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Thought I'd share some images of my current project, nearing completion.
The prod, stirrup, and irons are from Slowbows, the prod is the SB113 200-250 pounder. Originally I was going to make my own irons for this one, decided against it. I did bob the decorative "fleurs" off, just to be different, and shaved some steel off the stirrup to save some weight. The concept for this project was a simple, robust, and shootable bow. I spent a lot of time and thought on the stock, and it paid off. the butt is cast off, and it mounts to my shoulder naturally and comfortably. It's amazing what a difference a quarter inch here or there makes, or a few degrees of angle. The wood is Brazilian Cherry, two 3/4" boards glued together. I used some power tools, namely a jigsaw for the rough shape, a router-bitted dremel for the trigger cavity, and a drill press for the nut cavity, but other than that I did all the shaping with hand tools- draw knife and chisels. Very satisfying. Right now it just has a coat of linseed oil to bring out the color, it will get a wax treatment when it's done. I'm trying to build up the nerve to do some carving on the grip areas fore and aft, not checkering, exactly, and nothing crazy ornate, either, just something to give a positive grip and visual interest. Any ideas?
Speaking of triggers, in a lot of ways this piece is a re-design of my first build, using what I've learned since to try for a better design- what I've learned on my own from experience and experiment, and of course the invaluable information and inspiration gleaned from others here on the forum. The main problem with that first bow was that I put a conventional trigger on a roller nut with no mechanical advantage. I didn't want the complication of a multi-stage mech on this one, and I didn't want a full-fledged tickler, either. So I have something somewhere between a trigger and tickler. A triggler? It works really well, the pull is effortless with all four fingers. It will be blued like the rest of the steel once I finalize the shape and case harden the sear face.
The nut is black acetal rod. It's the second I made for this piece, the first one was a bone-colored delrin I got from Alchem a while back. It looks good, but it seemed a bid softer than this black plastic and that scared me a bit. I used those black screws because I didn't have any brass ones handy, but I kinda like how they look. I have been thinking about doing a brass track for some time, both because I like how it looks and also to see how it improves bolt speed. I used brass angle, 1/16" thick. It's epoxied in, but also has two small nails at each end, driven at 45 degrees from one another. somewhere I have a little stash of solid brass nails that I couldn't find when it time to install the bolt track, so used steel instead. I should have looked harder for the brass, or made some out of brass wire, it would have looked a lot better. The nail heads filed flush, and are not located where the bolts will contact them anyway, but solid seamless brass would have looked nicer. I also worked to eliminate string drag, and I think I succeeded- the string doesn't touch the table at all, there's a gap about the height of a credit card. I think that's why it's so much louder than any of my other crossbows. Oh, and I made my own string for the first time, so a milestone there. Okay, this is my second string, the first one was half an inch too short. And the string didn't break imediately, that's another milestone, I guess!
I finally set up the Chrony I got a while back and compared this build with my first, which has a similar prod, but a wooden track that is in contact with the string the entire length of the span. The strings are similar, I modeled mine on the older string I bought from Alchem.. I shot the same 1.4oz (that's 612 grains, for those of you that speak that language) a half dozen times from each each bow. This bow averaged 188fps, the old bow 162fps. Seems pretty slow, but at least that's progress! Those 1/2" wooden bolts won't fit on my overdrawn, leather wrapped 150# fiberglass prod crossbow, but it shoots a 3/8" bolt of the same weight at 220fps.
Still to come- the bolt clip, nut axle (maybe, it doesn't really need one but I have some scavenged hardware that would look good in that role) and then I ruin the whole thing by trying to carve grip texture on it!
Gnome
The prod, stirrup, and irons are from Slowbows, the prod is the SB113 200-250 pounder. Originally I was going to make my own irons for this one, decided against it. I did bob the decorative "fleurs" off, just to be different, and shaved some steel off the stirrup to save some weight. The concept for this project was a simple, robust, and shootable bow. I spent a lot of time and thought on the stock, and it paid off. the butt is cast off, and it mounts to my shoulder naturally and comfortably. It's amazing what a difference a quarter inch here or there makes, or a few degrees of angle. The wood is Brazilian Cherry, two 3/4" boards glued together. I used some power tools, namely a jigsaw for the rough shape, a router-bitted dremel for the trigger cavity, and a drill press for the nut cavity, but other than that I did all the shaping with hand tools- draw knife and chisels. Very satisfying. Right now it just has a coat of linseed oil to bring out the color, it will get a wax treatment when it's done. I'm trying to build up the nerve to do some carving on the grip areas fore and aft, not checkering, exactly, and nothing crazy ornate, either, just something to give a positive grip and visual interest. Any ideas?
Speaking of triggers, in a lot of ways this piece is a re-design of my first build, using what I've learned since to try for a better design- what I've learned on my own from experience and experiment, and of course the invaluable information and inspiration gleaned from others here on the forum. The main problem with that first bow was that I put a conventional trigger on a roller nut with no mechanical advantage. I didn't want the complication of a multi-stage mech on this one, and I didn't want a full-fledged tickler, either. So I have something somewhere between a trigger and tickler. A triggler? It works really well, the pull is effortless with all four fingers. It will be blued like the rest of the steel once I finalize the shape and case harden the sear face.
The nut is black acetal rod. It's the second I made for this piece, the first one was a bone-colored delrin I got from Alchem a while back. It looks good, but it seemed a bid softer than this black plastic and that scared me a bit. I used those black screws because I didn't have any brass ones handy, but I kinda like how they look. I have been thinking about doing a brass track for some time, both because I like how it looks and also to see how it improves bolt speed. I used brass angle, 1/16" thick. It's epoxied in, but also has two small nails at each end, driven at 45 degrees from one another. somewhere I have a little stash of solid brass nails that I couldn't find when it time to install the bolt track, so used steel instead. I should have looked harder for the brass, or made some out of brass wire, it would have looked a lot better. The nail heads filed flush, and are not located where the bolts will contact them anyway, but solid seamless brass would have looked nicer. I also worked to eliminate string drag, and I think I succeeded- the string doesn't touch the table at all, there's a gap about the height of a credit card. I think that's why it's so much louder than any of my other crossbows. Oh, and I made my own string for the first time, so a milestone there. Okay, this is my second string, the first one was half an inch too short. And the string didn't break imediately, that's another milestone, I guess!
I finally set up the Chrony I got a while back and compared this build with my first, which has a similar prod, but a wooden track that is in contact with the string the entire length of the span. The strings are similar, I modeled mine on the older string I bought from Alchem.. I shot the same 1.4oz (that's 612 grains, for those of you that speak that language) a half dozen times from each each bow. This bow averaged 188fps, the old bow 162fps. Seems pretty slow, but at least that's progress! Those 1/2" wooden bolts won't fit on my overdrawn, leather wrapped 150# fiberglass prod crossbow, but it shoots a 3/8" bolt of the same weight at 220fps.
Still to come- the bolt clip, nut axle (maybe, it doesn't really need one but I have some scavenged hardware that would look good in that role) and then I ruin the whole thing by trying to carve grip texture on it!
Gnome
Last edited by Gnome on Tue May 29, 2012 4:36 am; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : 3/4" lumber, not 1/4". D'oh!)
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