tree. For me it's just easier to see the bend when it's eight feet out in front of me. 

[joachimM]

I normally use a tree very intensively with a checkerboard background to see if the strain on both limbs matches and I get the desired bending.
Lately I've had a weird bow whose tiller shifted a lot weeks after so-called final tillering. On the tree it still looked pretty OK, but in the hand the changed feel was more obvious, and in the mirror I flinched when I saw it appear. Had to retiller it three times as tiller kept moving over a week or two. I blame the weather and ambient moisture changes but I have no real clue as to what caused this.

This experience showed me a mirror gives you a pretty faithful view of the tiller at full draw to a few inches below that. And easy enough to evaluate.
 

[missilemaster]

I quit using a tiller stick and now just use the tree in the last few inches of tiller. When you are using character wood, or a stave with nonuniform reflex , a tiller stick and a straight edge to check the gap is actually a good way to get a hinge because you will think an area is stiff when its really just reflexed more than the rest of the limb.

[bradsmith2010]

just depends on the stave,, sometimes i get it braced and just look in the mirror,, but I think for a more difficult or character stave,, I like to pull it on the tree and step back,, I usually see something in a photo that I did not notice,,
I don't know, now i am confused,,,