3D Printable Recurve Bow

After printing out and assembling the 3d printable compound bow here on thingiverse, I was a bit disappointed with the force it put out. It's a fine example of how a compound bow works, but it won't really shoot a skewer very far.

I'm not crafty enough to figure out a dual cam compound bow, so I came up with this 3 or 5 piece recurve bow. It's pretty stout and after a few hundred pulls I haven't heard the PLA so much as crackle under the strain. It shoots with enough force that I decided it's a bit dangerous to shoot anything with a tip on it, so I've been cutting down nerf darts for the tips of skewers.

I left an m3 hole going through the body of the riser in case you wanted to mount accessories or string a laynard.

NOTICE - if you print this right, or wrong, and pull it too hard, or to light, too closely aimed at someone's eye or directly aimed at your alarm clock, this thing can be dangerous. You could shoot your eye, out, kid. I take no liability in your choice to test this part without a First Order helmet for safety, at least.

Print Settings

Printer Brand:

TEVO

Printer:

Tornado

Rafts:

No

Supports:

Doesn't Matter

Resolution:

.2

Infill:

high

Notes:

I printed the riser at 50% infill. Based on the shape, it should and does stay rigid and all flex is transferred to the limbs. I printed the limbs at 100%, maximum perimeters per layer. I strung it with 27lb lead core fishing line. You may consider trying PETG, but it may actually flex too much for this application.

The hardware required is all M3, I think I used 20 and 25mm screws and it's enough for the limbs and aux limbs.

How I Designed This

I designed this part by finding a high resolution photograph of a common modern recurve bow in profile, then I traced the riser and one limb overlaid in CAD. I flipped the limb and the receiving end of the riser so that they would match up so that the limbs are symmetrical. The riser is not, it's based on the shape of the bow I eyeballed.

It's literally a scaled model based on a real bow, and should scale up and down. The published parts are meant to print on any common 200mm bed with m3 hardware but should scale according to your printer and hardware.