[rob p]

I built a bow press following the design of a poster on this sight. Here's what I learned. A piece of 2" square stock like the one used (with holes drilled in it like sign posts) cost me $65 at the scrap yard. You have to grind galvanizing off before you can weld which takes a long time and stinks anyway. I found using a bottle jack to stretch the cable and compress the limbs was a pain, so I welded a boat trailer minus the wheel in it's place. Got lots of range now. I found out though the horizontal bar is too long and making it shorter after the press is built is harder than making the cable shorter (ask me how I know). The legs are also too short so to use it, you have to remove sights and stabilizers or put the press up on blocks. If you're going to do some building, be careful and take your own measurements. Apple has one like it for a couple hundred. I don't know it it's a better deal with work and materials. I'm making another one though. After my tenth or eleventh one, I might learn something, maybe even build a better mousetrap.

 

[TCR1]

Rob P,
One change I made to those plans is use a longer eye bolt for the cable...I know I can't take a bow apart with mine...thanks for the reminder of my inadequacies as a designer and fabricator...but also to let me know I'm not alone.

 

[stewart76]

post us some pics.... sounds pretty cool

 

[Aggie94]

I've been trying to decide what to do. I'm cheap, so I don't want to spend the money to buy a press. I saw the plans posted on here. Seemed to be a simpler design than some of the store-bought ones I've seen. Still, I'm cheap, and decided I really didn't need something that fancy. I only own one bow, etc, etc. I convinced myself that I could build something simpler and cheaper, if not as fancy.

After being unable to find stock locally and unwilling (don't know why) to order, I checked into Home Depot. What they had wouldn't support my original design idea, so it changed. Now, 2 1/2 weeks, 18 trips to Home Depot and Tractor Supply (plus two to Walmart for rollers), and $120 later, I have a POS press that does actually work, but only when I stand on the lower bar to keep the saw horses the press has to sit on from buckling, lean over the bow (meaning if anything lets go under the load, I am in the plane of fire), and work the ratchets that apply the load. Then I have to unstring my bow while still balancing on the lower rail (did I mention its 1" square tubing, because that's as large as Home Depot carries?).

I'd send pictures of my press, but I'm too embarassed. I'd send pictures of me operating the press, but my wife wouldn't be able to quit laughing long enough to take one.