OK, got the first installment up. The pic does not really show just how bad the lower limb is twisted, but it was pretty bad. The upper not as bad, but it too had to be fixed.

The crack is what the glass lams are for and it will be fixed, and the finish repaired when all else is fixed. First off, I sanded the limb tips and taped them off for the upcoming epoxy.

Then, I prepared a piece of the glass lamination, and also a piece of bamboo I decided to use over the repair. The bamboo was left over from my bow building days.

The other limb

Before I go further, I used the hot water treatment to correct the twisted limbs. Worked like a charm. Took about 25-30 min altogether, but worth it. This pic was not the last session. There was still a bit of twist in the one limb but I did get that out.

Took about 4 sessions under the water, but finally came out straight as can be.

I didn’t realize it till I posted the pics that the darn bow blends in with the counter top. 🙁 Anyway, the limbs are now straight.

Back to the gluing.

Here is the limb with the glass overlay, and the bamboo over that. I am letting this set overnight for curing. Both limbs were done.

I also decided to set up a piece of bamboo for the riser, might as well make it match, right?

Due to the slippery nature of the epoxy, and the curve of the riser and the stubbornness of the bamboo, I decided to go a slightly different route with the riser. I made up a form from a piece of 2x lumber I had. I traced the riser shape on the lumber and used the band saw to cut it to shape.

This is how it will look when I glue the riser, except it will be on its side. The tips were very hard to keep lined up and trying to clamp at the same time.

OK that’s it for now. Will post more when I start on the riser section.

Thanks Robin,

The coppy/paste was what I did for this post, just in case. Hopefully you find the bug. Might be a day or two before I can get back on it.

wildschwein wrote: This thread is looking good, can’t wait to see how it ends.

Me too!:D I just hope I can learn to hit something with it..:lol:

I figured out I will need to thin the bamboo for the riser, quite a bit more. It’s still too stiff to conform to the riser, sooo it will see some more belt sander time for sure.

I took the clamps off the tips last night for a quick peek, and found the piece on the lower limb slipped down over my tape a bit :(. Something I never noticed when clamping.

Oh well, more time on the sander than planned.

OK, got some time yesterday to do some more to it, and made some good progress.

First off got the clamps off the tips,

Then took the bow over to the band saw to do the rough cutting. Sorry no pic of that, since I’d need extra hands to take the shot and work with the saw. Didn’t trust myself enough to saw with one hand and shoot pics with the other. Since the camera hand might end being the ONLY hand:shock:.

But here is a shot of it roughed out.

Next it went to the belt sander for some up close and personal work. I discovered I had some minor gaps in the gluing, near the edges but it turned out to be more cosmetic than anything. I was afraid it would go across too much of the tip and pop off when shooting. That does not appear to be the case, as I have shot it a bit and all SEEMS well. I guess I am a bit out of practice with the gluing process.

Here is a shot with the string groove cut. This is the first cutting and it got many finishing touches.

I also noticed at this time that the lower limb had taken back some of it’s twist. Stubborn little sucker. I had wondered earlier if some of the twist came from a poor tiller job before, but wasn’t sure. Now I believe it was a combination. When this is done I will leave the bow strung for a fairly long time to see if the limb will take the new “set”.

You can see the sanding is far from finished, I just wanted to make sure the tips were not going to separate from the limbs.

This is the other tip at the same stage.

Anyway, I decided to adjust the lower limb tiller, so with a combination of deepening the string groove on one side and sanding off some of the stronger side of the limb, it came out pretty darn good.

It has an “ever so slight” twist to it, still here, and that is before I widened the string groove down the limb, which help even more.

Then I took the riser piece of bamboo back to the belt sander, and thinned it, a bunch. Maybe tomorrow I can glue that up and from there I can cut it to finish and start working on the cosmetics of the bow and making a nice finished product.

OK, that’s it for this stage.:D Thanks for the kind replies so far. Much appreciated.

Well, got some time this afternoon, and slathered the glue on the bamboo and the riser. Here ya see it glued and clamped.

Trust me, I needed every one of those clamps. That bamboo is tough stuff.

Then after about 4 hours, I took the clamps off, to be greeted by the sound of something cracking, loudly! It was the bamboo separating from the riser. 😯 😥

Ya have to look close, but the brown stripe to the left of the riser is the bamboo. The top didn’t fare much better, it popped right off when I pulled it. I will try one more time, and thin the boo even more, and cross sand it, and the riser to encourage better surface adhesion.

