My latest longbow was going along really well. I was ready to profile the limbs. As I peeled the tape off, I was very pleased with the osage under clear glass. the figured bubinga was gonna be beautiful in the riser. As the last piece of tape came off the upper limb belly my hopes were dashed. The glass had a crack about 12" long!!! It is internal to the glass, because I can't feel it with my thumb nail. I inspected this glass very carefully with a bright light, as I always do. With one side pre-sanded its hard to see flaws sometimes. My supplier has been really good so far, but I don't know if they will even re-imburse me for the one piece of glass. I will lose about $140 in supplies and a weeks work now. This is a straight longbow, so there was no stress in the area of the crack. I'm bummed!
Here is the crack and the figured bubinga riser.
(http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o203/Apex-Predator/Dennis%2000708/Crack-1.jpg)
(http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o203/Apex-Predator/Dennis%2000708/Crack-2.jpg)
(http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o203/Apex-Predator/Dennis%2000708/Figuredbubinga-1.jpg)
(http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o203/Apex-Predator/Dennis%2000708/Figuredbubinga-2.jpg)
Happens to all of us. It does make you sick though, but don't loose heart or confidence in your "game". You should be able to salvage that riser, it looks good and I love bubinga. If you don't want to deal with all that extra grinding, I'll pay shipping for it....
and you might be able to rocoup some of the money (not much, but some) by selling the limbs and or risers as knife bolsters and such.... just an idea.
Or do like I did and hang it on the wall above the workbench as a reminder.... of what I haven't quite figured out yet, but something.
Mike
Sorry to hear that about Your bow. I have seen the others you have made and they are great. I say Hang it. It's still a great looking bow.
I plan to finish her without all the fancy overlays and see what happens. If the crack doesn't move, I may sell her as is to get my money back out of the supplies. I will shoot her a couple of months first to make sure she is sound. We'll find out when I start to shoot her.
That's a bummer. Do you have any thoughts on why it happened? Could it have been there from the factory but not become visible until you glued and cooked it? You can maybe drill a small hole at each end of the crack to stop it from cracking farther and add a dab of glue to seal the holes.
I know how disappointed you are but if the bow is serviceable shoot it or find someone interested in buying it for cost. That could make a good entry level bow for someone.
I have only built one glass bow...from a Bingham kit. I had it glued up, cut to shape but it had a slight twist to it from my not properly cutting and shaping the fades. If blew before I ever got it strung just from light flexing. Pat
Had to be from the factory. The only stress during glue up is in the fades, since it is a straight longbow. I tried to seep some CA in the crack, but it doesn't come all the way to the surface. I may try the hole drilling routine. We think alike Pat and our posts must have crossed in cyberspace! See my previous post.
Apex, I have repaired glass cracks by grinding through the glass to the wood lam with a Dremel tool. Grind the full length of the crack and fill if with fiberglass resin or epoxy. After it cures sand it flat. I have not repaired one quite that long but it may be worth a try. I have had good luck doing this on a short crack (2 to 3 inches).
Just a thought;
If the crack appeared under pressure in the form, it may already be filled with the glue your using to glue the glass to the lams. I'm with you Apex, I'd finish her off without all the fancy stuff, and shoot her hard to find out how she handles the defect. Not sure I'd sell it incase it happens to give up the ghost later on at that particular spot. Make a right pretty backup bow, bowfishing bow, or you may want to experiment with a takedown method with it.
Tim
apex i can tell you as a man primarily interested in the functionality of a bow and still appreciative of the aesthetic that as long as the crack doesn't run and it's a sound shooter i wouldn't care too much about a small cosmetic flaw in buying a bow. she is lookin great otherwise.
i'd say finish her off, see how she turns out, and shoot her in before you even begin to get down about it. tapping and filling the ends of the crack does sound like the best advice. even if the crack's already sealed from glue up it can't make it worse.
I agree with Tim. Leave the crack alone. Finish her up and see how she shoots/handles. Wear safety glasses for the first few shots ;) . I had one blow up in my hands once and it tends to unnerve one a bit.
if he taps and seals the crack, it won't run, and the bow won't look any worse. if he doesn't the bow may fail, and if it survives, it still won't look any better. i don't see what your rationale is.
Any of you folks ever put snake skins on the belly?
I have heard that it will peel and rip being on the belly.
Dang Marty,hate to see that,that sucks when it happens. Makes you almost ill! Had a couple camo painted myself. :banghead:
If the crack is far enough to one side, you could make a really sweet kids bow. Maybe get your money back out of it.
APEX - That is a bummer. Should be fine.
I have seen a few bows guys put skins on the belly. I thought it looked good. Another idea, you could put some Osage Limsations from Onestringer on the belly instead of skins? Just a thought.
Brock
Apex,
Just an idea here, and it may not be usable but here it is.
Could you drill a small hole at both ends of the crack (this stops the crack from "running" further) and then apply thinned epoxy or super glue to one end of the crack, and VACUUM to the other end. If there is any "gap" under the glass/epoxy, the glue will be sucked through the entire crack, sealing it up completely.
Sorry to see your hard work turn out that way. One of the "Joys" of self employment and manufacturing goods is we have to eat our work, sometimes.
I'm sure that with the necessary repairs it will be a fine shooting/hunting bow. Your work is very attractive.
I've never had that happen so I don't know for sure but I wouldn't think it would affect performance and function of the bow. After all the glass is all there. The crack may not move any more. Shoot it a 1000 times and if it hasn't moved then don't worry about it, camo it or leave it the way it is and sell it cheap. Chad
Another thought is once I put tape on the rough side of the fiberglass by accident. I caught it before glue up. When I pulled the tape off it pulled a splinter off the glass. I retaped the smooth side and made the bow. After the bow was glued up I could see where the splinter was missing on the underside of the glass. Could something similiar have happened and it isn't really a crack? Chad
I noticed that the clear glass I got from Binghams had flaws in it that looked like fine check marks, or what Chad mentioned. You can see them pretty clearly against the dark wood of the limbs, but none come thru or can be felt. I'm watching to see if they get worse as my son shoots or if its just a visual flaw.
Odd, as you would think a great deal of torsional stress or cupping would be required to cause such a crack. Looks entirely cosmetic to me, from the pic. If it won't absorb very thin super glue I would not necessarily try any other remedy for fear of doing more harm than good. Would be very interested to hear how it holds up to use.
Well, she is holding up just fine. I've probably shot her 200 times so far. I have to take some good photos and I'll show you folks the final product. May just keep this one for a demo.
Personaly I'd cut it in half and throw it out. It's not worth losing an eye over the cost of the materials. I've made a few that didn't come out right and it killed me to do it but that's what I did. If it was on the back it wouldn't bother me so much.
If the crack doesnt come all the way through you should be fine. I bet that bow will last a long time. The smooth on should seal everything down tight. Gordons clear glass has cosmetic flaws in it regularly. They no longer quality control inspect there bow glass. In fact they dont even like making glass for trad bowyers anymore as demand is so small. They have to set-up tooling to do a batch once a year and then they are done for the year and move on to better money making productions. IMO this crapshoot with the clear glass is "the" real bummer when you are trying to sell bows.
That is a bigger flaw than I have seen yet though. Usually they are 2 inches or so.
Question is...was anything learned from it? If so, it's not a failure.
It turned out not to be a failure. Just have to re-build another for a customer. I inspect a little closer now.