Hunting a Bamboo Backed Bow - Page 2

March 22, 2002

This is the continuation of the story started on Page One

Yesterday I had finished preparing the slat and the bamboo for glueup.  I had also prepared the gluing system Dean Torges describes in his video "Hunting the Bamboo Backed Bow".  The next step is gluing the two pieces together.  This is a fairly simple affair.  Mix up the Urac and spread thin layers on all the parts to be glued.  I was advised to mix up 600 grains of resin to 78 grains of powder for enough to do this bow.  Then I laid the surfaces together and used electrical tape to hold them while I clamped.

Then I started by clamping the center down, and then the middle and then every 2-3 inches.  I had almost enough clamps (18) and filled in the gaps with rubber strips made from innertubes.

After this, I added 3 lamps for heat because Urac needs at least 65 degrees to cure properly and my garage is more like 55 degrees tonight.

Then I covered the whole thing with a sleeping bag and tucked it in for the night.  I'll open it up tomorrow and see what I have.

One thing I learned is that my work bench edge isn't strong enough.  It creaked and cracked, but held.  You can see it is distorted in the pictures above.

March 23, 2002

Well, it worked...pretty much.

This is Emily, my 6 year old daughter.  I'm not real sure she's so pleased about the bow but she likes to ham it up :-)

Here's a pretty good indicator that I held a lot of the shape.

I had a little problem with the handle popping a splinter.  That area is rigid so I hope I'll get away with it.  You can see it popped where a ring ran out in the bias cut ply.  Might be a lesson?

Next step is cutting a handle piece and the shape out from the slat and then on to tillering.

Here's my handle piece, the yellow wood, glued temporarily to another piece of wood as Dean recommends to facilitate cutting and shaping to the deflex in the handle portion of the bow.  The newspaper is a neat trick Dean teaches to make it so that you can pop the handle piece off the holder easily.  I'm gonna have to glue it up tomorrow since the wife and I are going out to watch the Hoosiers whoop up on Kent State!

I decided to go ahead and glue the handle piece on.

March 24, 2002

Here's what it looked like straight out of the clamps.

Then after a little cleanup.

And then after rasping in the shape of the handle and knocking out the facets to start the tillering.  Its at this point that you start feeling like you've done this before.

Shape is still looking nice.

Here's the remnants of the splinter.

First bend on floor tiller.

Yuk!  Got some work to do.

A few rounds with the Bowyer's Edge and it's starting to come around.  Still got a little work to do before I put a string on it.

Now she's starting to come around :-)

I got a string on it.  Looks OK.

March 25, 2002

I got the Dean Torges Tillerating Walkie Talkie thingamajob built.  If you've seen the video, you know what I mean.

It's basically a depth gauge.  You run it along the braced limb and see where the limb is bending too much or not enough.  Kinda like this.

I worked its magic on my bow and got it looking OK.  Here's the result bent to about 18".

Looking pretty good.  Needs some work at the spot between the dip and the midlimb on the upper limb and a little on the lower limb too.  The outer limbs need to bend more too.  Overall not bad though.  At 16" it's pulling 35#.  At 20" it's pulling 45# and at 22" it's pulling 50.  It looks like I'm gaining 2.5# per inch at those ranges so add in the 4" I got to work yet and a little fudge factor and I should come in near my 60# goal.  55# is fine too.

Bringing her home is gonna have to wait for tomorrow night.  I'm beat!

March 26, 2002


Drawn to 20".  Still needs some work on that upper limb just past the dip to just short of midlimb.  Also a touch at the tips.  The lower limb needs a little past the dip to midlimb also.

Drawn to 22".  Looking better.  I'm gonna take her to full draw now.

Here she is drawn to 26.5".  Loooks OK to me.  Anybody else see anything.  Maybe a touch at the tip on the upper limb.  Bottom limb might be a bit stiff.

A few adjustments seem to have helped.  She weighs 60# at 26" right now.  I'm guessing she'll finish at 57#.  I actually draw 26.5" so I should get my 60# after all.  Can't wait to shoot her!

Go to Page 3 of Hunting a Bamboo Backed Bow

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February 2002