Boo Yew RD

[DC]

That is a great bow!  Very impressive results. Do you happen to have a photo of your caul?  Thanks!

I do one limb at a time because I overlap the boo at the handle. I do the recurves separately. I posted some pics of it in use a while back
The second pic is for bending the Boo

[DC]

Very nice and fast DC.  Have you built a fifty pounder like that? And would you get those # s  with 50#Bow and a 450 gr arrow. Next why are you not at wendover? Arvin

I can't pull more than 40# so I've never tried. I've wondered if it's easier to get bigger numbers with a heavier bow when you're doing 10gpp. The first bow I got in the mid 190's came in underweight at 35#. It made me wonder if lighter draw weight made it easier to go fast. But wondering is all I know about it.
I would love to go to Wendover but only if I had a transporter. I hate travelling. I also don't have a passport and that just adds to the hassles.

[DC]

Nice, great speed for that poundage 
Del
... and you've learned why people use tip overlays and not pin nocks 

Yeah, that kind of surprised me. I've used pin nocks on these bows because I thought they were lighter. They are a PITA as far as keeping track of your strings. Now that I've tried small overlays I'll probably continue with that. I'm thinking that being able to rasp off the shoulders will make up for the weight of the overlays.

[DC]

Running the lam up the fades is the ultimate solution to handles popping off.

DC, did you steam and pre-bend the belly lams to fit up the fades?

It probably is the answer to belly popping and it allows you to use those short knotty pieces of Yew you can't throw out but it just seems to be one step further from primitive.

Fitting the pieces together is the drawback. It's not that easy. Maybe now that I've posted how I do it(further up) maybe someone will have a clever way to make it easy.

[DC]

Thanks for all the nice comments guys. I'm close, maybe the next two or three bows will do it. Getting into the mid 180's was fairly straightforward but the last 10-15 fps have been hard. I've struggled to keep from going underweight and not made it on most of the last four or five. For some reason I've found RD's to be difficult to tiller. Wider limbs for less set just adds to that problem. Thin limbs are tricky. This one was a compromise between DW and better tiller. I've had to rebelly a few because of unfixable hinges. I'm now running out of Boo and Yew. Maybe 3 or 4 more bows. Have to make the decision whether to order more or just pack it in.
Thanks
Don

[mmattockx]

It probably is the answer to belly popping and it allows you to use those short knotty pieces of Yew you can't throw out but it just seems to be one step further from primitive.

It solves the handle issues because the compressive stresses run up the belly surface around the outside of the handle instead of running along the glue line under the handle. That you can use shorter lams is also a significant bonus. If you are concerned with the level of primitive in your bows this certainly does move farther away from that ideal.

Fitting the pieces together is the drawback. It's not that easy. Maybe now that I've posted how I do it(further up) maybe someone will have a clever way to make it easy.

Did you do this one by gluing the belly lams to the handle and then belt sanding the back side of that assembly flat to fit the back lam? Considering how the fibreglass laminate bow makers prep and do their assemblies I don't think there is an easy way to do multi-piece bows, especially if you are trying for very high performance.


Mark

[DC]

Did you do this one by gluing the belly lams to the handle and then belt sanding the back side of that assembly flat to fit the back lam?


Mark

Yes

[Selfbowman]

I know what ya mean the 180s was pretty achievable. I’m still trying to get into the 190s. Keep them coming I am sure you will hit the 200 mark. Arvin

[Will B]

Thanks for the photos of your caul DC. Much appreciated.

[Del the cat]

Thanks for all the nice comments guys. I'm close, maybe the next two or three bows will do it. Getting into the mid 180's was fairly straightforward but the last 10-15 fps have been hard. I've struggled to keep from going underweight and not made it on most of the last four or five. For some reason I've found RD's to be difficult to tiller. Wider limbs for less set just adds to that problem. Thin limbs are tricky. This one was a compromise between DW and better tiller. I've had to rebelly a few because of unfixable hinges. I'm now running out of Boo and Yew. Maybe 3 or 4 more bows. Have to make the decision whether to order more or just pack it in.
Thanks
Don

Maybe get the Yew to approx size and the heat treat before glue up, that might give you some extra zip. Mind getting over 200 fps at anything under 45# is going to be a tall order IMO
Del

[DC]

I did that on this one but old age crept in. I lost track of what I was doing and glued the limbs to the riser without heat treating. So then I had to go back and heat treat but I was chicken to get too close to the riser glue joint. I'm trying to come up with a way to heat the entire limb piece in the oven at 350°f for a few hours or something so the entire belly is nice and solidly treated. The temp and time are to be determined. I could get a 29" piece corner to corner in the kitchen oven but that's just a tad too short. I may treat a piece and then splice on the recurves.

[DC]

Bad news. My scale has three options pounds, kilograms and jin. A Jin is a Chinese weight that equals 1.1023 pounds. My scale somehow got on "Jin" which is close enough that I didn't notice. So once I put it on "pounds" the bow weighs 42#, not 39#. This means my arrow was too light. True speed is 191fps. I'm bummed. I'm not sure when the scale got changed. I'm hoping it was recently. I thought this was too good to be true.

[Tommy D]

I'm now running out of Boo and Yew. Maybe 3 or 4 more bows. Have to make the decision whether to order more or just pack it in.
Thanks
Don

Order more! You are an inspiration and you are also very very close!! No point in not ordering more!!

[bownarra]

Running the lam up the fades is the ultimate solution to handles popping off.

DC, did you steam and pre-bend the belly lams to fit up the fades?

It probably is the answer to belly popping and it allows you to use those short knotty pieces of Yew you can't throw out but it just seems to be one step further from primitive.

Fitting the pieces together is the drawback. It's not that easy. Maybe now that I've posted how I do it(further up) maybe someone will have a clever way to make it easy.

I can tell you how to make it 'easy'.....but it is much further from primitive  
I was wondering what you have been doing differently....I made quite few bows like yours a few years ago, very similar profiles and was getting high 180's, low 190's. Pesky jins….

[Del the cat]

Bad news. My scale has three options pounds, kilograms and jin. A Jin is a Chinese weight that equals 1.1023 pounds. My scale somehow got on "Jin" which is close enough that I didn't notice. So once I put it on "pounds" the bow weighs 42#, not 39#. This means my arrow was too light. True speed is 191fps. I'm bummed. I'm not sure when the scale got changed. I'm hoping it was recently. I thought this was too good to be true.

Dunno what you mean by your "arrow is too light"... it weighs the same as it did before you re-weighed the bow!
IMO it's virtually impossible to make an arrow too light... if it's strong enough to withstand being shot it will be heavy enough.
Or do you have to reach some arbitrary gpp for some competition regulations?
Del