It’s been almost 10 years...

[aznboi3644]

...since I last made a piece of wood bend to my will.  Life, kids, marriage, home ownership, and divorce pulled me away.  But IM BACK!!

And it feels so good to shape some wood again.

I’m was and still am a novice.  I eased into tillering with a 48” red oak board 1/2” thick 1.5” wide.  I got it to a decent elliptical tiller pulling around 25lbs at 16” when it blew up into 3 pieces.  The grain ran off front to back in 3-4”.  But I learned from it and I’m surprised with that bad of runout angle it held the weight it did.

So I picked up a super straight grained red oak board stave that I have had for about 11 years now.  I have shaped it to a mollegabet style barely bendy handle bow.

It is 66” OAL
1.5” wide from the handle out to 12” stiff levers.
It is tillered out to 22” so far.
It has taken 3/4” of set. 

Goal is to hit 45lb at 26” and tillered out to 28”.

I want to narrow the tips down to 1/4” and wrap and glue on some red oak nocks.

But my main question is when in the tillering process should I start narrowing the levers down?  Right now the tips are about 3/8” wide and 3/4” thick.  I want to get these outer limbs low mass as possible with keeping safety and longevity.  What is an acceptable amount of set for a bow this style?

I have had to walk away from this bow a few times over the last few days because I was getting frustrated trying to figure out the tiller.  I’m glad I put it down because I probably would have rushed it and broke the thing.
 

[Hawkdancer]

Welcome back!  I'm a bit of a newbie, but the more experienced folks will weigh in, I'm sure.
Hawkdancer

[SLIMBOB]

Welcome back. It sounds too short and too narrow to me. I have never done a molly from RO, but 1.5 is not enough width in my opinion. You have what you have, so just get the tiller perfect and keep the weight down. Set will keep it from breaking, embrace the set on this one. RO is not a great candidate for a molly but see if you can prove me wrong on this one.

[TimBo]

Is it pulling 45# at 22" now?

[Deerhunter21]

Is that paracord? i would get a different string because paracord stretches.    welcome back!

[SLIMBOB]

That leaves you with another 4 inches to go. The toughest 4 inches. Get a straight edge and get the tiller perfectly round right out of the handle fades into the lever fades. You look to be bending a bit much in board. Perfectly round will buy you some leeway.

[aznboi3644]

It is not paracord.  I somehow lost my big spool if B50 Dacron in the past 10 years.  The yellow cord is just some really strong cord I got off of a job for a temporary string.  That little yellow cord was what the manufacture used to tie down the end of a triplex 500 MCM CABLE for a power feed at the Toyota plant I was working at.  The cable was 5” in diameter and very stiff and heavy. The 5ft spool weighed over 1200lbs. 

The bow is pulling 29lbs at 20” right now.  There is zero set on the center 1/3 of the bow.  I was struggling to get an even tiller and match each limb in the first 12-14” of tillering as to why it is currently 35lb @ 22”

Again there ARE NO FADES.  1.5” through the working section of the bow.  I have been staring at the different full draw tillering pictures in the TBB 1 and 4 that I have.  I lost 3. 

To me it looks like I need to scrape a hair off of the outer 1/3 of each side for a more elliptical tiller. 

[Deerhunter21]

Then thats a big handle section! Can we get an unbraced?

[SLIMBOB]

So it will bend thru the handle?

[aznboi3644]

I am trying to go by the TBB of bend just enough in the handle to take no set.  Bend more in the mid limb area to take a slight set, and have stiff narrow outer limbs for low mass.

After being unstrung for a few hours the tips settle to 5/8” and 3/8” of set. 

I’m still confused about set and string follow.  Is string follow the deflection right after being unbraced and set the permanent deflection after resting unbraced?

[SLIMBOB]

Set is how much tip deflection there is, as compared to before the bow was ever drawn. That tip deflection is set. String follow is how far the tips rest behind the grip. Set is known only to the maker of the bow as you can’t look at one and ever know how much set it took. String follow can be measured.
  So it will bend in the handle?

[aznboi3644]

The bow is not bending much if at all in the handle.

[Deerhunter21]

with that much working limb i would get the handle bending a bit.

[aznboi3644]

Man I forgot how addictive bow making is.  Honestly I can’t believe I ever stopped. 

[SLIMBOB]

So you have no fades near the handle...but the handle does “fade” into the limb. So as soon as the handle ends and the limb begins. At that junction, the bend should start to happen. But ideally get that bending last. Get the rest bending well first, then lastly that junction.