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[half eye]

Damned turtle....you some kind of engineer there   That sir is the very best of makin due
rich

[PlanB]

Nice project, Turtle!

Fred, if they keep sending you stuff you'll never get to open it!

Ty good to see you working on a bow!

[Danzn Bar]

Damned turtle....you some kind of engineer there   That sir is the very best of makin due
rich

+1 for sure.............
DBar

[ajooter]

Looks good ty..love that black palm handle!

[PlanB]

My Plan C bow has had one limb move a little sideways. It was quarter sawn and black birch has a strong tendency to warp toward the bark. Not a big problem in a flat sawn bow as this adds a small amount of reflex. But in a quarter sawn bow it moves tips to one side, as I've discovered recently.

I've started 2 QS BB bows so far and both show this problem, so this will be the last birch bow I build from quarter sawn stock. Maybe it works for other woods, dunno. Anyway, I'm going to have to try to correct it, but not a lot of faith it will work out. Not keen to start a Plan D bow at this point, but I will if I have to. Really liked C. Thought I had it down.

[Swampman]

Turtle, that is a cool project.  Thanks for sharing. 

PlanB, that sucks about your c bow.  I am working on my plan d too.  I have another piece of BL tillerred and shot in.  It is looking pretty good.  I have it prepped for a road kill backing.  I just need to thaw the road kill out. 

Mike

[ty_in_ND]

Fred,

Sorry to give you a fright! I will be more active on posting from here on out.  If I could find a hackberry tree like the one you posted a picture of, I would be hacking at that! But, a trilam it will be for this project.

Maybe as a plan c or as a separate build-a-long, I will whittle away at the stave you so graciously sent out.

[DuBois]

I hope all of you guys are playing fair? You all know paybacks are a bitch!!!

You do have me wondering what you're up to. 

Now Fred, these are a bunch of fine upstanding gentlemen here that would never do anything underhanded or unfair 
Oh, wait a minute. What is the date again? 

[stuckinthemud]

You really need some fades. You cant have the thickness bending right up to the handle. Your closer than you were, but still a ways off from safe and reliable. Do have locater pins coupled with the bolts?

The limbs are hollow and I have faded the hollow into a flat cross section with the transition of the fade covering about 3 inches, so does that qualify as a fade since the thickness doesn't bend right up to the handle? I'm monitoring the bolts carefully for movement, if any occurs I will drill through some pins to assist them. The limbs will have lugs as well as the bolts to prevent the limbs swivelling

[ajooter]

I think you need some alignment pins mud.  Just to be safe and to keep the limbs where they need to be.

[ajooter]

B...did you already have finish on the bow that warped?  Was it dry enough?  That's a shame...it looked like a good shooter.

[PEARL DRUMS]

You really need some fades. You cant have the thickness bending right up to the handle. Your closer than you were, but still a ways off from safe and reliable. Do have locater pins coupled with the bolts?

The limbs are hollow and I have faded the hollow into a flat cross section with the transition of the fade covering about 3 inches, so does that qualify as a fade since the thickness doesn't bend right up to the handle? I'm monitoring the bolts carefully for movement, if any occurs I will drill through some pins to assist them. The limbs will have lugs as well as the bolts to prevent the limbs swivelling

You NEED pins in a 3 piece. You can see that huge gap at each end of the riser. Your limbs don't rest on the riser fully because neither surface is flat. That equals a lot of torque on the bolt and it means very little limb Is actually hitting the riser, it will pivot right around and break. I would urge you to abandon this idea for your trade bow and build something your familiar with. Maybe return to this one later.

[jeffp51]

I would agree with Pearl Drums.  If you look at your handle, there is just no meat holding that thing together.  You have a three foot lever pulling 50-odd pounds on one end, and a fulcrum that doesn't start until wood touches wood, which in your case is just before the bolt, which will put such a degree of mechanical advantage on the other end that I don't see how it could hold together over time. There doesn't look to be a fade at all to help relieve the strain either.  If you look close, there are also splinters already breaking away from where the limbs will eventually contact the riser, suggesting to me anyway that that point will crush as soon as any significant force is put on it.

Don't get me wrong,  I love the experimentation and that you are pushing yourself with new challenges, but when we send out a bow, we have a responsibility to make one that is as safe as we know how to do.  I would rather send (and receive) a simple D-selfbow than something fancy that I would be afraid to shoot.  I haven't tried a take-down yet, because it feels beyond my skill level and I don't really have the tools to do it right yet.  Maybe someday.  Please keep trying with yours--but look at what has worked for others, there is no need to reinvent the wheel here, and every 3 piece I have ever seen has a huge handle and riser section--there is probably a reason for that.

One of the things I really like about this site is how positive and supportive everyone is, but sometimes I feel I could use a little more constructive criticism in my own stuff as well, so I appreciate Pearl Drums' candid honesty.  We need that too.

[PlanB]

B...did you already have finish on the bow that warped?  Was it dry enough?  That's a shame...it looked like a good shooter.

Swampman, ajooter, thanks!
ajooter, no, it's still bare wood. I just have this feeling that trying to straighten it with steam will kill some of its good qualities. I really like this bow. I'm going to try, anyway, and if it drops in how I like it, I'll start over again. Re. dryness, it was dry by monitored weight change. The problem is when I tillered by narrowing the tips, and it's quarter sawn, I released internal tensions. One  side of the limb was originally oriented toward the bark and the other side oriented toward the heart. Taking wood off the sides destabilizes the equilibrium you had before. Black birch seems to have a high radial shrinkage differential toward the bark. I think it works fine flat sawn, but not quarter.

I'm just now trying to figure out what heat strategy I should use -- steam the handle? Steam the limb? Dry heat the limb? It's a flat bow so trying to move the limb sideways just doesn't seem like it will work without twisting it. So I'm thinking the handle, being thicker might make more sense for a sideways bend, and there it would have to be steaming.

I've seen Gordon's OS build-along handle steam bending setup, and that's probably what I'll try. Seems like altering the handle will have the least effect on performance of the limbs, and a very small amount of bend at the handle will translate to a good amount of change at the tips. Right now, the string alignment is off by about 1/2" at the one tip. The handle has not been finished shaped yet, so I can accommodate an adjustment its final alignment there if I get the tips right.

The other worry is, will the adjustment last? I feel the pressure to get a bow finished -- I don't want to hang the trade up, but if the correction works, I'll need to watch if for awhile to see if anything comes back from shooting it. Otherwise, I'll be starting a plan D bow.

[ajooter]

I like steaming the handle myself B....I would steam it and then maybe hit it with some dry heat to set the alignment.  I think you will still have a solid bow!

A bow I would gladly own anyway