Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: DQ on February 17, 2012, 08:39:58 pm
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After shooting this bow over 1000 times, I decided to "improve" it by flipping the tips farther. Oops! I cracked both bends. I have filled the cracks with super glue and sanded down to bare wood. I planned on doing a sinew wrap on the cracks, but now I'm wondering about glueing a thin Osage overlay on the belly side of both bends and making a "sort of" static recurve. I would welcome your opinions on what is the best way to save this bow. It is (was) 64" long, about 60# @ 28 inches. Thanks, in advance, for your advice.
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One more photo
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Take a thin veneer of wood and do an underlay. I'd try to do a contrasting colored wood if it were me.
George
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Id add an underlay of a wood with a similar density...IPE..... I see why it cracked too sharp of a bend IMO
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Sinew probably wouldnt help much. An underlay would be best. That crack was formed from excess tension. That part of the limb works in compression. In other words its not really that bad if the glue flowed well. You can leave it as is. I have before more than once. Once the osage darkens some you wont notice it. Thats my opinion.....Im NO expert however!
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Are you good with splices??? If you are, you could v splice in another piece of wood on both ends ( with recurved)it would be my choice...If you are creative with thin lams in the splices for color contrast.
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Thanks for your replies everyone. I'm leaning toward doing a thin underlay. Should it be plain, rift or quarter sawn? Urac 185 glue? Should I steam the underlay to make the bend? I don't have any IPE. Would walnut, cherry, Osage, or white ash work? How thick should the underlay be? Or, should I go real thin and double it?
As you can see, I've never attempted this, so any help would be appreciated. I think I can do the work. I just need the voice of experience to guide me. (He grins, while holding a big rasp in his hand.) ;D
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I would go with osage and use whatever wood glue you have handy, or URAC. Start at about 1/16" thick and feather the ends out after it dries. You wont loose any of the bend you put in it. Bring it over here and we can do it up!
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Here are a few pics of a BBI I built last summer. I wanted to bump the weight up to 60# so I added the osage lams. It worked perfectly. Your underlays would be much the same. Also, thats my tip flipping rig. It makes a n ice round'ish arc. Its a 1 x 6 with a 5 gallon bucket traced on it.
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I'd rasp away the tip to the depth of the crack, fading it out and then glue over a sliver of wood all clamped up as a static recurve like you suggested.
I think it's better than filling crack as it takes aout the fault and allows the overlay to be a bit thicker and thus easire to make and handle.
Del
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Pearl - Good looking tip flipping jig. I'm going to make one like it. Thanks. And, thanks for the invite. I just might take you up on that.
Would it be possible to dry heat the bend and straighten it out a little on a jig like yours? Then I could add the underlay for strength. That way my string nocks would be at the correct angle. For a static tip bow my nocks are cut wrong. I feel like I'm getting in deeper and deeper. Yikes!
Darryl
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I would not mess with the bend any more. In Pearlie's picture you can see how thick his tip is. Most of us leave the limbs thick so if there's some cracking like that we can sand it out without affecting the bow. There's a decent chance you'll crack it again. I would heat bend your underlay to approximately the same bend you now have, then clamp and glue it. You may have to sand the limb flat to get more glue surface.
Good luck,
George
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You could move those tips to a more round profile. If they decide to stretch out again you can go down farther as Del suggested and then just add a thicker underlay to compensate. Keep those wheels turnin' Darryl! Your more than welcome to bring her over here for a facelift.
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Georgey I wasnt "correcting" you, we just hit "post" at the same time, sorry pal. You are right, it will probably stretch more and it should be thicker when the initial bend is made. But he can still get a rounder flip with some tasteful heating and bending.
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That's a pretty big crack, DQ. Even if I fixed it I wouldn't take it hunting or to a shoot. Actually, I wouldn't even shoot it. I'm pretty picky about the bows I shoot. If I even hear a tell tale tick that bow is a tomato stake. I got some sense knocked into me when I had a couple go at full draw. One of the reasons I took up gardening. Gardening and selfbows go hand in hand...at least for me. Good luck with that. :) Jawge
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"Gardening and selfbows go hand in hand...at least for me. Good luck with that. Jawge"
That was funny Jawgey!
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I have done exactly that on a few bows, like 3 maybe. They all still shoot and I did exactly what you did to fix them, superglue. I am with Pearl here and am sure you can leave them as is and recomend it. ( unless you dont care about the bow and are just wanting to use it to learn on with belly laminates, In which case I say go for it! ) If you go the belly lam route, Maybe a lam of bamboo? Its already thin, flexiable, a proven belly on many stlye bows, and you could just feather the boo into the limbs without actually cutting into the limbs and really potentially damaging the tips with unnecessary wood removal. I just get nervous cutting into the tips like folks are saying only because of how difficult it sounds like it could be, easy to screw up, and once done, you cant undo it.
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Well boys, I carefully strung the bow... and it scared me: looked dangerous. My bows are made to shoot and like "tomato stake George" implied, I don't need a wall hanger, the bow racks are full already. So, I'm in the process of "unflipping" the tips. I'll go real slow with it. If this works, and I don't see anymore damage, I'll do an underlay to seal up the deal. If I can save it for a shooter, all's good. If not...tomato stake! I'll let you know in a week or so.
Thanks for your help, everyone. There is more knowledge and help available here than anywhere. Great forum!
Darryl
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Perfect-o! It will be fine.
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I carefully un-flipped the tips on this bow with a heat gun and glued on an underlay of HHB about 1/16 inch thick and 4 inches long. After stringing it up, it felt stiffer than before. I worked the limbs on the tillering tree and got it back to full draw again. It' been shot some and now it pulls 62# @ 28" and has 1/8 inch positive tiller. Exactly the same as before I cracked the limbs! I think I successfully fixed this bow and made a shooter out of it again.
Thanks everyone for your tips and ideas. This project turned out even better than I had hoped.
Darryl
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Told you it wouldnt work.............or wait..........
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What a great save!!! I think it looks even better now than before.
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See, you can put that wood back! ;)
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Here are a few pics of a BBI I built last summer. I wanted to bump the weight up to 60# so I added the osage lams. It worked perfectly. Your underlays would be much the same. Also, thats my tip flipping rig. It makes a n ice round'ish arc. Its a 1 x 6 with a 5 gallon bucket traced on it.
Pearl them underlays are sweet. If you use a nice form like in pearls pics you will have less chance of raising a splinter when flipping tips.