Moulding Solid Fiberglass/Carbon Bow (Easy Way)

[@musaadfelton3909]

Thank you so much for making this video. I couldn't find a single video like this online giving the instructions of every step. Thank you my friend. Im very happy for this video.

[@Helmbowman]

Im glad that you find my video helpful friend! Thanks for watching! 😁

[@musaadfelton3909]

​@@HelmbowmanI find your videos very educational because I love archery and I'm always trying to make myself and my family better bows. I was actually trying to find a video on how to make the fibreglass for a backing and belly for a bamboo bow. I have bamboo and I let it dry for a few months. I want to make a horse bow, but the bamboo looses it's compressed strength over time. So I wanted to use fibreglass as a back and belly but I difficult to find this fibreglass strips in my country so I want to make it myself. For now I want to make the fibreglass strips just to use as the back and belly of the bow. I wanted to know, if I make fibreglass strips to use as backing and belly. Should I just use one directional fibreglass or should I use a mix of unidirectional and one direction? Also how many layers would you lay down of fibreglass to use as a bow backing? Can the thickness of the belly and the back be the same thickness or would you make the belly thicker?

[@Helmbowman]

@musaadfelton3909 You can make it same thickness, i recommend 1mm thick, that is standard thickness for laminated bows, for back you can use either woven or unidirectional, and for belly just unidirectional, i actually have a video about making glass laminations, so you can check it

[@musaadfelton3909]

@@Helmbowman Thank you for replying..I appreciate the response. I'm learning from this. Yes I think I watched your previous videos. I just can't remember if I saw the thickness in that video. Another thing I was wondering was what you used so that the resin dont stick to the mould. But you covered it in this video that you use tape on the mould. Thank you. I think now I have enough knowledge to start trying this. I think I just need to buy a caliper to measure the thickness and then also the epoxy resin is so expensive in my country. That's That's I wanted to ask you..what epoxy resin do you use? Do you have to use EA-40 epoxy resin ? Sorry for all the questions. I'm just excited to start building this

[@Helmbowman]

@@musaadfelton3909 Epoxy is expensive indeed, you don’t need to use ea40, any epoxy would work, for producing fiberglass lamination i like to use low viscosity epoxy because it soaks easier into fibers… Just use what you have available, every epoxy is plenty strong so no worries, feel free to ask anything, im here to help 😀 good luck with your project!

[@emanoelferreira5758]

seus videos do passo a passo são muito bons, vi o seu video que voce usa molinete para fazer um arco, comprei um molinete e fiz, muito obrigado, sucesso ao seu canal🙏❤️

[@Helmbowman]

Im glad to hear that! Thanks! 🙏❤️

[@ronaldwidd1516]

Fantastic work. Well done. Thanks for sharing.

[@Helmbowman]

Thanks a lot friend!

[@gussie88bunny]

That was a nice presentation, visuals matching your clear and concise commentary. Good use of sped film too, to move things along. I hope you don't take me as patronising, but your spoken English is very good. As a person who can only speak English and never felt the pressure to learn anything else, I'm impressed by people who have the balls to not just learn a foreign language, but also present in it to an audience. Great channel, subbed. Gus.

[@Helmbowman]

@@gussie88bunny Thanks a lot friend, that means a lot to me! It is good to hear that from native English speaker! 🙏

[@peterxyz3541]

Awesome!!!!!! Love your vid!

[@Helmbowman]

Thanks a lot friend!

[@Graywolf116]

Beautiful! This would be great for a crossbow. I wonder about making an ottoman-turkish style bow this way. I know that Metbows and Simsek Bows use moulds, resin, and glass fiber... but I don't know how they manage to create the "3D" shape of the bow tips and kasans. It's simple enough to make the '2D' rectangular profile with a layup like you showed. The other tricky part is those bows reflex 90°.

[@Helmbowman]

Thanks a lot! Yes i wonder that too, they probably use complex CNC machined moulds, who knows… For Turkish bow i would use fiberglass for the working part of the limb, and wood for static tips, that would not look as authentic as full moulded fiberglass, but its easier, the mould for full bow would be nightmare to make 😅

[@JoelWiggins-p9x]

Your right it reminds me of the little plains bows I use scrap prices for small bows and with a little practice you can get deadly with the little gear! Have a great dayvHELM!

[@Helmbowman]

Agree! With a little bit of practice, short bows are super deadly! Thank friend, God bless!

[@miklosattilacsaba]

Thank you for this video. I was experimenting with something like this, but only with fiberglass. I have learned some good tricks from this video. What do you think the difference is between the fiberglass and the carbon fiber layers? Do you feel the difference? I don't know if mix them or just stay with on of them...

