Homemade Crossbow

by Vince Wed Feb 11, 2015 12:03 pm

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Post n°1

Homemade Crossbow

by Vince Wed Feb 11, 2015 12:03 pm

I am brand new to the crossbow community. I have been viewing many "How to" crossbow but none really have plans. Are there actual plans to be found anywhere?

by phuphuphnik Wed Feb 11, 2015 1:58 pm

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Post n°2

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by phuphuphnik Wed Feb 11, 2015 1:58 pm

Alchem has plans for a basic Flemish bow. It is a nice design, and they will sell you the parts you need.
Barring that, there are several designs on this site both for stocks and locks/levers. What are you looking for?

by kenh Wed Feb 11, 2015 4:23 pm

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Post n°3

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by kenh Wed Feb 11, 2015 4:23 pm

What he said! There are several plans around, plus build-alongs that you can follow. Iolo's First Book Of The Crossbow http://www.crossbows.net/ifboc.php shows profiles of a number of different bows

by **Geezer** Wed Feb 11, 2015 5:46 pm

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Post n°4

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by Geezer Wed Feb 11, 2015 5:46 pm

For a good medieval crossbow pattern, you can always use the Flemish Arbalest pattern from Payne Gallwey's "The Crossbow, Medieval and Modern" Also available as "The Book of the Crossbow" There are a few things in there that I would advise you to do differently, but it's a good basic pattern of a 15th-17th century Belgian/Flemish crossbow. Geezer

by kenh Wed Feb 11, 2015 6:53 pm

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Post n°5

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by kenh Wed Feb 11, 2015 6:53 pm

Payne-Gallwey's Book is available to read on line here: http://www.crossbowbook.com/

by **Geezer** Wed Feb 11, 2015 7:42 pm

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Post n°6

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by Geezer Wed Feb 11, 2015 7:42 pm

A hundred years after publication, The Crossbow by PG is still one of the standard sources. It's not invariably accurate, but it IS chock-full of good stuff. My biggest gripe on his arbalest pattern is the trigger passage, which is unnecessarily complex. It looks like most medieval bows simply cut a slot in the bottom, big enough to accept the tickler. Later you can always fill the extra with a block of matching or contrasting wood if you don't like the look. Also, PG sets the roller-nut a bit too shallow in its socket to my taste. He buries the roller by 3/5 of its diameter. I prefer 2/3, since it gives you a stronger socket. the 3/5 Does allow for taller lugs on the nut, and it should suffice if you follow his lead and use an iron roller socket. I use bone-reinforced socket, so prefer it to be deeper. I hope that makes sense. If not take a look at P G's pattern and think about it a bit. Geezer.

by Vince Thu Feb 12, 2015 8:31 am

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Post n°7

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by Vince Thu Feb 12, 2015 8:31 am

Thank you for all the great suggestions. I wanted to try to make the prod from PVC and then incorporate this into a wood stock.

by **Geezer** Thu Feb 12, 2015 9:40 am

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Post n°8

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by Geezer Thu Feb 12, 2015 9:40 am

PVC, huh? Well on the positive side, the material is widely available and fairly easy to work with... Otherwise, I can't really recommend it. Perhaps you should consider buying one of the cheap Chinese fiberglass prods... you should be able to buy them online, and they'll cast much better. Geezer

by Vince Thu Feb 12, 2015 9:43 am

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Post n°9

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by Vince Thu Feb 12, 2015 9:43 am

That is an excellent idea. What should I look for if I was to order on line--I mean to they go by draw or length?

by phuphuphnik Thu Feb 12, 2015 9:54 am

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Post n°10

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by phuphuphnik Thu Feb 12, 2015 9:54 am

I use the $10 prods from thecrossbowstore. I like them. They pull 50# at 8.5" I'm about to order one of the 120# ones. I used the smaller ones for the stonebows I made last year. They hold up well. They are a bit small at 17" unspanned, so a full size stock looks kinda funny to me. I've been making 2/3 scale stocks to fit the prods and practice my woodworking skills.

