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I finally got a PVC bow made and working well without snapping it in half. If you use fiberglass rods inside PVC pipe like this you need to sand the ends down so they are not 90 degree angles and instead are more like a spear tip (pic). The blunt ends of the rods cause a pressure point that breaks the PVC when you draw it back. Tapering them to points prevents that.
This bow is 50lbs draw, 43" length, 8 1/8" brace height. It made from a 1/2" ID dia, schedule-40, PVC, electrical conduit pipe. Which is UV resistant. There are 2 fiberglass rods inside with a tiny metal pin through them to keep them in place respective to each other. The rods are 10mm thick x 4 feet long fence post rods. One is shorter than the other so the bend strength of the bow is less towards the ends. The rod tips you see sticking out are the same rod. I used a heat gun to flatten the bow and shove the rods into it.
The brace height is a bit long and I may make a longer string for it once I've tested it out tomorrow. Longer brace height = slower and more accurate shots, shorter brace height = faster and less accurate shots.
