red oak mollegabet bow question

[sound maker]

So I'm in the middle of doing a mollegabet bow from a red oak board
(6' 5" long, 3 1/2" wide, and 3/4" thick) and I going overbuilt the limbs
 (about 65" end to end, 5" handle with a fade of 2", working limb of 14" thats about 3 1/2" wide,
with another 2" fade going to a 12" static limb thats going to be either 1" its at now or less).
My question being is can I do a reflex on it or should I not???

[Ifrit617]

I would not make a mollegabet design with red oak... It cannot handle the stresses.  I made a similar bow last summer and the belly chrysaled terribly after 1000 shots. And I had a perfect tiller. JMO..

Jon

[sound maker]

I'm going for low weight (somewhere under 50#) and I'm going to back it with either silk or cotton. So far I got it to where I'm getting the limbs even and I'm not really getting any kind of issues yet.
This bow is going to be mainly for target shooting.

[Ifrit617]

You may have better luck than I did...  Plus your limbs are an inch and a half wider... Mine were 2 inches wide... The bow still has not failed in tension (it was unbacked), but the belly is chrysaled from one end of the working limb to the other, showing a perfect tiller, but a over-strained design.  Also the bow was only 46#... 

Jon

[sound maker]

Truth be told I got a bigger board then what I was going to start but said to myself "Well lets just make this into a bow. The only thing that could be bad is its going to me a bit longer to make and when I drop it onto my foot by accident its has a chance its going to get stopped before it lands."   and if something goes bad I can always gets some thin wood backing onto it.  (like bamboo or something) and if it breaks my friend can use it was a paddle so I just look at this as something that going to be use for something other then firewood project. 
  The only thing worrying me the fading from from the handle to working limb and from working limb to static limb. though I'm going to add a riser and a backing so it should hold together!!! 

[toomanyknots]

I would not make a mollegabet design with red oak... It cannot handle the stresses.  I made a similar bow last summer and the belly chrysaled terribly after 1000 shots. And I had a perfect tiller. JMO..

Jon

Honest to god, red oak has been very different from board to board with me, some have chrysalled terribly and some have been ridiculously good bow wood for board lumber red oak. The boards that have been good for me, have been denser than the ones that have chrysalled (probably pretty obvious that they would though,  ). I too have had a red oak molly chrysal on me, but that was more my fault than the boards, as well as the board being very light feeling. I was very happy to find it though at the time (at menards) as it had absolutely ZERO run out. Shoulda made a better designed bow out of it.

[sound maker]

I was doing this because I liked the look and after spending a month or so looking around followed a build-along but when a bit over with the board (was going to be a 3" wide board but got a 4"). If I did this right the grain should be good (I'll post a pics on where I'm at when I have some good light and I'm not going for a high poundage here so no worrys).
 I got it to where I can tiller but have to do some work on the fade area (some areas are not good due to some rasping  ). Right now I'm working on removing tool markings and getting so both working limbs are 1/2" thick (I got about 1/32" I think to remove from both sides but done that for the most part) and making sure theres no points that will cause any problems.  I'm think about reducing both inner limbs (near the static limbs) a bit so stress is less on the area near the fade. (for the most part thats where I believe if its going to break thats where it will happen) It seems that I'm going to burnish the back and sides a bit so it lower chance of splinters and add the backing after tillering (mostly because I haven't gotten my fabric yet  )

[sound maker]

I got it to tillering now and it seems to be twisting and thats mostly because the handle area I believe (one side was more in then the other   went a little too far) so I'm going to move the other side in so they match. Going to work the limbs more and round the edges so theres no lift and then going to try backing in a few days. Still haven't gotten the backing though (procrastinate somehow sneaked up on me but I will get the backing). 
 On the backing I can use gorilla wood glue or no?

[sound maker]

pics!! first time posting pics here so not sure how it will turn out. I am still gettting the handle right and making the the static limbs narrower.

[Onebowonder]

<snip> On the backing I can use gorilla wood glue or no?

I would not use Gorrilla glue for the backing.  It is not elastic at all when cured, and it turns to a foam sort of consistentcy.  I'd use TB2 or TB3.

[ryddragyn]

I've made a bow using that exact layout, and I think your working limbs are much too thick relative to the handle area. I had a first attempt snap in the handle during tillering. It was rather violent and sudden. I wound up thinning the working limbs to 3/8" thick and significantly lightening the static limbs to 0.56" thick. I also glued on a riser to guard against breakage and dull any handshock. It turned out around 35# in draw weight - less than the 50# that I wanted - but it shot about as fast as my 50# ELB.

Best of luck.

[bubby]

you can use gorilla wood glue, it's basiclly titebond 2, their outher glues foam and expand, that's not good for bow making, Bub

[sound maker]

onebowonder- At the moment thats all I got and wanted to be sure it would work.

ryddragyn- I do realist that and I am thinning it (more due to some areas get a little overwork due to getting the fade and edge right ) but I'm right now trying to get the handle equal and I'm trying to to get more flat-ish since its not fully flat. I'm also going to glue a riser onto it with fabric backing to make sure I don't have it break or something else . The only thing that kind of worrying for me is I got a friend to draw it for me and after I was doing more work and drawing it seem like the working limb (the 14") its not all bending alot otherwise it seems to be going.

[ryddragyn]

If the working limbs aren't really bending then it's probably bending in the handle and getting ready to break. Try putting the bow with the back down on the ground and pulling it from there to see if the edges of the handle area come slightly off the ground. I would add a riser forthwith, or thin the working limbs a LOT more. Or both. Just my two cents, I know some people have gotten this template to work with no riser and half inch thick working, but it seems kind of risky to me.

Also don't forget to lighten the static limbs, otherwise I think the bow is casting a bunch of dead weight.

[sound maker]

thanks I'm going to do both and I am lightening the static limbs but I'm not sure how far red oak can go without it breaking. right now its about a 1"-1" 1/8" wide and 3/4" deep and about 12" to the end.