I’ve watched a bunch of pvc bow videos, they look cool and I’m too cheap too buy a horsebow. This would be a fun project for guys that have little kids or grandkids. I made it from 1” pvc, and it turned out 54@27. I think I’d try ¾” for a young shooter. You could have a youth bow for a few bucks and a little elbow grease. Check out the build video.
I did the same for my older son when he was little… 3/4“ was just about right, and when he saw how hard it spit an arrow he immediately pronounced it “Sick!“
I scored many Cool Dad points that day!
I don’t have time to catch your video right now, but what I did was to use some cord to create a little bit of a hinge between two pieces of plywood so that I was able to heat up one end and compress the hot tubing into a taper. Then I think I reheated it and curved it around a large steel can to create the Siyahs. After that, it was just a matter of shaping it enough to hit the desired drawl weight. It really worked astonishingly well and took me a lot longer to plan it out than to execute.
In any case, if you can get a kid excited about archery for the cost of 4 feet of PVC pipe? I cannot imagine any better investment in this world short of maybe some very early shares in bitcoin… In which case you could afford to start a small boy/girl into archery with a custom of your choice…. LOL
Thanks altitude sickness Corax yeah I guess you’re right messed up my terminology. I was expecting the fumes to be bad cuz anytime I’ve used a torch on pvc they were burn your nostrils terrible but with the heat gun they weren’t all that bad. I think your way would be easier to file nocks with
I would like to see a close up photo of the bow tips. In the video the pvc appears to be folded in where the string lies after the string grooves. Thank you.
Wildbill. I already sold that bow so I can't take a pic finished. I'll try to make more soon, I'll try to take a pic next time. This is a screen grab from before I finished cutting string grooves. After flattening I made the curve, then folded it so the string sits in the tips, same as it does on a regular recurve, I just rounded the edges with a bandsaw and file. Accidentally deleted that part.
There’s a guy on Etsy who makes( or made) a short 110# hybrid pvc bow callled the Ninja. I bought one, used it trying to build up my back muscles so I could shoot 70# easily. One day I put it on the bow scale at my club. The lower limb collapsed at 100#, which was a far as the scale went.
A PVC bow sounds hideous, but that stained bow looks great. Who else had a mental picture of some kind of plumbing fixture flinging arrows? Until now, I never bothered to open a Youtube video on the topic thinking it couldn't be good.. but you showed it can!
I almost tried making one of these before I started making selfbows. I don’t remember the guys name, but he had a bunch of YouTube videos. You probably know who I’m talking about.
He had one on pvc thumb ring. I did make one of those. Worked great if I could have figured out how to shoot from opposite side of bow.
Glad you scored the cool dad points. Hope your son keeps that feeling forever
Thanks cobra I think the key is getting it really scuffed so it takes the stain. I think I may have said it before but I’ve always liked horse bows but not enough to buy one. Sometime I’ll make another that’s a little more horse style.
Brjogg I bet you’re thinking of backyard bowyer. That offside shooting intrigues me but I’ve never tried it. No kids for me. I kinda meant more guys that had kids might like it. Posted it on another forum and a guy said he keeps one for friends that wanna try archery