I ordered a similar prod from ebay and it was lopsided and split the first time I spanned it. That is why I stick to TCBS.

by Vince Thu Feb 12, 2015 9:58 am

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Post n°11

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by Vince Thu Feb 12, 2015 9:58 am

Good advice--your information is very helpful. Is there a good stock plan in this forum?

by c sitas Thu Feb 12, 2015 11:14 am

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Post n°12

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by c sitas Thu Feb 12, 2015 11:14 am

hello Newbee; Go on u tube and check out the back yard bowyer. I have done many.

by Vince Thu Feb 12, 2015 11:21 am

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Post n°13

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by Vince Thu Feb 12, 2015 11:21 am

Thank you C!

by kenh Thu Feb 12, 2015 12:22 pm

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Post n°14

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by kenh Thu Feb 12, 2015 12:22 pm

I agree that PVC prods can be quite good. Nick Tomihama shows you how to build a +100# draw prod in one video, and he also details a unique toplock/action that allows regular nocked arrows to be used.

by Vince Fri Feb 13, 2015 10:05 am

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Post n°15

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by Vince Fri Feb 13, 2015 10:05 am

Thank you for Nick's name--I have gotten some very good ideas how to proceed.

by c sitas Fri Jul 10, 2015 7:53 pm

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Post n°16

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by c sitas Fri Jul 10, 2015 7:53 pm

You know, as a side note. Nick had mentioned that you can repair a collapsed pvc. bow. Well I took one I had made. It pulled 105# at about 13". I overpulled it to collapse it. I rebuilt it according to his directions. It came out perfect. I pull tested it then and it pulled about 2# more. Why? Maybe I added a little more deflex which should make the limbs work a little more , I don't know . The whole project took about 30 minutes, start to finish. This thing surely is enough to be fatal, so beware.

by Xamllew Sat Jul 11, 2015 12:45 am

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Post n°17

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by Xamllew Sat Jul 11, 2015 12:45 am

c sitas wrote:You know, as a side note. Nick had mentioned that you can repair a collapsed pvc. bow. Well I took one I had made. It pulled 105# at about 13". I overpulled it to collapse it. I rebuilt it according to his directions. It came out perfect. I pull tested it then and it pulled about 2# more. Why? Maybe I added a little more deflex which should make the limbs work a little more , I don't know . The whole project took about 30 minutes, start to finish. This thing surely is enough to be fatal, so beware.

How far down the limb was the collapse? What might've happened is the flattened pipe rounded out when you reheated it, flattened PVC always tries to re-inflate when you heat it up so you have to keep pressure on the limb so it doesn't try to bulge back into a round pipe.

I've made a few PVC bows and they're pretty easy to do, my only problem with them is they always eventually crack for me, doesn't matter if I have the nicest tiller, they always take a lot of set and eventually blow.

by c sitas Sat Jul 11, 2015 10:47 am

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Re: Homemade Crossbow

by c sitas Sat Jul 11, 2015 10:47 am

Hello I've only had two blow on me. one was on purpose. The other one folded right next to the stock. I was over drawing it though. I've been going to try and make a duplex but, I haven't gotten around to it yet.

by Xamllew Sat Jul 11, 2015 5:08 pm

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Post n°19

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by Xamllew Sat Jul 11, 2015 5:08 pm

c sitas wrote:Hello I've only had two blow on me. one was on purpose. The other one folded right next to the stock. I was over drawing it though. I've been going to try and make a duplex but, I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Maybe I'm just not using the right type of PVC, but after at least 5 different bows made from two different brands of PVC they all go before probably 500 shots. That's why I stopped making them entirely.

By "duplex" do you mean like a Penobscot bow with the smaller outer limbs?

by c sitas Sat Jul 11, 2015 7:35 pm

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Post n°20

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by c sitas Sat Jul 11, 2015 7:35 pm

No, I mean, say maybe 1.oo inside 1.250 . Just some thing to try. Or maybe 3 3/8" fiberglass rods inside the pipes.

by Xamllew Sat Jul 11, 2015 10:41 pm

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Post n°21

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by Xamllew Sat Jul 11, 2015 10:41 pm

Ah, I see, reinforcing the pipe with another pipe inside. I can say that they are better performers when you use a small section of smaller diameter pipe to stiffen the handle section though it is kinda a pain in the ass to do. It also allows you to cut a shelf into the handle without compromising the strength since it doesn't bend much at all through the handle.

by c sitas Sun Jul 12, 2015 4:28 pm

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Post n°22

Re: Homemade Crossbow

by c sitas Sun Jul 12, 2015 4:28 pm

Also the object of deflexing is to control the bending to where you want it.I still think why mine broke was because it was wanting to bend in the wrong places.

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