Thank you all so much for the input. On the firearms side you have things like the American Gunsmithing Institute to learn gunsmithing, so after hearing the ineviatble "horror stories" of "bad bow techs", I wondered if there was some certification you had to have, or if any ol' schmuck could slap a sign on his shop and call himself a tech. I also took quite a liking to sniper rifles and spent several months converting a black plastic-stocked Remington 700 BDL deer rifle into a ballistic scalpel, so I'm well-tuned to the idea of how the tiniest change in a closed system imparts a change on every other aspect of performance, and am likewise a bit too much of a perfectionist and accuracy nazi, which I think is the right mindset for tweaking bows, but I could probably take it down a notch.
I just hate thinking there's one more tiny little thing I could do to make it just one tiny little bit better...
But for me overall, it's all about the DIY. I live probably 10 miles from the nearest shop and it's a real pain to have to go up there to have some piddly work done (like pressing the bow for peeps, etc).
I got big into DIY on the traditional side, so I already have lots of tools for fletching, nocking, bow squares, serving thread and knowing how to serve, etc. My biggest things I can think of right now are restringing my bow, pressing it for peeps and such, and that sort of thing. But with restringing comes idler lean and bus cable tweaks and adding/subtracting string twists, and all the real meant and potatoes that complicate a big job with a little name.
But someday, if I become well versed and confident, it'd be nice to offer tech services to other folks out here who don't necessarily want to go to town and have their bow put in line with a week long turnaround time, but I don't necessarily want to want to make a living at it, either. Or another good example would be my buddy dropping his dead eye out of his tree and derailing it. It took all of 3 minutes to press and restring, but it had to be done in town the next day, some 18 hours later. I hate not being self-sufficient, and I hate not being able to help my friends solve simple issues like that, but alas I don't yet own a press. I'm dying to go back to Ontario bear hunting, this time with a bow and the last thing I need is to cut a string or derail the bow and not have the self sufficiency to fix it quick.
I'm putting Nuts & Bolt's DVD on my list of things for Santa to bring me this year.
For strictly DIY purposes, would a carefully made bow press be suffcient (I like the trailer jack press threads on here), or should I fork over the $425 for an EZ Green do you think?
Thanks again all for the quick replies jam packed full of gooey good knowledge! I usually lurk 99 threads for every time I have to pipe up and ask something, but when I do you guys never fail to deliver!!! I love this place.
