Making a new bow for Jim...gonna be 68" hill style model that I call "nottahill" because it is not a hill !
jim wanted a straight limb bow around 50-55lbs, black glass, action boo cores and a walnut riser.
First things first, I had to make a stright limb form because the one I had been using was for string follow bows. After doing the math and drawing up templates for the riser design I got it done.
I resawed the materials and ground out all the lams and the tapers and got the glass ordered...cut out the riser and ground the fades to paper thin. I had everything set up and ready to be glued then all of this cold spell hit...not supposed to glue up in the cold and my shop doesn't have adequate heat. Several weeks pass and I finally get the time to glue up the bow and the shop was warm enough...after two dry runs to ensure everything will go smooth and everything needed was there, I committed.
45 minutes later everything glued...I put the bow form in the bow oven and set the timer to five hours at 180 degrees.
Once everything was golden brown, I shut off the oven and let it slowly cool overnight...no need to rush and make a mistake.
Once i wrestle the bow from the the form and grind all of the glue boogers from the bow blank it's pretty quick from there, all of the glue line are inspected and passed with flying colors.
I measured and drew out the lines for the limbs and riser, then remeasured 2-3 more times to be sure everything is true Then I put her to the grinder! 1 hour later it was time to cut some string nocks and work on the tiller. When strung it was at dead tiller, meaning the limbs were dead even bend with one another...perfect for shooting 3 fingers under but "toothless one" is a true split finget shooter therefore I need to get the top limb to be at least 1/8th positive....done.
Tip overlays and riser overlays are walnut/black micarta/walnut long feathered...looking good, gonna be hard to hand this one over to the old coot!!
Final sanding on the limbs and custom fitting the handle to jims tender hands is all that is needed, he and John Nail are supposed to come over to the shop Saturday and we gonna get it done! I'll try to post some pics of the process from start to finish if I can...wish I knew how to post the pics in large format instead of the little pics you have to click on!!!
-- Edited by Cylyntone on Friday 29th of November 2013 11:24:33 AM
RE pictures:
Go to photobucket.com and open a free account. upload the pictures you want--I suggest you size them 640 or smaller to speed this process--then open a notepad page on your computer. when you put your cursor on the little picture in photobucket, you will see a gear wheel on the upper right side. click that and click "get links" it will show a line of code beginning and ending with IMG. copy that and paste it to your notebook page. When you get all the pics copied, just copy the lines of code from your notepad page, and paste them on the quick reply window here. When you post them, instead of code, the full size pics will appear. It sounds a lot harder than it is
I hope it shoots well for him. I try to have more mid working limb instead of too much bend at the tips making it whip ended. We shall see! If I have to put more fare to the laminations I will on the next one.
Well////////////......... what a good day. We went to Chris' place. Met his Dad, Had FINE chili and cornbread, and shot Jim's bow. Jim had Chris fine tune the grip......sweet.
The bow is as silent as an owl. I liked it a lot
Jim and John just left, they crack me up... We got the handle the way Jim wanted it and the poor thing finally got to shoot it...after they left I went ahead and finish sanded the bow and wrote the info in it, I also finished the tips. Gonna be a looker!
Does it have handshock ? Shooting Hill bows is what caused all his teeth to fall out.
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I do not seek the good of others as a sanction for my right to exist, nor do I recognize the good of others as a justification for their seizure of my property or their destruction of my life.- Hank Rearden