Official Luthiers Forum!

hi all...have a bender built and going to use lightbulbs...what should i line the inside with so the wood doesnt scorch or doesnt it matter? its plywood and the forms are not open (have a thin sheet of steel on top). I assume i want to do something with the inside so they dont catch fire since it gets hot in there. thanks!

I lined my ukulele light bulb bender with the aluminum tape used to seal HVAC duct work in your house.

I used 2 layers of aluminium cooking foil, attached with spray contact adhesive as I remember.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

HVAC aluminum tape is a good choice, as is the aluminum foil from your kitchen. Oily rags, crumpled newpaper, dirty diapers, and matches are poor choices. The diapers will stink up the place and the other things will burn it down.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

I've used nothing with great sucess, at least so far. I've bent more than a dozen sides with at least one of my forms, and it hasn't caught fire. They're made from 3/8" plywood, and they're not even scorched.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

So you didn't use oily rags as a liner? See! I was right!

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

aluminum flashing for roof work is good stuff for that, and cheap

+1 for aluminum flashing. I glued mine to the rig with high heat silicone seal. (I don't know how well that
would have lasted, because I replaced the light bulbs with a heat blanket as soon as I could afford it.)
I used high wattage light bulbs & did scorch the inside of my bender. It was partly due to the perceived fire hazard that I got rid of the bulbs so fast.