Back At It Again

[ET]

Being unemployed at the moment I have a lot of free time on my hands and being a person who likes to be active I decided to try another project to kill time.
About 5-years ago I bought a nice compound bow and wanted to start shooting again to develop arm and shoulder muscles. Well the bow came equipped with too long a draw length for me and an additional cam module was ordered to adjust to my proper draw length. When I finally received the additional module all hell broke loose in my life with work priorities, lose of parents, purchasing a home and had to put the bow aside. Okay now that there’s a lull at the moment and I wanted to try to get back into some archery. But there’s that cam module to be installed. Not having a bow press and wanting to have some kind of method to work on my bow I looked at a few portable bow press models.

Oh there are a few decent ones out there but too high a price for me at the moment considering my current situation. The only viable option is too try and make one at a reasonable cost. So borrowing a few ideas/concepts from other models I decided to try my luck at building a custom fit one for my bow. So the fun has begun and I’m about 85% complete. For the one limb bracket seen below all that is needed is too glue some padding to protect the limbs where they make contact from marring or scratching.



And Boy I’m killing time with all the drilling, tapping, cutting, filing by hand and no lathe work. But I sure could have used a mill machine.
Anyway I just thought I’d share another project that might be of interest and add some motivation to another Tinker out there. ;D



Ed

[Richard]

Ed..........sorry to hear you are unemployed? Anyway, the project looks very professional. Having not messed with compounds in some time and only have a "limb compressor" that utilizes a turn-buckle" and cables to releive the tension, I would have to actually see your bow in this device to get the full picture
Richard

[ET]

Richard

No problem with an additional picture that I was going to post anyway because of a shortcoming discovered with this bracket. Because my limb thickness tapers down where my bracket actually clamps tight it will slip down the limb when pressure is applied. To prevent this I’ve just added a stop to the bracket for the end of the bow limb.

This bracket basically extends the limb and acts as a extension when pulled. For pulling the limbs inward I am using a ratchet type nylon hold down strap like the type used when tying down a load on a trailer.



Tomorrow I intend to put a load on it for a while to make sure no other unexpected hiccups appear. So far it appears it will work nicely and for under $20 instead of a $100 I think I have come out a winner on this one.

If no more hiccups appear then I will get around to changing the cam module and adjust for my draw length.

Well the economy isn’t the greatest here with a high unemployment rate. Worst case scenario is taking an overseas job that deals with refinery or electrical energy work that involves the ASME code. If nothing happens here by May for a job in Ontario it’s time to really expand my search options. Anyway there’s a nice nest egg in the bank supplemented with what we call Unemployment Insurance funds so there’s no major worries for a while. But I’d rather be working.


Ed

[ET]

Just a Final Note

No more surprises found and it works like a charm.

One Tinker feeling good here about another successful project. ;D


Ed

[Richard]

Ed........Do you have another one on the other limb?
Richard

[ET]

Apr 24, 2010 19:58:24 GMT -5 Richard said:

Ed........Do you have another one on the other limb?
Richard

Richard

Yes it does and have tried to take an overall picture of the setup.



The other bracket is slightly different as it does have a riser section because no cable retaining clips that extend past the limb thickness is found there.

Ed