I came across your vid by accident and thought I could impart some advice as a traditional bow maker. It's not just about draw weight, bow 'speed' is also a factor. In other words, the elasticity of the material wanting to go from a stretched state to a relaxed state. Different types of wood have different elasticity. I.E. Say I have two bows, one ash and one oak and both are 50lbs. I fire them and get 12" penetration with the ash bow, but the oak bow only gives 6". Even though they are the same draw weight, the elasticity of the ash bow is exponentially higher which translates to a higher arrow velocity. Bow makers perform what's called "backing", which is essentially layering a different material on the back of the bow in order to speed up or slow it down. I.E. sinew speeds it up while linen slows it down. Your fiberglass core is very elastic, however it is being severely slowed down by your pvc which is strong and flexible, but a much 'slower' material. I'd suggest if you want to speed up your bow, add your material to the outside back of the bow rather than the core. Remember, when drawn, the back stretches while the belly compresses so you want slower material on the belly and faster material on the back. Hope this info helps you.

5 years later and I’m still waiting for another recurve bow video lmao

Considering how your builds are advancing one after another, I think a ballista is in order.

Whichever fan made that recurve is pretty fucking talented

Love that propane tank behind the target, that's fuccin' genius mate.

Never figured out a mark II? I'd love to see an improved version

thanks for your videos. I love to make homemade projects and this just inspired me to start working on my own bows out of PVC. made my first one yesterday not extremely excited about it but there's more to come for sure.

Well, the instructions and video with fast forward make this one of the best PVC bow DIY videos I have seen so far. Thanks.

Pretty good man! You made it much more complex than it needed to be but oh well. Also, and important thing: DONT heat the pipe with the fiberglass rods inside. Heat makes the fiberglass brittle and prone to snapping and causing dangerous situations...

Actually, my grandma builds one helluva pvc bow.

I wait very impatiently every hour for new videos to come out. Then when they do, I am so excited.

Awesome! You're a good speaker too, not annoying to listen to.

Recurve Tip: When you string a recurve bow, the "end of the curve" needs to be parallel with the string, that is, in line with it. If you lay those two bows down and compare, yours is not bent enough, your string is too long. If its properly strung, that will give you the last bit of power you seem to be missing right now....

So many people think that they're first...

I love your honesty. Great job 👏

This is a new proper tecnique, making arrows from pvc👍👍

Dude, I know this is an old video, but I wanted to make a suggestion - and I hope you see it (someday!). Why don't you mark your arrows with inch ticks using a Sharpie? Then you could just look at the arrow to determine the depth without needing to measure it each time. Just a thought.

Mark II?

Eli keep doing what you do You are great at it

Very cool ! Keep us updated !

am i the only one who didnt know aluminum foil had a shiny and dull side

wow that subscriber bow is pretty sweet!

your vids have a nice adventurous and fun vibe to them. keep it up.

Finaly a good looking PVC-Fiberglass bow.

said you'd put the link to Dan's video in the description, well

Hey try adding more string tension. This should improve the bows performance. Just a tip.

Keep making bow videos! Love them! Awesome channel!

I approve if this bow! well done my comrade!! Can't wait for a mark 2!!

Nice bows! I love traditional weapons made with modern materials (has that post apocalyptic styling people would have to resort too). have you perfected your schematic yet, and does the person the made you the original take orders? Thanks for your videos, they're great!

if you use a bow with a higher draw waght you have to use a heavier Arrow

Nice video man, I like all of your work

wow... that was a very great video and i am going to try making this very soon

I noticed that the distance between the string and the center of the bow is bigger in the subscriber's bow, than in the one you made. Do you think this affects the power/draw weight?

you should do a collab with joergsvrave from theslingshotchannel one day.

You made a valiant effort. To me that's very inspiring, your next one I am sure will turn out more to your expectations.

Mr. Zednought, sir, I love this, thank you so much for your awesome videos, they're awesome and very inspiring--no matter what the 6 haters that disliked this one say.

How hot is the pvc when malleable it is safe to touch for a second or two?

+ZNAProductions hurry up and make Mark II.

PVC primer is so satisfying

Man I love to see you and your videos bro.... keep it up buddy

Mark II please!

So, the fiberglass doesn't go through the curve? I think you might not get the benefit of the recurve, then.

Awesome Eli

This is pretty damn cool

I think it's because the subscriber bow has a higher draw length, so it doesn't need a higher draw weight for the same ammount of power.

In case of zombie apocalypse, expect me to be knocking at your door.

bro you're like a mad genius Eli this was awesome trying to figure out how your gonna do this

I loved this, you should make more bow vods

LAST! YES! LOOK AT ME NOW MUM!

+BackyardBowyer is your man for PVC bow build guides. He even has a few books on it I believe.

Great work bro

dude youre a genius!!!

