These are the main pieces. All welding is done, just a few more holes to drill to get it all to fit right.

Major components all cut, welded and laid out for painting.

Painted and partially assembled. On the right is the drawing I used for a guide. I based most of the construction layout on several presses I saw on the internet. The screw jack is made by Bulldog.

After several days, some more drilling, and a few design changes I got the bow press together and mounted on my work bench. I stuck my old Bear recurve in it to test it and it works fine.

Some other views.

This shows the cable/pulley layout and crank handle.

This shows how the pivots contact the riser and arms of the bow. The pivots are 1/2" inch bolts thru copper pipe covered with vinyl hose and nylon washers. The recurve is really long so the pivots don't extend far enough. I don't need the press for the recurve, I unstring it manually the old fashioned way.

Bow press clamped to work bench.

Then I got my Bear "Truth" bow back from the dealer and put it in the press to check to make sure it fits a short compound bow. Very nice!

I basically blended the design of several presses but mostly copied a press we have at the Palmyra Sportsmen's Club. I spent about $85 to $90 bucks to build this one. Of course having a pile of scrap metal, tools and a welder made it easier.

This shows the draw weight scale hanging on the "X" pivot. I still use it manually until I can rig up a way to use it with the press.