I came across a video which I think will be of interest.It's on you tube,and it's by ll Telvil.This guy has built himself a terrific crossbow.It is 190lbs draw weight,15ins. power stroke,has a split prod and cam action.He has a series of 16 videos,one of which is how he built it.
Personally,I like the idea of a split limb prod,as I feel it offers important advantages over a solid bow,but it does present difficulties for a home builder.Whenever I decide to build something,the first consideration for me,is,do I have the tooling,and if not,is it possible to out source the work at a reasonable price?
The big problem with split limb bows,is how to secure the limbs to the bow.Commercial crossbows usually seem to use die cast aluminium holding devices.Home casting of aluminium is not that difficult,and the furnace and equipment cheap and easy to make,the problem is,it's not really building crossbows,so do I want to take the not inconsiderable time to get into,and master aluminium casting?.Problem number two,castings would need to be machined,and I don't have the expensive machinery to do it.To get back to the video,this guy has found the way.He uses stock steel materials(readily available as salvage),and when completed,his prod holding devices don't need machining.The only specialized service required,is welding.He also uses leaf spring for the prod.Leaf springs are not suitable for one piece prods,for reasons that have been discussed extensively on here.However,the problems don't apply for a 2 piece cam action prod,and leaf spring is ideal.His prod holders will I think,work equally well for a non cam action bow.In his instructional video,he also shows how to make the bowstring,fletching jig,and has a seperate video showing how to make 3 blade broadheads..I take my hat off to II Telvil,because of his practical solutions,and not least because of the time he's saved me.
Hermit.
Personally,I like the idea of a split limb prod,as I feel it offers important advantages over a solid bow,but it does present difficulties for a home builder.Whenever I decide to build something,the first consideration for me,is,do I have the tooling,and if not,is it possible to out source the work at a reasonable price?
The big problem with split limb bows,is how to secure the limbs to the bow.Commercial crossbows usually seem to use die cast aluminium holding devices.Home casting of aluminium is not that difficult,and the furnace and equipment cheap and easy to make,the problem is,it's not really building crossbows,so do I want to take the not inconsiderable time to get into,and master aluminium casting?.Problem number two,castings would need to be machined,and I don't have the expensive machinery to do it.To get back to the video,this guy has found the way.He uses stock steel materials(readily available as salvage),and when completed,his prod holding devices don't need machining.The only specialized service required,is welding.He also uses leaf spring for the prod.Leaf springs are not suitable for one piece prods,for reasons that have been discussed extensively on here.However,the problems don't apply for a 2 piece cam action prod,and leaf spring is ideal.His prod holders will I think,work equally well for a non cam action bow.In his instructional video,he also shows how to make the bowstring,fletching jig,and has a seperate video showing how to make 3 blade broadheads..I take my hat off to II Telvil,because of his practical solutions,and not least because of the time he's saved me.
Hermit.