Flight bow in progress

[Badger]

  Here is a bow I am just getting started on, I have it cleaned up and very roughly floor tillered, I just glued on some ipe nocks. The bow is 54" nock to nock, BBO, target weight 50#@24".  I copied Marks designs to a large extent with a few touches of my own.  At present the bow weighs 19 oz, my projected finished weight is 17 oz. If I go to far below that and start to show signs of stress I will drop the bow to 35#.

    Starting with 3 3/4 iches of reflex I don't expect it to creep up as I tiller because I did not glue it into perry reflex. I pretty much formed the wood then wrapped it with maybe 2" of relex induced under light pressure. These have a higher than normal failure rate so I will post as I go and hope it don't break. Target speed is a minimum 245 fps with 200 grain arrow, otherwise just another practice bow.

[Badger]

  Progress, I have it out to 50#@15" on the long string, will continue until I get to 50#@20" then brace the bow. About 1/4" less reflex.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Looking fine so far Steve. Could be a screama'!

[Badger]

  Here we are at 17" and 50#. Left limb bending a little too much mid and right limb a bit stiff, I should have that evened up pretty good by the time I hit 20" then I will brace. Most important thing I pay attention to on a flight bow is the condition of the wood. Makes a huge difference in the end product. I try not to loose any weight due to compression, regardless of visible set.

[Del the cat]

V Interesting...
Del

[Badger]

Here it is at 50#@20" on the long string and me bracing the bow.

[Badger]

    Thats it for today, scary part tomorrow. So far only lost 1/4" of starting reflex. I have 4" to go.

[Marc St Louis]

Very nice Steve.  Flight bows are such fun to make 

[PEARL DRUMS]

Those statics look too cool Steve.

[Will H]

That's awesome steve! Thank you for sharing some of your work, you are an inspiration

[blackhawk]

Sweet...I love tillering those kinda designs...they give me a boner!!! I find first brace is always fun with those...I find it best to brace with no more than ten pounds left,and you have to have it at least ~4" for a first brace otherwise if too much weight left and too low of a brace and they come flipping back on ya...lol  getting your bend as close to perfect before brace is very critical with those...looking good from here ....I got lams all prepped out ready for a short r/d static,but haven't glued it up yet...been busy...lil rocket launchers they are

[Badger]

   The thing I was a little unsure about was how the mass figure would factor in for a deflexed bow. I build very few deflexed bows. I know they make for lower mass but not sure how much. I am at 17.9 right now, no more than 1/2 oz left in tillering and about 1.5 oz comming out of handle. I will finish at about 16 oz, 1 oz below projected. I kind of hate doing buildalongs because of the risk of breaking but thats real life and how it goes sometimes.

[blackhawk]

What's your front profile widths if ya care to share? Your on the edge for sure,but from what I can see I think you still have enough wood for your intended specs....the last one I did was 62" ntn n 57@27" n only weighed 18 or 19 ounces finished...and it held its shape great and the wood was still very healthy

[Marc St Louis]

54" is pretty short but that's what you need for flight

[Badger]

    1 1/4 at the fade and down about 1/2 the limb it start to taper