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Thought id share my new bending forms.

John Hall (Blues Creek Guitars) made up this
cutaway forms for me.

Cant wait to use them

The Models are left to right

L1 (cross between a large parlor and an L-00)
OM (well -- its an Om)
And my E2 which is Sj sized.

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Are you having success bending the cutaways on your bender? Mine has been mixed. I have switched to bending the upper bout and cutaway by hand.

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

Lance,

I'd also be interested in knowing whether you can bend the tight cutaway on your E2 model in the Fox Bender. I'm building a GC sized cutaway with a fairly tight radius (Ziricote @ .080) and haven't used the bender on this tight of a radius before. Thanks.

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Jimmy Caldwell
http://www.caldwellguitars.com

Ill keep ya posted. it will be my first.

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Hey, guys, this is one of the flaws with the Fox bender. I've had limited success hitting them all the way on the bender. But I use a compound cutaway that needs to be done on a pipe anyway.
Jimmy, I would suggest bending it slightly on the bender then taking it to the pipe. Zircote is not one of the woods you want to be experimenting with on a bender. Very brittle.
I'm in the process of redesigning the cutaway tower that will be something like the waist tower in that it has a reinforcemet bar that supports the wood. The problem is that there are two major bends going on at the same time and if you support one, the other will most likely snap. Still thinking on this one. Paul

There was an interesting article in a recent AL (I am pretty sure, but maybe it was guitarmaker) showing a cut away approach from Huss & Dalton (again as I recall...)

Despite my in ability to remember the specifics I **DO** remember that it was a pretty good article and it looked like something to try.

Take a quick peek back through the journals, I know there are ideas in there about this.

bpoling38365.5283796296

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

[QUOTE=Jimmy Caldwell]I'm building a GC sized cutaway with a fairly tight radius (Ziricote @ .080) and haven't used the bender on this tight of a radius before. Thanks.[/QUOTE]

Jimmy, you might want to consider--if you are doing a venetian cutaway--further thinning the Ziricote in the area of the bend. (And only in that area.) Perhaps down to 1/16" or so. Then reinforce that on the inside with a matching veneer, which can be terminated at a side brace. Does that make sense?

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Ziricote scare the heck out of me. I've done two of these guitars, and I've always experienced some slight fracturing when bending the sides. Fortunately, super glue makes for a great repair of it. I'd be terrified of thinning it that far, but if you have a spare set of sides, it might be worth a try.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

[QUOTE=Don W] Ziricote scare the heck out of me. I've done two of these guitars, and I've always experienced some slight fracturing when bending the sides. Fortunately, super glue makes for a great repair of it. I'd be terrified of thinning it that far, but if you have a spare set of sides, it might be worth a try.[/QUOTE]

They would actually be less likely to crack at that thickness. They might be a little too flexable for your taste, but if you then laminated the inside of that small cutaway section with matching veneer it would be very strong and the least crack prone part of the entire guitar. I used this technique on a very curly set of mahogany that was just looking for an excuse to pop a curl. Worked like a charm.

John