Limbs Stylist tour - making limbs

bimble

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Last night I got a tour of the Stylist workshop and was shown how recurve limbs are made (by them). For those who are unaware, Stylist Bows are base down in Aldershot and Rugby with a riser designed by Steve Hallard and limbs made by the Hallards (in Rugby) and Steve Lingwood (Steve H's father-in-law) in Aldershot.



The risers are CNC'd elsewhere, then polished and anodised and the basic design hasn't really changed... if it ain't broke...



We have some of the laminates that go into the limbs. On the left is the glass-fibre, then we a choice of woods, and on the far right are some laminates of "foam"



Once the laminates have been chosen they are glued and placed together in order



Once the laminates are glued and ordered they are put onto the jig that will form the limb shape once the glue has dried. The limbs are then left in a heated cupboard to dry and set. This takes several hours, therefore...



... here are some that were made earlier!! The lines that have been drawn on the limbs are to position the shims that are used to make the limb tip and to protect the limb in the riser pocket.



Which is what is happening here... these then have to be left to be allowed to dry...



So moving onto another "some that were made earlier" we are now putting the 'dovetail' in the bottom of the limb so it can be seated into the riser.



Just a close up...



Now that the 'dovetail' has been put in we have a definite centre line for the limb and so it's possible to shape the lower, parallel section of the limb with the milling machine.



So this is the shaped, bottom end of the limb. As you can probably see, Steve is not a fan of the Hoyt Limb Fitting that the majority of other limb manufacturers have copied and called "International Limb Fitting".



Remember.... safety at work!!


Part Two will follow once I've done some work
 

bimble

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For a previously, please reread the opening post... ;)

So, we now have a limb that has a dovetail and the lower half has been shaped, but the upper half has not... so let's sort that out!



First we align a template with the parallel lower half of the limb and draw on the shape of the tapering upper half of the limb



and this in turn allows us to remove the excess limb material and to give the limb it's final shape.



So here we have the limb tip, and you can see the layers (left-to-right) the limb 'glass-fibre, maple, carbon-fibre, maple, glass-fibre' and then the shims that make up the limb tip 'carbon, glass, carbon, carbon'.



This is then shaped...



And the string grooves are added, first to the limb tip



And then to the limb



Which gives us our finished limb tips



This large lump of metal is the guide used to drill the holes for the limb guide studs, the limbs are fitted, positioned and the drilled (through the outermost holes)



What Steve is doing here is making sure that the limbs in the 'Stud Guide' are positioned in the right place to be in the riser straight. It's one of the areas where he feels archers using other riser/limb combos are being cheated slightly, because if a riser can be made straight, and the limbs can be made straight, why do you need lateral adjustment in the limb pockets?? I'm just going to leave that thought with you there... that and I'm fairly certain there isn't lateral adjustment in the pockets of my compounds...



Once the position of the limbs has been set, they are clamped in the Guide and then drilled.



Once drilled the stud can be put in



And then a visual inspection on the straightness to make sure all is well



Then a check of the tiller



Then any remaining rough edges of the limbs are finished off



And the poundage of the limbs are checked



The poundage of the limbs is added to the bottom limb, this set would be a 28lb set when on a 68" bow (at a DL of 28")



This info is also added on the shim, along with the limb number... this is the 4,328th set that Steve has made.



We then got a quick demo of making the grips



both cutting and sanding... I think he's got to make 60 of these by the spring...



Now people often lament that we rarely win Olympic medals... however, two of the recent ones (team bronze - Steve Hallard/Simon Terry - and individual bronze - Simon Terry) from Barcelona were won shooting Stylist Bows...



And that concludes my little tour of the Stylist Bows workshop and the craftsmanship that goes into building their limbs. Considering that Steve is making about one set of limbs a day, just stock piling them for the busy period at the start of Spring/early Summer, think about how many sets of limbs that companies like Hoyt and W&W must produce in a day!!

But if 'Made in Britain' is something that interests you... here is one option!!
 
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