im bulding a crossbow from 2years pls help me

hey im making a crossbow but im now making a prod i have tried a spring steel but its broke when i was drawing it as i cocked it as i fire it the prod broke after that i want to make some easy prod but powerful any idea ????????? pls tell me
now and but im thinking of fiberglass pros ???
now question ? for fiberglassprod i want to make 100% fiberglassprod and how its made pls help me

I haven't yet made any prods myself, but here are my thoughts: As you have discovered, when learning to hand craft a specialized item, your first efforts are probably not going to be your best! The more powerful the prod, the harder it is going to be to get it right so if your goal is to learn how to make your own prods, I think you would find more success by starting with something easier, and probably less powerful, and working your way up. Unless you have access to sophisticated equipment, I wouldn't attempt fiberglass right off the bat. I'd start with wood. Of course, if your goal is to have a good prod and not to learn how to make one, why not just buy a fiberglass prod? They're cheap and readily available.

Another line of thought- you must have some skill with metal working if you fashioned a steel prod, even if it did fail. If you could provide details on your design, fabrication process, and exactly how the prod failed, the folks on this forum could do a better job helping to improve your next effort. A picture is worth a thousand words, so post images if you are able. I am curious to see your work.

Gnome

Gnome wrote:I haven't yet made any prods myself, but here are my thoughts: As you have discovered, when learning to hand craft a specialized item, your first efforts are probably not going to be your best! The more powerful the prod, the harder it is going to be to get it right so if your goal is to learn how to make your own prods, I think you would find more success by starting with something easier, and probably less powerful, and working your way up. Unless you have access to sophisticated equipment, I wouldn't attempt fiberglass right off the bat. I'd start with wood. Of course, if your goal is to have a good prod and not to learn how to make one, why not just buy a fiberglass prod? They're cheap and readily available.

Another line of thought- you must have some skill with metal working if you fashioned a steel prod, even if it did fail. If you could provide details on your design, fabrication process, and exactly how the prod failed, the folks on this forum could do a better job helping to improve your next effort. A picture is worth a thousand words, so post images if you are able. I am curious to see your work.

Gnome

thxxxxxxx

Gnome, thanks for breaking it down so well.

I agree, take it easy, grab some materials, take a few pictures (we love pictures/videos ) and then if you need some help we'll be here to help out with whatever.

Good Luck,

Ivo

PS: Try to use smilies to help us understand you, not to distract us from what you're trying to say. I know how excited you must be to be a part of this community, I deal with that volcano every day, but try to remain on point...and get some crossbow building done.

Hey, Well couple of thoughts. If the prod was made out of an old car spring, or any used metal, it may have failed do to fatigue or preexisting cracks. So the failure may not have been anything you did.

Couple of questions, along the lines of what Gnome was asking. Did it break when it was drawn or when fired? And what was the draw length of the bow? Most steel prods I have seen have a draw length around 10 inches (25 cm).

If your feeling ambitious here is some details on making a composite aluminum prod. Makes take a couple of try's to get all of the details out of the wall of text.
https://thearbalistguild.forumotion.com/t449-lightweight-high-power-prod-s

I know there are some plans for fiberglass prod on this site I'll try to dig them up later.

Unfortunately not sure of a good way to make a simple high powered prod. There is a lot of stress in the prod so its going to take some care to get it to work. Don't give up just because one attempt went poorly. Hopefully no one was hurt.

U didnt "dry"-fire it by any chance?(without arrow).
If u do that the blade/prod cannot give the energy to the arrow/bolt and is likely to brake, especially with higher strength prods!
Just a thought, no saying u actually did....

ferdinand wrote:U didnt "dry"-fire it by any chance?(without arrow).
If u do that the blade/prod cannot give the energy to the arrow/bolt and is likely to brake, especially with higher strength prods!
Just a thought, no saying u actually did....

i have did it i have shot with that crossbow more than 500 arrows but i was luckey that it did not hurt any one