[@Helmbowman]

Thanks for watching, im glad you like this video! Carbon fiber is stiffer and and more lightweight than fiberglass so the final bow is more efficient, only downside is that the carbon is lot more expensive than glass…

[@12clr12]

Great Job!

[@Helmbowman]

Thanks a lot friend! 😀

[@EREBO95]

This video is greatly appreciated,I wish to do the same one day

[@Helmbowman]

Thanks a lot! Give it a try friend! 💪🏻

[@farhadghozzati4612]

thanks alot, great job what kind of resin epoxy did u use in this masterpiece?

[@Helmbowman]

Thanks friend! Ive used just ordinary epoxy resin ( some German manufacturer) low viscosity resin works best for this job

[@farhadghozzati4612]

@@Helmbowman tahank you so much my friend

[@musaadfelton3909]

Holy shit thats amazing

[@Helmbowman]

Thanks a lot bro! 😄💪🏻

[@musaadfelton3909]

@@Helmbowman I love it😁😁 I can't believe that small bow made so simple, pulls 60 pounds. Amazing work brother.

[@MG-vg3wx]

Excelente trabajo saludos !!

[@Helmbowman]

Thanks friend! 💪🏻

[@UdoWerder]

Die Größe ist nebensächlich , ab 40 # ist so ein Bogen mit dem entsprechenden Pfeil eine ernst zu nehmende Bedrohung . Super Video , alles gut erklärt und Step by Step dargestellt . 😊😊😊

[@Helmbowman]

Thanks a lot friend! 😄🙏

[@mrln247]

Looks like you should make a crossbow with that little thing. Have you heard about glueing in vacuum bags? If you have a good enough seal you get very even pressure over the entire glue up. With a big enough bag might work well for a one side mold probably one limb at a time.

[@Helmbowman]

Yes! I think vacuum would work great, i will try that, thanks!

[@dmgcm]

Hey bro, quick question, what do you use as a release agent, packing tape, wax, silicon spray? I didn't see you put anything on the form at the start.

[@Helmbowman]

Hi bro, im using just packing tape, in this case transparent one, but any will work

[@dmgcm]

@@Helmbowman Awesome, very simple, I just love how simple you make things.

[@Helmbowman]

@@dmgcm thanks a lot!

[@ivanrenteria122]

Dónde podemos conseguir esos materiales , excelente trabajo , saludos desde México !!!

[@Helmbowman]

Thanks a lot friend! If you have composite store near, you can buy there, or online, i order mine from aliexpress, just type carbon fiber cloth, fiberglass cloth

[@ivanrenteria122]

Muchas gracias !!

[@roylesterjr7052]

That's super awesome!! How much would you charge for a 42" fiberglass bow like that?

[@Helmbowman]

Thanks a lot! I dont know yet, maybe in future i will menage to produce bows for sale when i have more time

[@roylesterjr7052]

@Helmbowman okay...sounds good 👍🏼 I'll keep a lookout if not, let me know please, keep up the good work, I'm from the Navajo Nation USA 😊

[@Helmbowman]

@@roylesterjr7052 Thanks, i will! You have strong archery heritage! 😄

[@roylesterjr7052]

@@Helmbowman I appreciate it 🙏

[@jorundr1907]

Good job.

[@Helmbowman]

Thanks!

[@stevebledsoe71]

Any chance you will eve make any comercial short nows any time soon?

[@Helmbowman]

I would love that! Only thing is lack of time, since i have full time job and only can produce bows on weekends, i hope i will figure something in future… Thanks for watching!

[@stevebledsoe71]

@@Helmbowman you bet brother. This is one of my favorite channels. U definitely have a gift when it comes to bow making. There is nothing on the market like those breakdown short bows you make. I really think if the right people were exposed to your work you would pretty much be able to name your price.

[@Helmbowman]

@stevebledsoe71 Thanks brother for support! I appreciate that a lot! We will see, i will definitely try to make something out of it

[@matthewyu3531]

Thank you brother, I love this video so much. May God bless you.

[@Helmbowman]

Thanks i lot bro! Im glad you like it! God bless!

[@nikkomartin9915]

What kind of glue you using…

[@Helmbowman]

im using epoxy resin

[@profthomason]

Wow!

[@dmgcm]

Hey man, another question, hope you don't mind. Do you have a method of calculating how many layers you need for a specific thickness, or how many layers give you a certain amount of draw weight? Just curious or do you just guess?

