1st limb lock up

[Big Tom]

One of the local guys here bought a used Phoenix for a gift to his son and brought it to the shop. It needed to be dropped from a 28" DL to a 26.5" DL for his use. I let the stop screws out a full turn as I was "only" going to move the hinge pin one hole back.

*first I should have checked by drawing the bow where the previous owner had the LO set it was probably very near lock up already!

I dropped the weight, reset the hinge pin and (thought) I was ready to finish up setting DW and tune it. Good! I draw back and OOPs...LOCK UP DUDE!!! By myself I tried some ways out of the manual to force the limb tip forward to no avail...even called hippie for a secret or something? Then I noticed my traditional bow stringer hanging on the wall and got an idea...
I pushed one limb cup of the stringer on the upper limb...wrapped the middle of the stringer around my basement support pole and put the other end around the Phoenix lower limb. Holding the Phoenix bowstring with my right hand and the bow grip in my left I pulled back against the bowstringer and...PLOOMP...unlocked!

Like it says in the manual...take a couple full turns out on the drawstop screw before you try to shorten the DL on your Phoenix or Dragon.

*another tip to pass on...
while examining this (nearly new) Phoenix I observed that the lower cables had several twists in the and the uppers had none...the lower limb was cranked in to the max and the upper out quite a bit? The tiller was off and the limb gaps were SERIOUSLY out of whack.These bows come set up correctly from MBI and someone unfortunately tried to do something they had not the knowledge to do correctly...May have caused a premature sale of a fine shooting bow.

After bolting on a sight and WB rest, tuning the bow in at 47lbs... in about 15 minutes A nice young man was hitting 2" tape squares pretty consistently with his first bow at 15 yards. I love to see new archers join the fun!!!

[crafty]

It aint no THang for Big T. Ive had em looked up pretty good myself at times. Normally if i have it looked that good ill Put the string under my foot to free up another hand to work the outboard down. Normally i just yell for Madison to come down stairs though..

[crafty]

Tho like Big T said. If you do as the manual says and turn the draw stops out like it sates, you wont have to ever worry about this problem.

[gshed]

Bin there done that. Welcome to the club Tom. When it happen to me I put it in my bow vice held on to the string and pushed the limb forward.

[crafty]

Oh im Sure Big T has been in the club well before us.. lol heck Hes prolly a Founding father..

[Thorvald]

I am wondering what it means when the bow locks up. Is it because it is drawn so far that the two sets of cables are "crossing over"? So that the cable on the outboard gets behind the cable on the powerlimb? Basically so you are getting over the 100% let-off limit?

[crafty]

Nope. when the stops are in too far, you allow the outboard to tilt back enough to where all the weight is transferred to the back of the saddles. Meaning there is no driving force to take the outboards forward anymore. Meaning over 100 percent let off. if that makes since,

[crafty]

i seem to do it about once every other month.

[Big Tom]

i seem to do it about once every other month.

Great explanation Crafty!

[Thorvald]

Nope. when the stops are in too far, you allow the outboard to tilt back enough to where all the weight is transferred to the back of the saddles. Meaning there is no driving force to take the outboards forward anymore. Meaning over 100 percent let off. if that makes since,

Well - think that was exactly how I interpreted it. So why you start saying "nope"? hehehehehe

[Big Tom]

Nope. when the stops are in too far, you allow the outboard to tilt back enough to where all the weight is transferred to the back of the saddles. Meaning there is no driving force to take the outboards forward anymore. Meaning over 100 percent let off. if that makes since,

Well - think that was exactly how I interpreted it. So why you start saying "nope"? hehehehehe

The OB (outboard) limb cable cannot get behind the IB (power) limb cable Thorvald...
Think of the OB limbs as a lever/axis or fulcrum...if the lever comes up too far the load slides back down past the axis...that actually can happen before 100% let off...depends how the bow is set up...

You need to get one of these lever/levers in your hands...

[Frankenhippie]

His is close....

[Big Tom]

His is close....

You know what I say about the draw stops when playing with the Monsters...

"when in doubt...screw them OUT!"

[cyclepath]

I found something out by accident while playing with my dragon. Seems it depends on which way you are going with the draw length. By lengthening the draw you are fine where the draw stops are at, BUT, if you shorten the draw length without first unscrewing the draw stop, woooooops lock up!!!! I only did that once

[Thorvald]

Nope. when the stops are in too far, you allow the outboard to tilt back enough to where all the weight is transferred to the back of the saddles. Meaning there is no driving force to take the outboards forward anymore. Meaning over 100 percent let off. if that makes since,

Well - think that was exactly how I interpreted it. So why you start saying "nope"? hehehehehe

The OB (outboard) limb cable cannot get behind the IB (power) limb cable Thorvald...
Think of the OB limbs as a lever/axis or fulcrum...if the lever comes up too far the load slides back down past the axis...that actually can happen before 100% let off...depends how the bow is set up...

You need to get one of these lever/levers in your hands...

Well, no, I understand now what you mean. To do what I suggest, one would have to draw the bow very far out, so the outboards turns more than 90 degrees. But I understand what you mean that even before that, there can be more load behind the axle, than forward the axle so to speak. Yes, I need to get such bow in my hands - I am just waiting for that moment to arrive...