Bow #2 Installment 3

Bow #2 is now a bit further along. I've tapered down the belly (and sides as well). I used a big old belt sander at the wood shop. The wood shop I'm referring to is the very well equipped wood working club that is owned by the Seven-Oaks community association where I live. I pay $240 per year and one of the things it gets me is access to all of the clubs sponsored by the association. The wood working club has everything I think I'll ever need to make bows. I will still do most of my work in the garage, but for many things the shop is a godsend. I'll use the table saw, radial arm saw, drill press and belt sander quite often.

One of my stringing booties ripped right through. I knew its days were numbered, and yesterday it ripped. So, I either had to fix the bootie or make a new one or cut nocks in the bow and use a real string. I chose the third option. I then made my first serious mistake on this bow. I cut one of the nock groves backwards. It didn't finish the whole cutting job, but I cut a pretty deep groove with my three sided file. I decided that the damage, while certainly at least cosmetic, could also cause a potential structural problem. Therefore, I glued on my first pair of tip overlays. These are probably mostly cosmetic in themselves, but in this case they are going to shore up the damage my mistake caused. See the next installment for a pic.

As for bending and tillering, I don't think there's a whole lot of change happening there. I did fix my pulley system problem. I installed the pulley too high up on the 2x4. See pic below.

I busted it off the 2x4 today and moved it down as low as it will go. Now I have room to pull the string plus the draw scale, hopefully, to the full draw length of about 30 inches. We'll see.