So when you decide you want a bow, why not build it, heck why not build the quiver and some arrows too...so here it is day 2 have shaped the business side of the riser and put in the accent stripe...simple stuff. The woods are bloodwood, laminated together, and a piece of spalted and flamed elm that has been stabilized. Yes there are bug tracks in the elm, it took on a full pint of stabilizer so it is nice and hefty now.. The veneers will be cedar and the cores hard maple. The arrows will be douglas fir footed with bloodwood. I steamed the ccedar to get the tight radius on the quiver, using the same elm from the bow, a bit of shaping to be done but time to let the cedar dry and adjust to it's shape. More to come and stay tuned...

Ok...you've got my attention.

Lams all laid out ready to be ground...the dark spots on the cedar is where there are knots. I always put ca on them so I don't lose them during grinding. It works most of the time. I cut and grind my own because I like a nice straight grain in my cores and I like select ing my own veneers. The cores were cut on the table saw the veneers on the bandsaw. The one piece of cedar yielded 8 bookmatched sets of veneers. A whoppin $10 board (cedar is cheap)

Same here more pics please( heavy panting)??

And last one for the night. The color test pic to make sure the veneers work with the elm. Btw the elm was destined for the fire at deercamp this last year,I spotted the spalting and saved two pieces. Brought it home sealed the ends roughed it out and let it dry then force dried it and stabilized it by putting it in a vacuum chamber and impregnating it with cactusjuice stabilizer and cooking it.

So too cold to grind lams and shape the riser in the garage so I made quick and short forays to work on the quiver. I first took the cedar and glued it on itself before I left for work. When I got ome I marked the outline for the bottom on a 1/4" piece of scrap luan. Then glued the cedar into the main beam of the quiver. Shaped and glued in the bottom then got a bit creative and put a veneer of bloodwood and fir over the luan. Drilled a hole part way through the block at the top and epoxied a bolt into it. I then sliced up a block to go over and under the leather to use as a keeper for the arrows. A bit of sanding and here we are. A little more sanding and I will shoot it with some lacquer when the humidity drops a bit. 100% scrap was used to make this quiver. Right at the same weight as a bear spring arm quiver.

Another pic now to decide how to mount it and alternate ways to carry it as well, ie strap or clip...

Looking good, Done any more work on the riser?

-Bones

Nice,,,

Did I miss the stabiltzing wood part? Where did you buy the stabiltzer and how did you do it? I have some Mesquiite and Carob wood I hope to use as riser material. If you prefer PM me so as to keep this thread for the bow build. Thanks, Tom M

Tom don't mind putting it here at all as it was done to make the wood suitable for the bow.

I stabilize riser size blocks, for me that is 1.5x1.5x18. I use a piece of 2"ID pipe as a vacuum chamber, have to mount a nipple in the cap put a cap on one end etc. Also make your chamber a bit longer than the wood you plan to stabilize or you will get bubbles of stabilizer in your pump...bad deal for sure. Another consideration is to use the smallest diameter you can to minimize the amount of juice you have to put in to cover your wood. I use cactus juice from Turntex, it is expensive but another bowyer shared the conversation he had where the owner asured him compatibility with the epoxies we use. Also all stabilizers are expensive.

I put the wood in the chamber, put the stabilizer in, some weights on top of it, and draw a vacuum for 3-4 hours. The more vacuum the better as close to 30mmHg as you can get 29-29.5 for me. Open it up and see if I need to add more juice because it is in the wood, let it soak and repeat the process a few times letting it soak overnight at least after the last vacuum if not more than once. When it is done the wood should not float. Then you cook the wood for 4-6hrs at 200 degrees.

The block I treated took on a full cup plus some, so it went from a free piece of firewood to $10-$15 worth of stabilizer. I was given a pump so I only have about $40 in chambers and fitting for my initial outlay, then of course $40ish dollars for a quart of juice, oh it has a shelf life too 6 months so have some things ready to go if you do it.

Oh and no riser work yet it's 25-30 degrees in the garage, my wife let me work on the quiver inside if I promised to clean the floors...

Looking Great so far and very good info to boot.

Thanks

This is looking like its going to be a sharp bow! Can't wait to see it done either

Been looking into stabilizing woods but how did you flame the elm?

Love that Elm! Reminds me of a pirate's map!

Thank you for the info on stabilizing the wood. Should have thought about wood turners supply.

Put a bit of finish on the quiver yesterday and knocked it back down to a matte luster today. Went ahead and made the attachment to use it as a side quiver(no pics of my shoddy leatherwork yet) I will make a seperate system to mount it on a bow later. Fun little project 100% from scrap materials I had lying around. Already have ideas to improve the next one. Went ahead and done this because it is too cold out in the garage to glue anything up. Hope to finish the riser prep tomorrow and grind the lams to thickness.

Finally got off my Lazy tail today and ground my lams down, the riser has been shaped and is clamped to my form for security. I have triplet six year olds that like to help...I don't like to make two risers for one bow so I clamp it down now when it is ready to go.

You can see my homebuilt drum sander that I use to grind lams, best way I have right now and darn effective too. I can get accurate results down to .001 on a 9" wide board. One of my favorite tools to use in my garage. Close enough for caveman work.

So for those interested the tools I use are a spindle sander, 6x48 belt sander, bandsaw (I use one for wood and have another set up just for glass), and the drum sander. The first bow I built was done with a tablesaw, scroll saw and a handheld belt sander, and yes I ground my own lams for that one too.

Adjustment on the sander. KISS

And the riser

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