Is it pssible to build a laminated recurve or longbow without all the special heated forms with pressurized hoses if you only want to build one for yourself? Or would you still have to get all that high-tech, expensive stuff since it is laminated? Can you do it with maybe a hand-built substitute form and a few hand tools, some glue, laminations, glass and lumber?
Yep. I have never made a lam bow with a pressure hose. I dont make synthetic lam bows anymore. I make all organic bows. I prefer the challenge. As for an oven, if you can make a bow, you can make an easy oven out foam board and 100 watt lights. Ive made foam boxes that ive cooked glass bows in over 170 degrees. You will need to make a form, but again, if you can put together a bow, a form is pretty easy. A glass lam bow is real easy to make, it just looks hard. No real tillering etc... Ive know guys who have built lots of glass bows and to this day can not tiller a bow. Order your lams (I assume you are not going to grind your own, since that takes a drum sander, surface sander, or a modified belt sander), build your form, lay them out on your form, and use inner tubes as your clamps (or even spring clamps if you have them). Make a cheap oven out of foam board, and cook it up. Shape, and shoot. Lams and glass were made to make bow building easier and more easy to mass produce. I have made lam bows with hand tools. Heck, ive made an entire selfbow with just an ax before. But i digress. You can get all your pregound lams and glass for about 50 bucks. Depeding on the lams. Foam for and oven for about 30 bucks. And glue, any thick, heat cure epoxy will work. It can get expensive if you are just making one bow. The best epoxy is smoothon 40, which runs around 40 bucks. But will make many bows. A good alternative is any of the aero/marine heat cure epoxy, just be sure to get some cabasil or talk to thicken the thin versions. Ive used aero for years, back when I did glass bows. You will either need to be prepared to use lots of elbow grease, or find someone with a belt sander to make your riser. I have a buddy who makes all his lam bows with not much more than a hand saw and files.
That helps a lot. I just want to find a way to get a bow that I like the looks of for a reasonable price for a teen Is there an online place where I can find that in formal directions.
It has been years since I have dealt with glass bows, so I might not have updated data, but in the past Binghams sold everything you need. I believe it is called binghams. Also, you might try trad gang. If I recall, there are some forums on there for building glass bows. You might check out Rudder bows. Other than that, you might just start googling. Sorry for the lack of info. About 90% of my materials are growing around me. lol.
I keep going back and forth on building fiberglass bows. I have a heat box ready. Watched the bingham VHS videos. But its still extremely expensive for parts from 3 rivers or binghams. You will be lucky to build a bow under 120dollars in parts alone. But a selfbow, as bernie said is rewarding and affordable.
