BBB glued up!

[Apex Predator]

My next bow is glued up on the form.  It is raw bamboo backed, action boo core, and action boo belly.  The blank is 1 1/4" wide out to mid-limb and 66" TTT.  I have almost 6" of reflex glued in and just a touch of deflex.  I figure to lose a couple of inches when I take it from the clamps.  I expect this boo belly to take quite a bit of set, and that's why all the reflex.  I meticulously tapered both action boo pieces.  They are .260 at the handle and both taper to .160 at the tips.  I marked the bending section of each piece into thirds and really took my time in getting them both tapered acurately.  I have been thinking of radically traping the raw boo on the back before I draw it at all.  What do you folks think?  I have no power lam glued up yet, and plan to put one on the belly for this one.  Any thoughts on doing it this way?  I glued it up this morning, so won't un-clamp and clean up until tomorrow a.m.  I'm always excited to start a new one!

[Justin Snyder]

I always get excited when I start another bow also.  I hope that never goes away.

Sounds like you have a plan.  Seems like a lot of reflex.  I'm a little confused on the power lam. A power lam is usually put in to stiffen up the riser area to stop the riser from popping off.  If it isn't glued in between the layers of limb it can pop off. Justin

[Apex Predator]

I think I can achieve the same result by essentially making my fade outs long and thin, and that's what I plan to do.

[Apex Predator]

Well I've learned a couple of things this morning.  First, when you are trying to rip a piece of osage on the table saw, and you have this nagging feeling telling you that this is dangerous, listen!  I had a small piece come off the saw so fast that I never saw, or found it.  First, the immediate throbbing pain, and then the blood told me I had screwed up!  It's not so bad, but serves as a good reminder that what we love can, and will take from you if you are careless.  I will probably lose the nail, but the bone appears intact.  Thankfully it wasn't my drawing hand!  Second lesson for today is that action boo doesn't loose hardly anything off the form.  I lost 1/2" of reflex when I was counting on 2".  This is what I have in my newest tillering nightmare.  Does anyone need a bamboo leaf spring for their truck?



The glue lines look great, and it doesn't appear to be over 100#, so maybe I can work it out. 



I plan to trap the back, narrow the tips, and glue on overlays tomorrow.  Right now the riser has been laminated and is setting up.  I used osage/ipe/osage/ipe for the riser.  She's gonna be a beauty if I can tiller her!  I have some elk antler tip overlays ready, but think osage would flow better.  What says by bowyer buddies?

[grantmac]

You may loose some reflex or at least pick-up some stability trapping the back, at least thats what my last bow taught me. You could also try introducing some deflex when glueing on your riser. Either way this will be an entertaining thread
      Cheers,
            Grant

[OldBow]

I would like to see a picture of your forms and glue-up stage.

[Apex Predator]

This is the form I've been using up until now.  These are other bows that worked out well.  I'm in the process of designing one that has adjustable posts for length and height.  These are pretty versatile.  I just need one that is longer because, my reflex is to close to the fades when guing up longer bows on this one.

[recurve shooter]

wow. that interesting. caint wait to see the full draw and her stats.

[mullet]

  I've got a Bamboo backed action boo I posted a few years ago. I'll put pictures up tomorrow. It's 55# at 28", took some set  but the arrow cast was slow. I'm trying to decide to put a lam of Ipe or raw Boo on the belly.

[Rich Saffold]

Eddie, Put a slat of Ipe on the belly and bend a bit of reflex when you do it..Trust me on this one..

 My fastest tri-lams use bamboo backing, and core with an ipe belly in two different glue-ups...

Rich

[radius]

That's a cool form...and i like the adjustable posts idea...but unless you build the form with the base on edge, gradually it will sag...think of a floor joist:  on edge, it holds up the floor; laid flat, it droops way down...

[Apex Predator]

This one is coming along so far, but I expect to have some trouble tillering.  Slow and easy is the plan.  I made a bonehead mistake this morning.  I was laying out the riser and located the shelf 1 1/2" above center.  You can see three lines.  I drew in the lines for the fadeouts, but accidentally used the center line for my upper fade.  So now I have one 3" fade and one 4 1/2" fade.  I have to think on how I'm gonna fix it.  May have to laminate a new riser on.  I also trapped the back and laminated a piece to use for tip overlays.

[radius]

Could you just cut one limb?  I presume you have one limb longer than the other?  Could you just make the bow shorter than it was at first, rather than cutting and sanding away that riser and starting all over again?

Kudos for kahonays, in telling us about it!

[Apex Predator]

I figured it out.  I had a little more meat in the riser than I needed so I cut some depth out of it and shifting the profile up some.  I'll post some photos tomorrow.

[Apex Predator]

Here is the latest progress.  I took off about 3/16" of the outer riser laminate and layed out my handle section again.  It will work fine.  The "C" is for center of the bow.  It took a lot of careful work getting these limbs bending to about brace height on a long string.  They had lateral stability issues and wanted to twist.  I expected that with 6" of reflex!  I would remove material from the sides until most of the twist was gone, and then re-trap the boo.  I have her braced at 4 1/2" and it looks pretty good to me.  I have tillered her out to 38@20 at the short brace.  Now I'm worried about weight!  She retains 3" of reflex just after unstringing, and then goes up to about 3 3/4" relaxed.  I am pleased so far.