Official Luthiers Forum!

I know there are a few threads about this already, but I have a question,
and it says I don't have permission to post in the older threads to just
bump those.

In a thread started by Rod True about his Doolin-inspired bender, Mr.
Doolin made a comment that the top slat should be perforated to allow
water to escape during the bending process. From looking at pictures, I
can't see where anybody has made any holes/slits in their top slats
(including the bender on Mike Doolin's website). Can somebody who is
using this style bender let me know how they are dealing with the
moisture, or am I just not seeing the perforations?

As always, thanks for your continued help. I am on my way to starting to
build the jigs I need so I can start making some guitars.

I think the reason is most use a wrap like aluminum foil or kraft paper and only lightly spirits the wood and want to hold the steam in. When Mike Doolin wrote up this how to I believe he was wetting the wood pretty good and need the excess moisture to cook off.

For the most part anymore we are bending much dryer than we use to so the need for perforations in the slats in out of date.