Why not invite the sender of the bow to instruct you on recurve making?

why not just follow a BYB tutorial? he seems to be able to make bows more powerful than those without any fiberglass core.

i was so hype for this vid!!!!!!

Sweet man!

the pvc shrinking due to the heat gun - dont factor that in to the rest of the bow. thats just backwards thinking. all you have to do is have the piece be an inch longer than you want on each end, and then after it cools, see where its at, and cut off the excess from each end, so that way you have the 3 inches left on each side.

I know this sounds obvious and douchey... but why don't you just ask the subscriber?

You did pretty good on that bow

thats clever bro, well done

Obi Wan Kanabo?

that was such a bad test at the end

OMG yes thank you men I really appreciated now I have to try this myself

Not bad. I hope he grows his channel in the next couple of years or something.

he looks like leafy except with a reseeding hairline

for those who will use PVC glue dont try to smell it or you will drop to the flour , my father use that sh1t , hes a plummer and he used to glue PVC pipes , the first time i smell the can i almost fall to the ground and my nose lose sensitivity for like 2 days , TAKE CARE ...

This is so cool

this is so cool. You are talented, at making stuff like this.

who else wants to do this but dont have the fucking materials?

tf? leafyishere?

Very creative.

you do very good vids,young man bravo!

Love your vids!!!

Lovely video!

love your videos keep it up

1 minute ago... Glad I refreshed. Nice video, by the way!

Wow fantastic

Lol this song has been stuck in my head all day.

No clue if this has been said but one thing that would increase a performance is use a string that has no flex in it. Modern nylon bow strings have no give or stretch and para-chord has a good bit of stretch to it and that takes away from the overall power of the bow. But none the less 5.5 inch penetration is nothing to scoff at. Hopefully any info I can give well over a year after the build can help Mark II. Love your stuff man, I am a fellow craft/creator and I really appreciate the methods you use for doing stuff. Hope you read this and it helps!

Props man

I thought i subbed already. I've been missing out. Keep it up bro!

nice work

no idea where you came up with the idea of making bows out of pbs but it is great. think you for sharing these videos.

You have good taste in music, I think I have majority of the music you have in your videos already in my music playlist :D

"LATER NERDS" I was laughing so hard!

ur a genius man!

The heat reflector is very creative

"like a little white hot dog". Words to live by gentlemen, words to live by.

Thanks for taking the time to show us how to make the bow it was most interesting, one thing I would point out is that your targets at the end didn't have the same stability and that the added movement in the top target would absorb some of the kinetic force of the arrow which in turn would give a false result for comparing the two bows power try putting them side by side for a fairer test

congrats on getting past two hundred thousand subscribers! You really deserve them. I'm glad you've finally became a professional KZfaqr.

"i don't remember dan standing on the power lines up there" XD I'm dying. I will now subscribe

The best thing I have ever seen was that look of sheer confusion, and Dan's laugh at the confusion.

Very nice job, looks way cooler than any of the bows I've made so far. I really like the idea of having the limbs made out of the bigger pipe. So far I've only put on bigger pipe as the siya on the tips of my limbs. I too have had trouble getting a pvc-fiber-glass bow to increase significantly in penetration performance. But if I'm not mistaken, you're using field tips. For penetration tests you should probably use sharp tips, but of course, don't do anything that'll damage your arrowhead, not worth it.

there aren't enough zednought alpha vids i always get excitet when you upload new ones

really coool!

+Red Rook already got at this, but I figured I'd go into it a little more. I think I may have an answer for you about the difference in performance. You made an absolutely wonderful bow, you really just made a neat long bow rather than a recurve bow. The curving in the bow's ends doesn't come from shaping, those curves come from the natural tension created when a bow is pulled backwards from it's resting position which would resemble a strung long bow without the string. As I'm sure you know, the power of the bow comes from it's potential energy (PE) due to the tension the bow string forces on the bow at rest. That energy is exacerbated by you pulling the string and then released when loosing. With true recurve, there's significantly more PE because the bow isn't trying to straighten (more or less), it's trying to revert to it's original curve shape. This may lead to the bow being "faster" as others mentioned because it's journey is beyond a 180 degree or 5 and 175 degree rest but more like a 20 and 160 degree rest (if not more). I'm not sure a true recurve is possible with PVC material; I would worry it would be too much stress for such a weak material. However, you may be able to accomplish it! I truly enjoyed watching the video, and congrats on your wonderful weapon!

Dan is cool!

Very nice! I would like one.

um hey Eli just wanted to tell you that i have made my first pvc bow and arrows all inspired and learned from you i really hope you read this it means a lot to me and keep up the awesome videos.

Also, Pro tip while connecting two ends of Pvc with the primer and glue make sure you twist the Pvc in opposite directions to ensure a nice tight fit.