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I have one of the older Ibex irons that I bought second hand (I'm poor lol) and I successfully used it on my first acoustic.

Last night I was almost completely done with bending a side when the iron dropped from 300F to 150F. I left it to see if it would warm up again and it never went above 150F. I cut the power for a few minutes and then turned it on again and i got about 20 minutes of bending time before it dropped again.

Has anyone fixed this problem or run into it before?

I'm not opposed to upgrading to something like the Luthier's Bench bending irons look great but they're a bit out of reach for me financially right now.

If you have friends in the HVAC business, I bet they can sort this out for you. There are only so many things that can be wrong with a simple heating element circuit. Or, you can do some internet research on such circuits. A multimeter and the knowledge of what to look for should be able to tell you what needs fixing or replacing.

I recently ordered a Luthier's Bench bending iron to replace my Ibex iron. The Ibex is fine, but I am really looking forward to the faster and more reliable heating one is supposed to get with the Luthier's Bench iron. It is supposed to arrive next week.

If you wind up needing a replacement Ibex iron, I can sell you one for a relatively modest amount (compared to a new one). I actually have two that I was wanting to sell eventually: One with the tight radius add-on, and one without. They both work just fine.

Here's a link to the mod I did on my Ibex iron (Howard Klepper did it first), maybe this will help.
http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=37310

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Well color me embarrassed these irons are super simple. Guess I should've taken it apart before I started asking questions lol

Thanks for the mod Steve. I got both of those parts ordered so we'll see what happens.

No need to be embarrassed, always good to ask. Glad the link was helpful. With those new parts you'll be able to run the iron hotter if you like.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

That is something I found a little annoying, mine would top out at 310 or so on the highest setting, might be worth trying some higher heat to see how it works. Thanks again Steve