Covid 19 and crossbow builders

Hope all our community and their fam and friends are well!

Would love to know what the clever crossbow builders here are up to in their workshops if confined to home?

I have just restored a vintage Whammo Powermaster myself, and for safety sake, keeping it as a wall hanger only. Tested it a couple of times with a full face guard though, and is actually quite a sweet shooter!
Stripped, stained and refinished stock, polished prod and all metal parts, and made a new string. Pics soon.

Next project is carving an Australian Blackwood stock for my Astro Daco Hornet.
Will refit the original prod, though build a better mounting system, and use the factory trigger mech which works well.

For your second crossbow what do you plan to use as the mounting system? I know the Astro Dacro Hornet the prod is made from fiberglass.

The old Wham O crossbows suffered from two dangerous faults:  Some models had insufficiently hardened sears... the lock would fail when you released the safety
The second problem was fatigued aluminum prods.  I've had lots of experience with aluminum prods. Occasionally old ones fail.  Usually that means they just bend and stay that way.  Occasionally one actually breaks (usually at the middle) For that, there are two possible solutions: (well three if you count hanging it on the wall) either fit a leather strap down the length of the prod (backside) That way if the prod breaks, it won't come back and hit you... that's what medieval bowyers did.  
The other solution:  Send a letter of enquiry to Garvin's Slo Bows and see if they still have steel replacement prods for Powermasters.  Yes, I know Garvin can be infuriatingly slow sometimes, but he's honest, and is the only supplier I know who has replacements for Powermasters. With a new steel prod, you can shoot to your heart's content.  Just be careful to keep the bow pointed downrange when you release the safety... at least for the first few shots... and enjoy.  Whamo powermaster was my very first crossbow.  It gave me many hours of enjoyable shooting.  Geezer.

The factory spec Daco mounting system leaves much to be desired imo. Plan to make a steel nose cone of sorts similar to the old Barnett Mk1 Wildcat to improve limb security and angle to the deck.

If I was to shoot the Whammo I would probably cover the prod with a couple sleeves of shrink tube. It's a pity the "Duralum"  alloy had such fatigue and reliability issues. Wonder if the first Barnetts, Hortons and Jayhawks had problems? The 80's Crissbow Crossbows used a similar material in both their recurve and compound models, but have never heard of failures here.
Can certainly see problems arising with the string latch on the Whammo, very thin sheet steel, looks like it was folded from tinfoil!

We are the children,

the last generation,

Okay that's pretty sick.

Haha!
Would think twice about stealing your dunny roll for sure!

Those rolls are filled with sand.
The real TP is hidden in trucks going the other way.

Ha! Very well done Max (and Feral Kid)
....and nice work hullutiedemies!

Well, so far I've managed to spend a few hours just cleaning my work-space. Normally I only get a few minutes in the 'shop in any week, so, on the rare occasion I get out there I normally spend my time working not tidying. The state of the place is just embarassing! Next I'm going to 'rotate' my timber store and select a few pieces for a pin-lock bow to work in parallel with my long-term composite-bow project.

I spent a lot of time cleaning my shop.  Then I started building a stone bow.  I'm just about finished.  yes I've read Geezer's posts about stone bows and purchased some ballistic goggles. We'll see if I can figure out how to post pictures.

I've taken a detour back to building swords and axes and a bardiche or two over the last year or so, but I have a nice steel prod from Slobows sitting in the corner that's been calling to me...

Gnome

Gnome -- ever build a Scythian style Dagger-Axe?  I've got some pix and sketches from archaeological digs in Central Asia...

Ha! No, nothing like that. Most of my pieces are medieval European, or my own designs inspired by that period, with a few more modern rapiers and sabers thrown in. Oh, and warhammers. Just love warhammers.
Gnome

Well a dagger-ax is sort of a war hammer -- with a blade!   The one-hand versions of a Bec de Corbin are medieval descendents of a thousand years of dagger-axe development -- the dagger has morphed into a spike rather than a blade.  I particularly like a Bec which also has a bit of a thrusting spike on the top, in line with the handle...

I built a stone bow.  I also purchased a set of ballistic goggles based on geezer's recommendation.   The bow is lashed on with Theraband so I can easily dismantle for storage an transport.  

That looks really nice! I'd probably armor up like a Stormtrooper to shoot it, LOL.

I'm dealing with some safety concerns right now as well- a friend handed me his old Wham-O Powermaster and asked me to fix it up. Right from the start I tried real hard to convince him to let me just clean it up so it would look nice hanging on the wall and then build him a new crossbow if he wants something to shoot, but he has his mind set on reliving his childhood.

I was happy to study it, haven't handled one since way before I started building. I was impressed with the design of the trigger mechanism, though it was quite crudely and flimsily made. There really isn't much worth salvaging, however. The aluminum prod is obviously highly fatigued, the stock is stripped and scarred, the trigger mechanism is bent and corroded, the sights are missing... I don't want to string it, let alone fire it. Now I have to work up a firm "No" to hand the guy.

Oh well. as they say, "into each arbalist's shop a Wham-O must fall." Or something like that. 

Gnome

MPDVM, that stone crossbow is amazing! Now I'm jealous, LOL. Really, congratulations on it. Maybe when My wife and I retire to El Salvador I will build a crossbow based on mine just to keep myself busy.

Whammos look great refinished and hung on a wall!

Your stonebow looks great!! The painting on the back of the prod reminds me of a pictish crossbow I believe I saw depicted by Todd Workshop. I wanted to build something like that for my friend but, the pouch turning around, and potentially hitting you in the eye is a real turn off. So I thought about doing split limbs so there are two different strings connected to two separate limbs by a pouch. There's viritually no way possible it can turn around, and hit you in the eye. Or I just thought about building a pellet bow with a sled, and perhaps a magazine.