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Well today all the pieces are finally going together - and although I made a few mistakes
{front curve too low - chipout on some drilled pieces, etc}
I enjoyed it so much Im going to build another this summer in spare moments, something more akin to Shane's with the wooden dowel construction, who knows mabye even box joint or dovetails here in there.

Anyway, I thought Id throw a couple pics out there as Im constructing it - someone was asking about the press mechanism
{you can buy at LMI I think?}-
this was constructed with materials from my hopelessly ill equiped local hardware store, so it can be done.
I still have to make a trip to Slegg Lumber for the springs, this machine isnt perfect, but will do the job.


despite the embarrasing chipout, this shows how I used regular hardware parts for the press mechanism,
As I said somebody was asking about this the other day.
I drilled a 3/4" hole through the head block, then a 1-1/4" hole about 3" up into the bottom to accomodate the bolt which was epoxied in.{messy ugly - practical cheap effective}
I drew in pencil roughly how far it goes up in

just regular 3/4" threaded rod.

The handle was drilled out at just less that the 3/4" and the wood was carefully threaded onto the rod, then the bolt was snugged up underneath, once theres a dowel plug on top
Bob's your uncle - works like a charm - as you can see that mahogany I bought at $1 a pound is coming in pretty handy!

well Im gonna go finish it up now, then on to the final touches on the thickness sander,
oh yeah complete the bending forms
and theres the body mold.....
then I think I can get building
Cheers
Charliewood

Oh yeah the waist block portion of the bender was inspired by Shanes mechanism
the threads were ground off at the bottom {3" or so}
and then a recess was created further into the rod, at which point I just made a locking wedge to fit in the slot
and then the wedge pins closed in place with 2 pins on the top of the block.
Thanks Shane
Cheers
Charliewood

Love your bender and great job on that mechanism bro!

Looking good Charlie! You'll be whipping out killer guitarss in no time now!

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Looks great Charlie... I bet you can't wait to get bendin'!!!

Long

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"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” -Heraclitus of Ephesus

Charlie - it looks pretty darn solid and well made to me. Get bendin' dude

Way to go Charlie!!!!!

Thanks,
well I kinda flew at it, Im kinda getting impatient to build guitars
but its solid and will bend sides,
Still I want to make a very carefully constructed version.... with as much wood as possible in it.

I dont know what it is about this machine, but theres something very pleasing to it...mabye because its a article thats used exclusively for building instruments that makes it so appealing/interesting, whereas a chisel or mallet or even a go bar deck could be used for other construction.
Everyone I know who sees one for the first time definitely remarks about how cool it looks.
Anyway... onward and upward.
Cheers
Charliewood

Nice jig man. Great job. Hey, dope question of the week, but what's the metal bar under the press for? I've been bending sides with my fox bender, but I don't use the metal bar. How 'bout a bit of education for me Charlie?

Bill

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Hey Nice job Charlie, well done

looks like Hesh has inspired you, I see a sink in your shop

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Lookin' GREAT Charlie! That get them side bent! You have probably thought of this already but when I build moulds (or anything that needs pieces repeated) I bandsaw out the first piece and then spend the time necessary to get it right on how I want it and the I use that piece to trace out the others that I need (I am going to solid moulds so that is 8 pieces for each mould!), cut them to with about 1/16" of the line (1/8" is fine too) and then use a router and a pattern bit to clean them all up eactly the same! Careful clamping and you are done, save for a bit of scraping to remove glure squeeze out.

Keep it up!

Shane

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Canada

Bill, that aluminum slat is the bar that will eventually spring load to the top of the bender,
it holds the steel slats{containing the sides and bender} up tight to the waist block as it is bent,
{keeping the waist area centered - Im assuming - is the reasoning for this}
a routed slot in the actual cross section of the waist of the mold {not finished yet} accepts it, when it is depressed to the full depth of the bend.

Shane - YES, I eventually thought of that, although, many "yes.... perhaps I should" moments have dawned on me throughout my gearing up process!
I didnt actually cut 4 at a time, though, only 2.
I screwed them all together in order to true them up together with the sander.
The 3 spaces in between the MDF patterns will eventually {today} have 1" spacers inserted to widen the entire affair to 6".
Thanks for the suggestion though - I think I will do that next time.......
Oh and PS - the only reason the front foot plate is standing proud in the pictures is because I hadnt cut the through dados into them at the time,{the reason there arent any screws in the side in that area}
Well - as I said Shane I really want to build a marquee version of this machine, cause they are just too cool - Ill prolly just give this one away when I do.
Cheers
Charliewood