X Bow press i just made

[ruvimarrow]

Here is a X Bow press i finished a tested yesterday.
I wish i had access to other presses while building my own
(I never seen one in action before.)
So that i would have better of an idea what i was making.
but i live kinda far from anywhere.
so i had to use pictures and ideas from the web.

Here i have my Tomkat ready to get pressed.
and the other photo of it already pressed.
If you look at the jack you can see it doesn't take much more than 2 inches to press it.








Here is my General already pressed

I like how i can press the limbs right through the cams

[ruvimarrow]

Some more close ups

here is some more photos for anybody thinking of building one.

the back side








I wrapped the top of jack with electric tape so it
doesn't scratch the X
It is simply a pipe cut down the middle halfway down pipe and then the top portion i hammered out flat

[ruvimarrow]

things i would improve

the jack i used was a 2 ton jack
next time i will use a tougher one maybe 4 ton not because the jack cant push up but because the smaller jack is not so strong when u crank it all the way out. its week point is side to side
also the bigger jacks have more travel.


The only reason i used aluminum is cause i had it left over from another project..
next time i will use steel. eventually from using a lot the holes in the aluminum will get bigger.

I will be replacing the bolts that press the bow with longer ones and also have em so they the threads don't chew the aluminum up.



the main beam is a 2x2 x1/4 inch square 4 feet long
arms are 1 1/2 x 2 x 1/8 inch ( i will be reinforcing them with metal side plates eventually)
all the bolts except the ones holding jack down are 1/2 inch


well all in all it will give me something else to improve

it was a fun project.
if i need to press a freinds bow i will just measure and drill some more holes

[hunt_ak]

Wow, great work!! I copied this and posted another thread in the "make it yourself" section as well...Thanks

[BigDaddy]

Good Job!

Good job on your homemade bow press. I wish I had enough creativity to build something like this.

[ruvimarrow]

thanks

thanks,i was not shure were i should post it,and i was worried about making a double post so i thought i would just post here were it might be useful to bowhunters