flattening out laminations

[Aries]

one of the hardest things i have encountered in bowmaking so far is flattening out laminations and such for bow handles and bow backing.  I haven't been able to find any detailed descriptions of methods for flattening out large surface areas for gluing and such.   so my question is how do you guys flatten out materials for bow backing? I'm mainly interested in bamboo, because my next big project will be a boo-osage combo .  Thanks guys    Ty

[Hillbilly]

Belt sander or jointer is by far the easiest way.

[Ryano]

Hillbilly said what I was going to say.....
A hand held electric planer from harbor freight works pretty good and is quite reasonable at around $50

[Kent D.]

I do all my bamboo by hand on a belt sander.  I keep a close eye on everything with my calipers.    When i grind lams, I do so with a lam grinding jig I built, which is an adjustible table under my belt sander.   I know of guys who use a jointer to flatten their boo, and other who use handheld belt sanders. 

[Aries]

Awesome, sound good. I will have to look into getting one of those .   And what do you guys think about the boo-osage combo? I havent seen many of them, but i think it might work out good... i hope lol     and what kind of lay out do you think i should go for to get around a good 70#er at round 27"?

[Kent D.]

I love bamoo osage combo.  Here is one I made several months ago.  65lbs at 28"

[Aries]

that looks great .  how thick is your boo?

[Kent D.]

1/8" at center and tapered to 1/16" at the tips.

[woodsrunner]

I use a joiner to flatten and a toothing plane to thin, I normally thin to 1/16th or less. This combo works for me but I'm getting a lamination grinder so might give it a try.

[Okie]

Ty, you need to take a little trip up north. I just got one glued up tonight. Give me a shout sometime and we'll get together. I use a belt sander to flatten mine.