Need help: Siyah Alignment...

[toomanyknots]

 Welp I have screwed up some siyahs again. For the life of me I can never get these guys aligned right during glue up. I have finally found a good way to see if they are aligned right by standing above the end while the bow is on a perfectly flat surface, and eyeing the tip of the siyah to see if it goes to the right of the limb or to the left. This I figured out just after gluing up some miss aligned siyahs. Both siyahs tips go the left a bit, about a 1/4". Siyahs are 5 1/2" long and are at a 45 degree angle. I think during glue up the bow was on a surface that was leaning a bit, and caused me to move em a little to the left because the bow was not level. Now, I just screwed a bow up like this. So the first thing I wanted to do was take off the siyahs and re glue, but I was afraid it would break off the narrow tapered ends. I used tight bond 3, and didn't know if steaming off would work from tb3 being waterproof, also I didn't wanna steam my bow. Since both  siyahs move to the left 1/4", is there a chance (remember their at a 45 degree angle, so lots of opportunity to twist) that they might straighten their selves out and not twist while drawing?

[walkabout]

TB3 should come off with some heat/steam. i think it breaks down around 150 degrees.

[Pat B]

Yep! 150deg(F), wet or dry heat. It is the tempature that does it. I have had good luck removing backing strips that were glued with TBIII by heating the backing strip with a heat gun.

[toomanyknots]

Crud, just put the backing on, overlapping the siyahs.  Oh well. I'll find out tomorrow if it twists or not. Thanks guys. I will remember that about tb3. I should of just asked yall first thing! Thank ya though.

[kiltedcelt]

Without a picture I can't tell what you're doing, but I'd guess you're gluing in your siyahs already shaped up. You might try starting with a solid block of wood the maximum width of your bow limbs where you're gluing them on. Once the bow is glued up, you can take the full width siyah blocks and take them down to size with a rasp, coping saw, band saw, whatever. Doing it this way will eliminate getting the glued in crooked, You might still get them slightly crooked anyway, but it's way easier to correct if you have a full width block of wood to work with.

[Shooter]

I glue statics on after a final shaping and pretty much finished except for a little bit of material left at the very tips.

I vice the bow at the handle, or clamped to a tabletop to hold it steady. I use a lots of glue and a short, thin strip of inner tube to lash the statics down snug, but not so tight that the statics can't slide around on the glue. Wrap the strip once around the static right down at the base so you have two loose ends, and once the glue is spread, use the loose ends to lash the static to the limb. And then another strip on top of the first one to really pull them down tight once you have them aligned. The inner tubes want to pull the statics down the limbs toward the handle, so I put a little c-clamp on each limb in front of the taper to prevent it from sliding.

To align them, I put a plastic ended push-pin in the tip of each static and make sure it's deep enough that it won't pop out. I tie a string around the steel part of each pin so that it spans the back and is taut. With the bow clamped in place, you can eyeball down the length of the bow to make sure the string runs right down the centerline of the bow and the statics. Once it's aligned, very gently wrap the second strip of inner tube on top of the first, checking the alignment as you go.

After the pins are removed, I take that bit of material off the tips where the pinholes are.

Kinda late now, I know, but it might save you some grief in the future

Bruce

[toomanyknots]

"Kinda late now, I know, but it might save you some grief in the future"

Ya man, it will. Thats about ingenious using the intertube. As well as the way you use to align them. Thank you man.