Fred Arnold 2017 Bow Trade, Pictures Please, housekeeping issues

[gfugal]

Do you clamp the tips, then twist the handle? Or what do you clamp to twist the handle? Wouldn't you be worried about breaking it without heat? I would use heat but it's spliced so I dare not. I guess I could try, and if the glue job comes undone, I could reglue it. Or Should I leave it and see if it gets worse in tillering?

[DC]

I clamped the handle in the vice and twisted the recurve. On mine I twisted it about 45 degrees and it didn't break. The recurve is enough of a lever. you don't want to be putting a wrench on it or anything. You can put a stick in between the string and the handle so it's at about a 15" draw and then twist. Watch to string doesn't pop off. I hope Marc or PatM will jump in if I'm leading you astray. I've done this on a half dozen bows. It's scary as hel to twist them but it worked for me.
I just realized that we have been talking almost entirely about twisting limbs. Convince yourself that that it the problem first. I wouldn't try to bend the spliced handle but you could bend it in the lower limb. On my sinewed bow I grabbed the handle in the vice, belly side up. Then I heated a few inches of the belly with a heat gun til it was warm. Keep feeling the back and make sure it doesn't get warm. Then I bent the limb sideways. Clamp it somehow(figure that out first) and let it cool. I aimed a fan at mine. 

[PatM]

You can be bold with twisting but I would refine your splice and wrap it tightly  with fiber and glue to reinforce it. Make sure it's not twisted mostly because your limbs are both lopsided  with your belly taper.  You can thin the strong side and roll the limbs back in line if they are off.

[DuBois]

What Pat said.

[gfugal]

So the siyahs weren't leaning as much as I might have described. I thought I would try correcting it by tillering out the twist. It's been mostly successful. They are now barely leaning when drawn to 14 inches as shown here, and I'm not too worried about it, well see if it's an issue when I start shooting it. I'm now just looking for input on my tiller. The right limb (bottom limb) is definitely stiffer than the left limb (top limb). but other than that one being stiffer overall how does the evenness of the bend look?

[PatM]

Left mid-outer needs more bend.  Decide whether you want a  belly groove on the siyah or a tapered tear drop cross section with a large loop and bridge.   You won't even really need much of a bridge.

[stuckinthemud]

Looking much better, you've made great progress, really been enjoying watching this coming together

[gfugal]

Left mid-outer needs more bend.  Decide whether you want a  belly groove on the siyah or a tapered tear drop cross section with a large loop and bridge.   You won't even really need much of a bridge.

I'm thinking of doing a bridge, although I've never done one before. Why the tapered teardrop cross section? I assume you're talking about the siyah. I'm not against it, it probably is for weight reduction, just curious.

[PatM]

It does lighten weight but more importantly it removes interference for the loop to slide on.   Almost all composites have this type of siyah.

[gfugal]

So I added string bridges and got the limbs bending a little more even. Siyahs are pretty much in line now, and I'm not worried about them at all. I tried to fix the left limb but it could use a little bit more scraping on the outer limbs. I don't have much more room for adjustment if I'm going to hit target weight of 50-55#. So unless it looks good all the way to full draw It might be a bit lighter than it was supposed to be, 45-40#. Although the picture is 16" I've gotten it pulled out to 18" without loss in weight. I have had occasional times where It started losing like half a pound with the no set tillering method but I never drew further than that and took time to scrape the limb to even it and reduce weight. My question now is if the tiller still looks good. Should I get the fades and tips bending more or should I leave it as is other than a slight tweaking on the left side? If I do fix the tiller, or do need to reduce weight to prevent set would my victim mind? If you still want the 50-55# it might have more than an 1" of set. If you could send me a PM, or just post on here what you prefer since most probably could guess who you are by now. I don't know why I've had to reduce weight to prevent set. The limbs are close to 2" wide. Maybe it's because the tiller wasn't spot on, maybe I need more of the limb working. Maybe it's just sub-par wood. I'm not sure.

[stuckinthemud]

Don't worry about the weight, a sweet shooting bow is a sweet shooting bow. 

[upstatenybowyer]

40-45 would be totally fine. 

[PatM]

Let's see your bridges up close. You may want to relocate them to make them more functional. Don't worry about your weight or any slight set.  The design and materials is a bit more forgiving.

[gfugal]

Here's a picture of the string bridges. Now that you mention it I see now that I should have positioned them elsewhere. But I feel like it still will serve the purpose of keeping the string in line. How necessary is it to change it?

[PatM]

 Quite important if you want them to work to their  best potential. Taper that siyah. the string will ride against those square edges otherwise.  Noisy and abrasive.