tillering sequence

[jeffp51]

Since I am starting the tillering of another bow and thinking about it, in what order do all of you tiller a limb?  outters first then near the fades, or the other way around, or do you try to keep the whole limb even from start to finish?  It seems to me that my inner limbs always want to bend first--I suppose it is the leverage--so that I always seem to concentrate on the tips first.  Mostly I just try to solve little problems before they get big until the whole bow is bending.

Anyway, how do you do it?

[JonW]

I floor tiller until ready for brace. Make it bend even from the get go.

[PatM]

The more even you get the whole planned working limb bending initially, the better off you will be.

[LittleBen]

The more even you get the whole planned working limb bending initially, the better off you will be.

Bingo.

[Badger]

  For the most part I do as above, I floor tiller keeping it even until ready for brace. I leave the near fade wood a bit stiffer and only get it bending if I need to.

[riverrat]

even as possible to brace. once braced you will find that as you draw further most times youll need to work on the outter limbs. but whatever little bit you see wrong at brace, wherever it might be or no matter how small it seems fix that first.nip going back and forth in the butt right from the onset. Tony

[bownarra]

It comes with experience but I won't go past floor tiller until I have near to perfect bend on the whole limb. Perfect, perfect, perfect....just keep chanting it to yourself!
If you try and work one area then another you will certainly get necessary set showing up
As Badger says you can leave the fades a little stiff and work into them later for more drawlength.

[chamookman]

I'd always leave 'Em  a bit stiff out of the fades - get them bending there the last couple of inches of draw. Bob

[Pappy]

I do like Badger, fads last.
 Pappy

[Del the cat]

Yup, inner limb always bends first.
If you started by a bit 1x1 you'd see the middle bending first, you could then work outwards.
Del

[Springbuck]

I floor tiller until ready for brace. Make it bend even from the get go.

 I must be an idiot, but I just can't seem to floor tiller anything with much accuracy.  I purposely start with a little more thickness than I know I need, and a basically consistent thickness anywhere it's going to bend.  I rough out the front profile, handle, and fades, and carefully work each limb say, 3/4" thick on a flatbow, from fade to tip.   Like Del the Cat mentioned a 1x1?   I KNOW it's gonna bend in the middle.

 I have taken to reducing every stave like, so that I KNOW it is only going to bend right off the fades.  BUT, THEN  !!!!  I hang it on my tree and pull it BARELY!!! and I can immediately tell if one limb is stiffer, even with 1" tip movement on one side, and 1-1/2" on the other.  So, I correct the whole limb, using the "rough it up, scrape it smooth" method.

 When the inner 1/3 of each limb is bending the same (easy to see because the rest of the limb is NOT bending due to consistent thickness, and the tips are easty to compare, it's easy to work thickness taper down evenly, and chase the bend out along the limbs.

[PEARL DRUMS]

To think you can attack each tiller job with the same method would be foolish. You cant decide, for example, that your set method is to start on the inners and move out on every tiller job. If you already have weak inners off the floor your plan is shot and now you start where the blank tells you to.

[Springbuck]

 Different bows do get different approaches, sometimes just tweaks, but it does depend.   This actually works REALLY well for me, but only after a lot of experiences with failures.  Much better than floor tillering, which is what I did for years.  I would almost ALWAYS end up with one soft spot somewhere in one limb and would end up building the weight and tiller around that spot, and far too often would end up with bows coming in underweight, or bad tiller and weight decreasing rapidly.

  Since I have taken to using this method, along with faceted reduction, the "rough up and scrape smooth" controlled removal method, laying out the limb in sections, and the gospel that preaches never pulling the bow beyond the intended draw weight, I have not ruined one bow out of the last 30 or 40 during tillering.  I used to finish about one bow out of three to intended specs before that.  So it works for me.

  It CAN be tedious, and there is a lot of prep time, followed by very slow removal of more material than I might face otherwise, and I often do a lot of controlled weight removal after I'm already pretty happy with the bend at brace.  But, the minute I see those inner limbs just barely bend, I know I can get it just where I want.

[Badger]

  I find floor tillering by feel to be pretty accurate when it comes to starting off with ballanced limbs. When I flip the limbs back and forth while floor tillering and I can't tell the difference from one limb to the other it will be pretty level at brace height. I try to brace when I estmate I am 10 or 15# heavy. Huans are pretty sensitive when it comes to sensing weight differences.

[jeffp51]

I have always had difficulties with floor tillering. I don't feel the bend well, and it is difficult for me to see from that angle.  Guess I need to practice it more.