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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

I saw that yeserday over on the fret too. It looks like it'll do the job but you may need to go to school to learn how to operate that thing. Actually I'm sure it's quite good, but it is a little more complicated than a side bender needs to be from my point of view.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Wow! This jigs seem to be about as easy to use as any. It seems to be very hard to build, however. And, I don't see the advantage of it over the Fox or other similar benders. I guess you clamp the waist to keep it from cupping.

I remember seeing something in Taylor's Wood & Steel newspaper about their new way of building sides. I didn't study it closely, but now that I see this I think their contraption looked a lot like this (just built out of metal).

Anyone know if there is a correlation?

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Anyone buy one of these yet? Looks like aa formiable foe but probably could be a good friend. I am always amazed with the creative ways people come up with to overcome a problem. So many ideas and not enough time to use them all. Did you say you were getting one of these Lance? Does one have to mortgage the house to buy one?
The only problem I see with being on this Forum is you learn about all the wonderful tools out there, then try to figure out how to get them all!! (A guy can dream can't he?) Just the same looks like a great way to bend sides.

That is amazing! Another example of what happens when we really want to figure out how to make something better. I would be willing to bet he broke a side on one of the "regular type" benders and said "THAT'S IT!". Where does he live? I'll bet it's near that alien base the military keeps locked up. That thing looks like an alien...

Or maybe he stole the idea from his chiropractor!Dave-SKG38358.561712963

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

wild

Bill lives in Bay City, not to far from me, maybe 2 hrs. No, im not buying one, or making one, im content with my John Hall Fox style bender, with Johns (to be pantent) waist cull, it rocks!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Side bending seems to be a big topic of discussion in luthery circles with all kinds of fancy methods of acomplishing the task. In my expierience I've found that it is really not that difficult, then again I bent my first 3 guitars by hand over a hot pipe and maybe just that little bit of hand bending expierience has payed off. Many luthiers (inculding me) are just using an outside form with a waist caul to clamp the waist area and then bending the upper and lower bout over by hand. I just can't see using a crank as in a fox bender at the waist that doesn't allow you to "feel" the wood give. I bet there have been more than a few broken side sets because of this. Seems to me they are makeing it much more difficult than it really is.

My head is spinning

his engineering prowess, you are right. Too much apparatti removes the luthier from the luthing. I loved the feel of wood bending in my hands over a hot pipe. But, closing my eyes and running my hand over the finished product, gee, it was incrementally bent and felt slightly bumpy lengthwise.

So, that's the reason I went into side bender form production. The result with the wire-wound silicone heat blanket was dramatic. I'm more aware now that less homogenous woods like Cocobolo may not behave on the bender. Which brings the slats back out and into play for me. Indian, Maple, Mahogany, Sapele, don't need it. But Cocobolo with all the convoluted grain structure, yep, it needs strapping down. Now I know.

I too like to have a pipe bender around (mine's electric), because a little cutaway bending, and touch up bending is pretty handy with that thing.

Thought this approach to bending cutaways might be of interest. The pivoting caul with handle gives a good tactile when bending. The side plates are thin aluminum but plywood would probably work fine. The 2" dia. caul is free to rotate. This replaces the cutaway press screw attachment normally seen on a a Fox type bender. It folds up out of the way when loading the bender.
Nelson

I like simple. And I like stuff that works. Bruce Dickey