I sanded both a lot (or so I thought anyway) but obviously that was not enough. Does anyone know, is there something in the bamboo that prevents a good epoxy glue bond? If so, how do you fix it?

Wexbow wrote: Just a leftfield non-bowyer (possibly idiotic) idea, but should you steam the bamboo to the riser shape before trying to bond it??

Not idiotic, I honestly never even thought of that. It’s worth a try, but I do still need to address the non sticking issue. Even fiberglass does not want to conform to limb shape without much pressure, thus requiring strong adhesives to keep them together.

I THINK, I need to sand both pieces better, and the idea of steaming it to shape first, might make a big difference.

Ya know you’re probably right about the epoxy. I wondered about it from the beginning, but it seems to have held up on the tip overlays (for now anyway:wink:).

I used to use smooth on, but that was nearly 15 years since I did, and all I had is long since gone. If I can get it in small enough amounts I will do that, otherwise will look for something stronger.

Glad you mentioned it.

Well, after pricing smooth-on and the fact that I have way too many projects in the works, I decided to forgo the center bamboo, for now. Maybe when cash and time is more available (no not asking or even hinting for any free glue or money) I will revisit the idea.

For now I will concentrate my efforts of sanding and refinishing the bow. All the important work is done, and I will still post my pics as I get the bow finished.

I wanted this to be an inexpensive shooter, so that is what it will be.

Am nearly completed laying about 1100 used bricks for a walkway (told ya I was busy), and still need to get sand, a vibratory compactor and a brick/tile cutter to complete that job, then I might get some time on the bow.

Somewhere in there I have to pull my rototiller completely apart, AGAIN, and see what I missed. I broke a gear in it a month ago. Replaced the gear, and reassembled but it still foes not work. I missed something!

Talk to ya’all later

OK it’s finished, finally. Seeing that I have too little patience for such things to come out looking like pro’s do it, I am reasonably happy with the outcome. It looks good in the pics (I think) but up close are several boo-boos I caused when using the belt sander. I know better, but get impatient.

Anyway, here’s my pics. Funny thing is, I started this to possibly switch to shooting RH, but two things have since changed. The first is when I started bare shaft tuning my LH bow with high FOC arrows and carbons, I found a “zone” I can get into and my previous left or right misses, have virtually disappeared. I am VERY pleased with that. Number 2, is a left shoulder injury from 35+ years ago, has resurfaced, and although I can still, thankfully, shoot LH with no real issues, when I tried to shoot RH the pain in my left arm is unbearable. So I will not be shooting RH!

ANyway, here’s the pics i promised.

Hope you like em. I also got the limbs even straighter than before. Just wish I could shoot it a bunch to make sure they are going to stay together.

You guys are too kind. It’s not my best work. I took the pics so as not to show my boo boos. The repair of the limbs and my glue ups went pretty well, but when I was trying to take some of the bamboo off the belt sander got a little frisky. That’s where my impatience is to blame.

At least for the rest of the sanding I used the little vibrator sander. I could probably sand out the worst gouge, since it’s near one end of the riser, but was afraid it might thin the glass too much. Probably should have run a layer of epoxy over it, just for looks.

As for ownership, I think one of my sons is going to claim it, but they both are city dwellers now so not sure where they would shoot it. I sure won’t be shooting RH for a long time, if ever.

My LH bow is also another Ebay bow, but I paid about $75 for it I think, and there was nothing wrong with it. I finally got everything tuned on it and have found the brace height it likes, so I am good to go.

Deer season ends here tomorrow, for me :(. I was out this AM about 30 min before legal shooting time, but didn’t see a thing all morning, until I was headed home and saw a doe and her yearling. It’s fork horn or better, bucks only here.

I have 2 neighbors that own 160 acres each, that I am allowed to hunt, and cannot stir up a buck in all that land. They have gone nocturnal, and there is some THICK stuff for them to bed in. I would be doing good to crawl through it. Even that would be hard.

Oh well, more time for projects.:D

In archery, my latest is the steel broadheads. I think they are a doable idea. I have a thread on that, and will update it when I make prototype number 2. I’m not trying to re-invent the wheel, just make the wheel more affordable:).

Materials, wise, they are less than $1 each. I do have a pig tag, and that season is open year round, and no limit, so when the bow is all ready, I will take it to look for piggies. There are thousands of pigs taken in this state each year, but about 90% are on private land and they all want $$$. So I will look for them on public land.

Thanks. Yes they do. I built a take down longbow for one and a small takedown revurve for the other. The bows were far from perfect, but they really liked them.

Thanks Prairie Prowler