Recurve ILF Riser Build

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

How about a recurve riser build? I have monkey arms and most bows on the market require excessive length to allow comfortable string angles at full draw. Recurves where the limbs mount on the belly of the riser help that, but still tend to be shorter than I want, or shoot slow compared to the high performance stuff.

So I decided to make a riser that can shoot ILF limbs from a belly mounted position to get better speed, while preserving string angles. Goal is 21” riser, that can take ILf limbs with no mods other than removing the press fit bushing.

Need some glass in an ibeam config…



I beam all cleaned up and working into arc form

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

Let’s see how quickly I can tell this in mostly photo form:
Layup dry fitted


First glue up done, now to align limb bolts

Limb fit check

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

Now to do the second glue up, and start shaping. Just a note that I’m laying up my own psuedo G10 with some leftover 9oz biaxial fiberglass cloth I used on a drift boat build. Call me frugal, lol



Pretty basic stuff here, just rough shaping.

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

Next I had to figure out shaping of the ends… couldn’t really mimic anything on the market cause the bolt pattern didn’t match the only other belly mounted bows I know of…



Sometimes you gotta just send it and see what happens. This is quickly spiraling way out of my design wheelhouse…

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

the theme of this build is “cheap, and figure it out as I go”. The wood is all leftover from other projects, but this is somehow starting to look like a bow!




Wait.. how is 1/8” steel going to be part of this?

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

What follows is a metric crapload of hand fitting and filing and chiseling…

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

Somewhere in here my daughter decided it was time to exit momma, and be a real drag on time and effort for a bit, so here is the current status:



I’m not sure I like the black velvet in the limb pocket. Might go to green…I also got my limb bolt washers in the mail, and I can officially do fine tuning of the limb fit, and once I make a string I can shoot some arrows through it.