[@Helmbowman]

I just use caliper and mesure the thickess of bunch of layers that i have prepered, if its too thick i remove some layers and save them for another project, if is to thin i add more, very simple but accurate method. However draw weight depends a lot of style of bow, length, ratio of reflex and deflex etc. so usually when im not sure i leave bow blank thicker and grind it later to desired draw weight… Feel free to ask anything my fried, we are here to help each other 😀

[@dmgcm]

@@Helmbowman Fantastic explanation, really appreciate it, makes a lot of sense and quite simple really. Thanks again.

[@dmgcm]

Hey man what ounce of fiberglass are you using, I am having structural issues with my layups, it's almost like my fiberglass may be too thick and the resin is not soaking through properly. In my climate I am using West systems 105 resin

[@dmgcm]

With 209 harder as I live in a hot country

[@Helmbowman]

@dmgcm im using 300gram per m/2, but i have used thicker glass with no problems, maybe your resin is to thick, try to warm it little bit before applying

[@ttspa4708]

I wonder if I can buy one because I live in Apartment I cannot make my own.

[@Helmbowman]

I dont make these for sale jet, this technique was just an experiment, now im finishing 2 bows that will be for sale, i will put video soon, so stay tuned friend and thanks for watching!

[@ttspa4708]

@@Helmbowman thank you.😇🥰😍

[@ttspa4708]

Oh by the way, I want at around 25 inches short bow so it can fit in my suitcase around 60 lb to draw weight.

[@Helmbowman]

Nice, that would be pretty portable 😀

[@ttspa4708]

@@Helmbowman 😁😁😄😄

[@lyon666]

Would be cool if you made recurve limbs!

[@Helmbowman]

That would be interesting, thanks for idea!

[@nikkomartin9915]

Wow

[@RedmanOutdoors366]

Way cool 😎👍💯🏹

[@Helmbowman]

Thanks a lot!

[@UncleDanBand64]

👍

[@ismailhk7781]

use it for crossbow

[@Helmbowman]

@@ismailhk7781 good idea

[@СтаниславАлександров-ы5ш]

Акцент на видео русский или скандинавский? Если ты из России, сможешь дугу по заказанным параметрам для арбалета сделать?

[@Helmbowman]

Hi brother, im from Serbia, so my accent is similar to Russian. You can make crossbow limbs in this way, just make it thicker to get more power. Thanks for watching!

[@jarchdm]

I love it. Making what looks like a bow limb into an entire bow😅. That is the smallest workable bow i think I've seen. And it actually draws to something like 18 inches?

[@Helmbowman]

Thans bro! That form was actually made for bow limb 😂 yes it draws about 18inches, you have sharp eye!

[@jarchdm]

@@Helmbowman I did finish my full fibre glass bow and it's excellent to shoot with except for it makes a real loud twang sound on release. I managed to quiet it down by using string silencers but it's weird to me since none of my other bows hardly make any sound at all. I even exchanged the limbs with differently curved ones and had the same result. It must be the fibre glass riser I think. It's a bit of a mystery to me.

[@Helmbowman]

@jarchdm Hmm thats weird, usually fiberglass risers are quite, but you tried another limbs so must be a riser, try to play with brave height, that may help

[@jarchdm]

@@Helmbowman yes I tried adjusting the brace height. No luck there. In going to make some new heavier arrows and see if that helps. I'm also going to try to make the exact same riser from wood and see if there's a difference.

[@Helmbowman]

@@jarchdm That is good idea, im looking forward to that

[@SGK2205]

Это русский акцент или сербский?

[@Helmbowman]

Српски, слично звучи као Руски, хвала брате на гледању!

[@Bowbro69]

Helm Bowman. i make you a 80cvr2 knife? you make me a bow?

[@Helmbowman]

Thats good offer, but now i dont have time, because i have full time job, and make bows only at weekends, hope to have more time soon…

[@Bowbro69]

how to order? xD

[@Helmbowman]

This was just experiment, soon i will finish one bow for sale, i will upload video 😀

[@Mr.Seydel]

Кряжеву это видео только не показывай😂

[@ijajbagwan6741]

❤❤❤❤❤❤👍👍👌👌👌👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@ijajbagwan6741]

Sir please tell which material are you using for this bow meking (epoxy resin and hardener) or only epoxy resin 🙏

[@Helmbowman]

@ijajbagwan6741 Im using epoxy with hardener and fiberglass and carbon cloth

[@ijajbagwan6741]

@@Helmbowman thank you very much sir 🤲❤️

[@ijajbagwan6741]

@@Helmbowman sir how much quantity of hardner used in epoxy resin

[@Helmbowman]

@ijajbagwan6741 every epoxy resin have different mixing ratio, this mine is 50/50 which means equal quantity of epoxy and hardener, be sure to check ratio on your epoxy