Youth board bow build

[Felix40]

I have a 5 year old boy that I am going to try to build a board bow for. He has been shooting a bear 1st shot for about a year and has gotten pretty good with it. He has maxed it out with an 18” draw length so its time for something a little bigger. Its been probably 15 years since I made a board bow so hopefully I can make something that shoots.

Heres what Im hoping to have at the end:
48” nock to nock
20# @ 18”

Material will be red oak purchased from lowes this morning and backed with fiberglass cloth to make it more durable and improve performance.

 

[Felix40]

I picked out one of the 48” long boards with the best grain I could find. The options werent great but this should work.

I marked the grip and limb profile I want on the back. I decided on a 6” “riser” and 1/2” wide at the tips. Not really sure how wide to make the handle so Ill just base that off of hand size as we get a little closer. I had some scrap bocote that I will use as a strip in the riser plus two more laminations of red oak to get the thickness and stiffness I want. Its pretty hard to say how everything needs to be size wise so Im just going by feel at this point.

I rough cut the limb profiles and cut enough fiberglass cloth to do two layers. I will be gluing everything up with titebond 3 mostly due to the cost of smooth on.

 

[GMC]

How's the build coming?

 

[wildwilderness]

Where did you learn to build bows? Looks like fun

 

[LostArra]

Where did you learn to build bows? Looks like fun

I'll let Felix speak for himself but many many archers have built their first board bow using Mickey Lotz instructions.

https://sticknstring.webs.com/ferretsboardbow.htm

Another good one:

Board Bow Buildalong

 

[Felix40]

Where did you learn to build bows? Looks like fun

Its been probably 15 years since Ive done a board bow. I had a book about them back then but cant remember what it was.

If you want to build a legit glass bow like what you would buy from a bowyer, bingham is a good place to start. They have everything to get you going and then you can progress to doing as much or as little extra work yourself. Its a pretty foolproof way to start.

 

[Felix40]

Progress has been slow. Lots of stuff going on at the house. Today is the first day Ive done any work. The handle is rough shaped and its time to start tillering.

Im doing everything with hand tools because I gave my belt sander away before my last move.

 

[Felix40]

I decided to go buy a belt sander. I need one and it made the bow build go 100x faster. I got the belt sander yesterday and finished the bow today.

Couple photos as progress happened.

 

[Felix40]

And some finished pictures. The fiberglass on the back was kind of ugly so i painted it. Its still ugly but at least it looks a little cooler for a kid now. I made the string out of paracord to keep things cheap.

Total cost was around $9 and 5 hours of playing in the shop. I could have put more effort into finishing but he will just beat the hell out of it.

Finished weight is 20# at 21”, and he draws 18” currently.

 

[Felix40]

First time shooting it.

 

[GMC]

That's friggin awesome!

 

[bjfoxhoven]

Turned out great! I Plan to get into building some bows like this after I get a few other big projects done around the house. That must be fiberglass sheet tape for the backing?

 

[Felix40]

The back is fiberglass cloth. I ended up doing a single layer since its such a low draw weight and short draw length.