I lucked into a nice piece of high density foam from packing for electronics at work on the second iteration of my bow case:
wfa-archerycase-final_open.jpg
It was a pain to cut, and I paired it w/ too thick plastic felt (after washing the felt w/ baking soda to neutralize the acid used in its manufacture) replacing the brown cloth shown in the photo --- it's okay, and what I'm using now, but the first iteration was better and I should've stuck w/ it.
Before that, I was using two pieces of 1" thick insulating foam from the big box home center --- I laid the parts out, traced with a pen, cut out with a serrated knife (added finger cutouts to the upper layer using a suitably sized coffee cup), then cut a piece of cardboard to the same size, and sourced a remnant of black flannel from a fabric shop.
I then sprayed everything w/ a spray adhesive meant for cloth, glued the two pieces of foam together, pushed the cloth into all the recesses, draping it as neatly as I could manage across the top --- I resprayed the adhesive at need, pulled extra cloth down under the foam, and pulled and re-arranged until I got a fairly even draping of the foam across the bottom, top, and down into the recesses. I then re-sprayed the bottom and the cardboard which provided a reasonable bit of structure to it and secured the cloth at the bottom.
wfa-takedownbowcase-finished.jpg
The one change I would make would be to laminate the top of the foam w/ a second piece of cardboard (preferably something not corrugated --- it would add some needed structure and keep dents in the foam from occurring and telegraphing through the cloth).
I considered the foam thing (the usual suggestion is to get a T-shirt or similar stretchy material to drape over the parts) but was concerned about the heat of the chemical reaction and the fumes affecting the finish and the glues used in the bow, esp. the limbs.
Originally Posted by William Adams
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