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Hi all, thought i'd share pictures of what i was up to while waiting for my wood from buddy Shane, i kinda upgraded my jigs such as side bender and binding router jig.



This is my new bender with removable form and 3 inches height to go electrocute meself with the wiring of 3-200 watts light bulbs!



3 1/2" threaded rods with bolts and nuts to hold these apart, Yeah i know, i have a tendancy to overbuild!







Those are nice springs i found around here, that i'll use for clamping the upper and lower bout simultaneously! I'm also waiting for my heat blanket from buddy John Hall, after that, BRING IT ON BABY! Let it be the hardest wood or metal or cooking a pizza man, it's gonna give!



This is my binding router jig that i copied from a link at Kathy Matsushita's site, made of a simple square that you can clamp anywhere. The arms are bolted and have big bearings from an old oak rocking chair, of course i kept the oak!



I cut a notch so the upper arm would be able to sit atop the lower one.



There you go, you guys are so generous with your bindings,purflings and rosettes photos that i thought it would be a simple thing to do to say thanks to you all by the same way!

NO Hesh,, My wife used them to spring me back in the home when i was spending to much time in the shop!    

Serge,
What are you going to put on the outside of your bending form to support the wood?

Hey Serge, lots of work there.

I hope those arn't your everyday average plasitc light fixtures, cause they're going to melt pretty fast with 600W's of bulb in there. You realy need to have ceramic fixtures, they won't melt. Sorry.

Also, they look like they may be to far from the bending form. I think it will take a long time for the form to heat up, now I noticed that you also will have a blanket so this may not be an issue. I know that Bruce uses the bulbs and blanket on his form, but I don't know why. Maybe he could enlighten us (pun intended).

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I guess one more thing, sorry, you don't have anything supporting the wood in the middle, just on the outside edges, you will get cupping along the entire run of the side if you don't support the middle.

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

D.L., Do you mean to hold the wood agaist the mold ?

I plan on shaping a block of wood for the waist and have two other blocks for the upper and lower bouts. The last two blocks i will attempt to unite together with the long springs, and if it doesn't work, i'll probably go with threaded rods with eye hooks.

Or if you meant between the 2 shapes, i'll use thin aluminum, don't know if i'll nail the first slat yet or to use two slats detached from the mold... forgive my translating brain!

Rod, thanks, my second guitar will be EIR but future projects might include harder to bend wood, so i'm not taking any chances with heat, my jig is going to be kinda hot with the blanket and yes, they are ceramic fixtures, thanks for the concern buddy!

Rod, i think i will nail the first slat of aluminum around the shape since i have 3- 1/2" bolts, large washers and nuts, nice thing about it, i can still store this shape when i'm done with it and use the venitian cutaway on it too!Serge Poirier38732.9872569444

Good work Serge

Thanks Doug,

the shapes are made with 1 inch thick mdf, so i thought that by just nailing the aluminum as shown in the jigs page here that it would be ok with those 3-1/2" threaded rods for stability. Although maybe 6 inches apart might be too wide and would cup the wood, i don't know?

I think you need some support in the middle; you'll need very thick aluminum to span that gap, otherwise! I'm making entirely solid (full support) molds for my next few, since I prefer the support I get that way, and I use heating blankets (which I reccomend getting right away, like, now.)

Thanks Mattia,

The blanket is on it's way here, and i'll build support in the middle since it is 6" apart. I guess you're right along with Rod and D.L. on that matter, i think i got a couple of 1/4" or 3/8" thick aluminum bars that's about an inch wide, maybe that would be solid enough if inserted every 2 or 3 inches around the shape ? would that be ok ?

Serge

Fuzzy Serging Bear,
This pic catchs my eye as an electrician. I can tell it's not wired yet. (Oops, on second look, now I see the screws, it is wired isn't it?)

These porcelain sockets are great. They are meant to be mounted on boxes which protects the wiring and prevents electrical shorting. If you direct mount to a metal surface, you could cause shorting.

We have a little box we call a pancake box, it's 5/8 of an inch tall and has knockouts in the back. They cost about a buck a piece and require romex connectors or conduit to protect the wiring.

Just be aware of the close and exposed screws, this is kind of like mounting a duplex receptacle without a box, except the screws and connects are on the side instead of the back like these light sockets. Careful if you mount to metal, you gotta provide an insulator of sorts.

This also brings up another point. Standard wiring is not meant to get hot. We need to look into high temp wire for safely using power in these cookers/benders.Dickey38733.4179976852

Thanks Bruce, they are not wired, i drilled a big hole underneath each fixture( about 3/4")and smoothed the metal downward to go against the plywood not to cut the wire.Pretty obvious i'm no electrician even if i tried to cover it up huh? woud it be ok if i inserted either rubber or metal tubing in those holes to make sure the wires are protected ? What would you recommend i do Coach sir Those pancake boxes, would i be able to get 'em at any hardware or Crappy Tire (Canadian tire) Sorry Bruce just finished translating in my french Bear brain, ok insulator of sort ok, i'll save it up and have someone else play with my oven, wouldn't want to disturb the whole neighborhood

mY JANITOR day job is a whole lot less dangerous Serge Poirier38733.5275231482

Hardware, Electrical or Lumber Yards around here carry pancake boxes. We use 'em to flush mount on trusses for ceiling fans mainly, two sheetrock screws and a full grown man can hang from it. Works good where you need nearly no box. I just know these porcelain bases are screw exposed on the flush mounting part. Not good when you have metal behind them. Wood okay, metal no, unless you have clearance, such as the pancake box provides.

Thanks Bruce, one of the maintenance guys at my job said he would take a look at my set up sometime this week and he 's gonna make sure that it is properly wired and safe mainly. I'm in no rush anyways, before i bend any sides, i got a ton of work to do in preparation for the coming build.

As always Bruce, your input is highly appreciated

Good night sir friend!