pvc bow making tutorial

[Weylyn]

While looking up ways to make a bow, I found this gem of a tutorial on how to make a 35lb pvc bow. hope to try this soon.

www.zombiesurvivalwiki.com/page/How+to+make+a+35lb+PVC+survival+bow

[Cathán Neamhnaofa]

Not to bad. I have a pvc bow currently but it looks nothing like that or that much poundage. The only thing I would worry about with that is cuz at the end of the page the guy even says that his came out to bout 40lbs. If it's over 35lbs it'll fail.

[zalos]

You can mess with it through trial and error to get a lower poundage. PVC is so cheap it wouldnt cost much to fudge a couple or ten. I am not sure what the lifespan on a pvc bow would be.

[Weylyn]

Yeah. If anything you can opt to not curve it a second time and make it a short bow instead of a recurve bow. From what I understand, the further the string is away from the handle of a bow, the lower the poundage is since you have to pull it less to bring it to a full draw. That's why recurves are a popular shape because the second curve in the bow brings the string closer to the handle and resulting in a heavier pull.

So probably making the first curve larger will make it a bit weaker and more acceptable for dagorhir. Based on prices I've seen, it costs about $3 for a 10' length of 1" pvc and about $5-6 bucks for 100' of para cord. If you take out the cost of a heat gun($20 in some places) that would be better for heating the pvc, you could make two bows for less than $10; which is just outstandingly cheap, even if the thing doesn't hold up well to use. Plus, you can just reuse the bowstring if the bow snaps.

Edit: noticed near the top of the page that the guy says that he did not flatten the pvc as much as the guy in the videos did, resulting in a stronger bow. Flattening the pvc should result in a 30-35lb draw on the bow. Also, definitely check out the videos and the person who made them. He has a ton of videos on how to make pvc bows and even has a book. There's a video on how to make a 30lb recurve takedown bow that looks amazing.

[Sir Storm Brightblade]

Weylyn if you live in the local area, I have two 10' 3/4" schedule 40 PVC youcan have if it is what you're looking for

[Weylyn]

Thanks Storm, but I should be good. I work right next to lowes so next time I go in early I'm grabbing some 1" schedule 40 pvc for making the bow. I have a dremel tool which has a cutting head that can do fine cutting and my girlfriend told me that we should have an embossing gun around the house somewhere that is basically a heat gun. Should be able to make a bow soon.

In the videos I saw, the guy made a 25-30 lb recurve that was awesome that I can bump up the strength by not flattening the limbs so much, resulting in a good 35lb takedown recurve that I could take to practices on the bus.

[zalos]

Do you think it would be possible to use pvc as the bow for a minicross bow? Im talking small like pistol crossbow or smaller. I am trying to find a material to make a mini crossbow arm out of that would have a decent poundage yield. The actual pistol crossbow arms dont seem to get any lower than 50lbs.

[Weylyn]

backyardbowyer.com/mini-crossbow-tutorial/

This page has a tutorial on how to make a pvc crossbow pistol. Parts are made of wood however and it is supposedly a 40lb crossbow. You can probably modify it to fit your needs.

[zalos]

Nice that is exactly what I needed! I am going to modify the trigger mechanism and make a lever for pulling back the string

[Kam]

Weylyn,
That's the website my unit has used to make all our pvc bows. They work wonderfully. No one has tried the crossbow yet though. Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

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