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Well, after having sides serviced by LMI on my first 4 builds, the time came to start doing my own side bending. After considering the costs and the advantages and disadvantages of both the side bending machine vs. using a bending iron, I decided to give it a go with a bending iron.

I practiced a couple of times before beginning on an actual side set, first with a practice piece of maple, then with a 3" x 30" strip of mahogany that I cut off the 1st set of sides.

So the first side... was difficult. It took me quite awhile, and I had to do some pretty delicate rebending between the waist and the upper bout. The second one went smoother. I remembered what I'd read somewhere about mahogany needing more heat, but less water (?).

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the results. I'm no pro at it by any means, and I can't say if I'll be able to sand out all the little imperfections. But the first set came out with no breaks, no kinks, and no scorches

Here's a pic of the sides. This guitar is going to be a modified parlor guitar, shorter in length, but a little bigger at the lower bout... sort of a mini-L-00.

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Ken Mitchell
Durham, NC

Nice job Basset If they did not turn out as well as they did someone would surely hound you........

Great job!

Thanks, Hesh

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Ken Mitchell
Durham, NC

Kudos, Ken. Looks good. I, too, took your route with no regrets.

Hi Ken, good job on those hand-bent sides.

I started out using a bending iron too. However, when it came time to bend the EIRW bindings for my first guitar a few weeks ago, I gave up with the bending iron after about the 5th broken binding strip. I built myself a Fox style bending machine with a heating blanket (instead of the bulbs). Bending the 4 long wood binding strips was really easy with the machine. No breaks, no fuss, perfectly shaped bindings. I will be using the bending machine from now on (for sides and bindings). YMMV.

Cheers,
Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Ken, Kudos on taking the bending iron approach. Stick with it and you will find that it affords a flexibility to make a myriad of sizes and shapes without the drudge of producing fixturing for each one.
Also, bending sides with ornaments such as center inlays are far easier to do on an iron.

Looks like a great job to me. I actually enjoyed the bending part, using an iron. Just "old fashioned", I guess.

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Waddy

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Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Ken, those sides DO look good.
As a bit of encouragement, mahogany can be one of the more stubborn woods to bend, and especially in the tight curvatures that you picture. So, as a first go, that's a pretty impressive job.
If you want to ease yourself into hand bending a bit more casually, try some walnut, myrtle or maple. Many have found those woods ridiculously compliant: at the first sign of heat they surrender.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

I LOVE using an Iron.

I HAVE used a steam walpaper stripper to bend walnut, maple & oak, but a hot pie (however you heat it) is just GORGEOUS to work with

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My soundclick xx luthier blog xx luthier soundclick

I prefer eating 'em myself...

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

At this point in my building I still have two major steps that I wanted to be able to do myself, and those are bending sides and cutting the ledge for binding (I'll have to address the binding ledge issue in a few weeks). I may eventually build or buy a bending machine in the future, once I've got my building preferences worked out. Right now I wanted the experience, the flexibility, and the least expensive way, which the bending iron offered.

Yeah, as for bending mahogany, I knew that I was starting off with one of the more difficult woods to work with, but that was what I had on the bench / in the works (in a round about way).

Now I guess the next challenge is bending some wood binding, which sounds equally challenging!

Thanks again - this forum is such an incredible resource!!

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Ken Mitchell
Durham, NC

I thought you were supposed to cool them on the window sill!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I bend all my bindings on the iron simply because it's just so easy. I've never broken one on the iron, but have destroyed my fair share using the slats and blanket on a bending form

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
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Cairns, Australia