The Birth of a bow - A short Elk Seeker

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Carpdaddy
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Re: The Birth of a bow - A short Elk Seeker

#21 Post by Carpdaddy »

I am curious.... I noticed the tips and line across riser and was wondering how far in front of riser will the string nocks be on the 52”? And how much more if same form is used would the 53” be? I have played around with this a little and curious about positive/negative effects.
Thanks for the motivation you have stirred in me again.

stumper
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Re: The Birth of a bow - A short Elk Seeker

#22 Post by stumper »

Loving this thread Tom
Nothing clears a troubled mind like shooting a bow.

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Elkman
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Re: The Birth of a bow - A short Elk Seeker

#23 Post by Elkman »

Carpdaddy wrote: Tue Apr 30, 2019 5:38 am I am curious.... I noticed the tips and line across riser and was wondering how far in front of riser will the string nocks be on the 52”? And how much more if same form is used would the 53” be? I have played around with this a little and curious about positive/negative effects.
Thanks for the motivation you have stirred in me again.
For a 52" the string nock will be about 1" in front of the riser.
For a 54" the string nock will be about 1 5/8" in front.

Tony are you asking about positive/negative effects going from 54" to 52" and vise versa or the more forward handle?

The front of this riser is 1 1/4" further forward than my original longbow form that will do up to 66" bows. On my original form, I really didn't notice much change going up or down with bow length if both were at 45#@28. Some day I will do a force draw curve for each length and compare. I would also like to put each length through a chronograph. That should tell me if there is anything positive or negative doing 2 or 3 lengths off one longbow form. There could be some miner differences that are tough to feel.
Calling Elk - Awesome! !€

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Elkman
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Re: The Birth of a bow - A short Elk Seeker

#24 Post by Elkman »

Okay, my next step is to put the 3 layers together, sand to get a thickness of 1 1/2", trim, square, etc.
longbow-form-put-together.jpeg
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After it is together I cut it just outside my drawing so I can remove material to the line.
form-cut-outside-line.jpeg
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Once cut I reattach my router template and use my large router, with a flush trim bit, to remove material down to the template for the lower limb half. I then remove the template and flip it to the upper limb half, line it up just right and attach. I then route the upper half down to my template. Afterwards I do a little clean up with a sanding block, making sure I keep my shape and a 90° angle to the face side. Everything was pretty good, I didn't have to do much at all.
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form-bottm-limb-flush-trimmed.jpeg
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Next I square up the top and bottom and space them apart enough to still give me material to remove to maintain my desired gap between the two parts. I want about 1 1/4" gap. I put a thin piece of material under the top section to raise it a little. Now I can set my riser template on the lower section. I then take my compass/scribe and set it at 1 1/4" and scribe me a line along the lower part of the form using the upper part and the riser template as my guide.
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scribe-form-gap-bottom.jpeg
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Now I cut off the larger stuff and then I go over to my oscillating spindle sander and sand to my line.
I now have both halves ready for the hardware, which I will also make myself.
sanding-belly-side-to-line.jpeg
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Calling Elk - Awesome! !€

stumper
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Re: The Birth of a bow - A short Elk Seeker

#25 Post by stumper »

Amazing.
Nothing clears a troubled mind like shooting a bow.

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Elkman
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Re: The Birth of a bow - A short Elk Seeker

#26 Post by Elkman »

I went shopping :? Found the metal I needed for my hardware. Put my metal cutting blade in my chop saw and cut myself 8 pieces at about 9".
I then set up my drill press with some stops to drill 1/8" holes 1" from each end on all of the pieces. Next I moved the stop to drill more holes at about 3 1/4" from just one end.
I cleaned off the burrs and took them to the form and positioned them where I wanted them. I then took my 1/8" bit a put it in my hand drill and drilled back through the top hole in the metal and just a little into the form. I then took another 1/8" drill bit and used it as pin to hold each part in place as I drilled through the other end to mark it. Using another broken 1/8" bit, I used it to hold the other end as I drilled through the metal again to mark the 3rd hole while the top and bottom hoes where pinned in place. Now I should have the ability to drill the larger holes with better chances at good alignment.
prep-form-locking-hardware.jpeg
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As you all can tell I'm no expert machinist, this all seemed logical at the time and it seemed to work pretty well.
Calling Elk - Awesome! !€

stumper
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Re: The Birth of a bow - A short Elk Seeker

#27 Post by stumper »

Looks good to me.
Nothing clears a troubled mind like shooting a bow.

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Graps
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Re: The Birth of a bow - A short Elk Seeker

#28 Post by Graps »

I see nothing wrong with it.
Looks good to me.
"Maybe the truly handicapped people are the ones that don't need God as much." ~ Joni Eareckson Tada

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Greg Felty
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Re: The Birth of a bow - A short Elk Seeker

#29 Post by Greg Felty »

Looking good Tom. Thanks for sharing.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

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Elkman
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Re: The Birth of a bow - A short Elk Seeker

#30 Post by Elkman »

Getting close!
I got the hardware all drilled and mounted. I'm using 3/8" bolts for the 2 holes that are at one end, so I drilled 3/8" holes in both the form and the metal. For the other end I am using 1/2" bolts, so I drill 1/2" holes in the form and I drilled the holes in the metal at 17/32" just in case things don't want to line up right. Each pair were drilled together and marked so they match. I used my drill press to do the drilling.
short-longbow-form.jpeg
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I also added some extra material to space the hardware out a little to make more room for the fire hose. Extra material was also added to add strength to the areas that could possibly break.
Calling Elk - Awesome! !€

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