My big winter project is to redo my garage and building some archery tools. I may invite you down for some beers and a first hand tutorial when I get around to this!!!
Sounds like a plan, brother... Do me a favor and make sure you have your garage cleaned and ready during the late duck season... :smiley_bril:
I'm thinking about building one of these here next week. I'm thinking about attaching the winch in the rafters over my work bench (6.5' high) and the attaching a peg to the side of my work bench. Simple and out of the way.
That's a good idea, Greg. One of these days when I have either a real garage or a bad ass finished basement, I'm going to build another draw board. This one works very well, but there are certainly a few minor disadvantages to having it lay flat. Mainly, it takes up more space and it can sometimes make it difficult to check cams or stops. If I were to build another draw board that would be JUST a draw board, I would either build it like you mentioned or I would at least rotate it so the bow rested vertically on the peg... just like it would look with someone shooting it. But ideally, I'm going to save up for a Bow Time Machine bow press like Milo has and I'll rig it up to pull double duty as a draw "board."
Yeah, I will have a Time Machine if I ever work up enough courage to get serious about doing my own work. Thinking about ordering new threads for the wife's bow and using it for my first experiment. lol
:smiley_clap:
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Don't be intimidated by it, Greg... Just make notes of any changes that you make, that way it's easy to put it back the way it was before you started if you have to. You gotta start somewhere...
Well, thanks to JB for the inspiration, I finally got a draw board built. Mine isn't as fancy as Jim's, but I feel it will serve it's purpose well for what I need it for. I elected to go with a worm-gear winch and replace the cable with webbing as I felt it would better on the winch, and the worm gear allows for a slow, controlled draw that I can stop and fine-tune at any point. As you can see, my draw board is a vertical board, and I don't have a ruler attached, but it is very easy to grab a tape measure and check DL.
Parts list for my draw board are as follows:
Worm-gear winch from Harbor Freight ($25)
20' Webbing Strap for winch, Walmart ($10)
Dumbbell bar, Walmart ($7)
Digital Scale, Amazon ($35)
Quick Link, Lowes ($1)
I started by using a Dremel to remove the hook off the end of the webbing, and the attaching the quick link in its place. Next, I secured the webbing to the winch spool and wound it all up. In place of the winch handle, I elected to use a lock nut with loc-tite. This allows me to use a socket attached to my cordless drill to crank the winch up and down. With a 40:1 gear ratio, you don't have to worry about the bow being drawn back to quick with the cordless drill. The winch was mounted to the rafters above the workbench, offset 2" from the center of the dumbbell.
Since the dumbbell's handle was already rubber coated, I didn't have to worry about it scratching up the riser on my bow. I drilled a hole in my work bench that was the same size as the threaded ends for the dumbbell. The dumbbell came with nuts for the end to keep the weights from falling off, so I used those to secure it to the work bench, making it easily removable when not in use. I also added a bungie to the bar to allow me to strap the bow down, in case the unthinkable happened and the strap on the winch broke.
The scale I ordered came with a caribiner and an S hook, so all I needed in addition was a safety rope in case my D-Loop broke.
The pictures I took aren't great, but you get the idea on my setup. As you can see, the scale shows my peak weight at 58.5 and my holding weight at 14.5; approximately 75% letoff.
Parts list for my draw board are as follows:
Worm-gear winch from Harbor Freight ($25)
20' Webbing Strap for winch, Walmart ($10)
Dumbbell bar, Walmart ($7)
Digital Scale, Amazon ($35)
Quick Link, Lowes ($1)
I started by using a Dremel to remove the hook off the end of the webbing, and the attaching the quick link in its place. Next, I secured the webbing to the winch spool and wound it all up. In place of the winch handle, I elected to use a lock nut with loc-tite. This allows me to use a socket attached to my cordless drill to crank the winch up and down. With a 40:1 gear ratio, you don't have to worry about the bow being drawn back to quick with the cordless drill. The winch was mounted to the rafters above the workbench, offset 2" from the center of the dumbbell.
Since the dumbbell's handle was already rubber coated, I didn't have to worry about it scratching up the riser on my bow. I drilled a hole in my work bench that was the same size as the threaded ends for the dumbbell. The dumbbell came with nuts for the end to keep the weights from falling off, so I used those to secure it to the work bench, making it easily removable when not in use. I also added a bungie to the bar to allow me to strap the bow down, in case the unthinkable happened and the strap on the winch broke.
The scale I ordered came with a caribiner and an S hook, so all I needed in addition was a safety rope in case my D-Loop broke.
The pictures I took aren't great, but you get the idea on my setup. As you can see, the scale shows my peak weight at 58.5 and my holding weight at 14.5; approximately 75% letoff.
Looks great Flutie! I am so close to Skeeter Creek I haven't done one yet but I always feel like I am buggin to use his. This is definitely a low cost alternative. TOO bad a press costs so much.
That turned out great, Greg! I really like that scale... I've never seen one like that before. Have you gotten a chance to play around with Kate's bow yet?
I know the tape measure works well for checking draw length, but you may want to come up with a quick-detach measuring device. On the Elites, you want the bow to hit peak draw weight at 6-6.5" into the draw cycle... Having the ruler set up as you're cranking it back makes it much easier to watch the scale and the ruler at the same time.
I know the tape measure works well for checking draw length, but you may want to come up with a quick-detach measuring device. On the Elites, you want the bow to hit peak draw weight at 6-6.5" into the draw cycle... Having the ruler set up as you're cranking it back makes it much easier to watch the scale and the ruler at the same time.
I changed her string and cables Wednesday. I made sure and wrote down her DL measurements, as well as her peak and holding weights, and just matched everything up. Took me about three hours, but I think I got it done alright. At least that is until Milo looks at it and says, "WTF Kid!" LMAO
