When to pull to full intended draw weight?

[Hawkdancer]

Like Pat B and Brad said - overbuild, study your failures, don't hurry, and heed Del's research conclusion.  Don't pull to draw weight until the tiller is right, and exercise the bow before each tiller and draw check.  Btw, I got lucky, and my first bow made weight, and tiller with a lot of help and advise!  It shoots better than I do . Also, have fun!, and breathe!
Hawkdancer

[Badger]

If you floor tiller out to where the bow is pretty close then you want to make sure that your tiller is even before you go to full draw weight. On the other hand if you know that all parts of the limb are still too strong then you can go right to full draw weight regardless of the balance in the limbs

[bradsmith2010]

yes that works,, I have even gone past full draw weight, and changed my mind,, to a lower weight,, and still got a pretty good bow,,

[willie]

As an alternative, and this isn’t meant to contradict anyone else’s method, but I never use the scale early on so for me the draw weight is unimportant. I am focused on the bend. The tiller. Only at a short distance. Is the braced shape right?  Once it is pulling 15 inches or so with good tiller I take it to the tree and check the weight. Even then I won’t pull it to full draw weight. I just extrapolate what it will be based on the weight it’s gaining per inch. 5 pounds per 2 inches??  Where does that leave me at full draw. I just keep the tiller even and keep inching forward on the draw length. If I do my job right, I hit target weight a few inches short of full draw. A good bit of exercising on tree and it typically settles in with a bit of sanding. It’s not a better way, just a different way.

Slim, I have experimented with a very similar method. I look closely at the bend at brace height before pulling further.
Just curious about what you do after you make the initial weight measurement and the extrapolation?

If your extrapolation comes in much heavier than the target weight, do you remove wood before proceeding further (than the 15")?
How much "extra" weight do allow, to be removed as you get closer to full draw?

I think its cool that we can compare various methods without the "only way" attitude creeping into the thread 
 

[SLIMBOB]

Hey Willie.  So, I do this differently today than I did as little as 10 years ago.  Just an evolutionary thing that has worked for me.  Most of my tillering is done from floor tiller to 15 inches or so.  I want the floor tiller to be good enough to go to low brace if possible.  Then I fret over the brace shape getting it right.  From there keep the shape good out to around 15 inches, an inch at a time, all on the tiller stick.  Once at 15 inches with near perfect tiller (as good as I can get it) I take it to the tree and exercise and weigh it at 15 inches.  It has never been pulled beyond that.  If at 15 inches it is say 40 pounds, and I am shooting for 50, I am 15 pounds heavy or so.  Scrape where it needs it.  I will start getting the fades to work a bit as well.  Then check the tiller on the tree at 15, and then 16 inches and weigh it again at 16.  40 pounds at 16 inches, I am 13 pounds heavy or there'bouts.  Repeat the scraping and check again going to 17 inches.  40 pounds at 17 inches, I am 10 pounds heavy.  I just keep inching upwards in draw length until I am at 27.  At 25 or 26 inches I will hit target weight usually, and it settles in at 50.
I believe this stresses the wood less than the alternative. Making weight is rarely an issue because your not doing much shaping toward the end. That has all been done early on. The last 10 inches is just even wood removal with sanding to finish it out. Never had a hinge just show up late in the game.
Lastly, I don’t claim this is a better way, nor do I claim to have invented anything new. It’s just what I do.

[bradsmith2010]

I wanted to clarify for my own peace of mind, when you say you are 15# heavy at 40#@ 15,, you would mean that if you pulled the bow to full draw it would be about 65#@ 26,, making it 15 pounds heavier than your target weight of 50#....? at the longer draw

[SLIMBOB]

Yes, exactly.  I just do the math as to what the bow WILL be pulling at full draw, though I have not pulled it beyond 15 inches or so and not more than 35 lbs. or so.  If the tiller is good, I have yet to experience one going out of tiller at the end.  It's usually just a matter of keeping things even in small increments at that point.

[willie]

Thanks for sharing, Slim

[razorsharptokill]

After about 150 shots and some finish sanding I put a scale on it. Pulled 48 lbs at 27", my draw length. It would probably pull 50 at 28"? It is plenty quick with cedar shafts.

I have some more room to bring it closer to center shot so I may take it in an 1/8".

[Badger]

Why pull a bow all the way to 20 inches and 50lbs, when you can pull it to 12 inches at 35lbs and, at least in my mind, accomplish the same thing without stressing the wood as much. If at 12 inches I am at 35lbs, and I am gaining conservatively 2 lbs per inch, then I am at 65 lbs at 27 inches. I need to shed 15 lbs, so scrape where needed and then recheck the tiller. Good at 12?  Pull to 14 and check it. 35 lbs at 14 inches?  I am 11 lbs heavy. Scrape and repeat. Inching your way up to full draw length and full draw weight. I’m willing to consider that this way is less effective if some one can explain why.

   You cannot accomplish the same thing by projecting the weight. You don't know for sure how those limbs are going to react to full draw weight until you put full draw weight on them. I use full draw weight from the very beginning and all through the process, no surprises that way.

[SLIMBOB]

Steve I offer this respectfully. What you suggest has not been the case. I have tillered bows to full draw weight early. The bows tillered in that manner behaved as you would expect. Normal, no surprises. I quit doing that 8 or 10 years ago. I now do them as I have described and they behave normally. No surprises. I can’t say conclusively that it can’t happen, only that it never has.

[scp]

I use full draw weight from the very beginning and all through the process, no surprises that way.

I thought you would do it like SLIMBOB because of your no-set-tillering theory. I guess I have no idea what your theory says about the current topic of pulling weight.

[bradsmith2010]

I still get surprises from time to time..sometimes good ones,,.

[Badger]

I use full draw weight from the very beginning and all through the process, no surprises that way.

I thought you would do it like SLIMBOB because of your no-set-tillering theory. I guess I have no idea what your theory says about the current topic of pulling weight.

  For the majority of my years I did the same as slimbob, only the last few years I started working at full draw weight from the start. I like it better. The big difference is that I can't floor tiller it as far as I used to and go to the tiller tree when the bow is still pretty heavy. I would have an occasional surprise where when I started increasing draw weight the limb would start taking set. I first started using it on heavy ELBs and then just started doing it on everything. I had a lot of close calls when I was floor tillering close to weight, more than once I had to tiller the bow around 1 slightly weak spot i created floor tillering too close. At the full weight method I don't have to be as careful, I just start off strong and stay strong until I hit my draw length. For me it is more fool proof.

[Badger]

I use full draw weight from the very beginning and all through the process, no surprises that way.

I thought you would do it like SLIMBOB because of your no-set-tillering theory. I guess I have no idea what your theory says about the current topic of pulling weight.

  It still works the same with the no set tillering method, you find a benchmark and then go back and check it after drawing to full weight and see if it changes.