Built my own side bender. Need advice on waist caul

[jeffrodite]

Just built my own side bender, with removable forms. I'm leaving the rods as removable, that way I can just interchange them with another size form if need be(that AND they are too much of a pain to hacksaw!). Still need to make the waist caul, and was just fishing for advice on what has worked well for any of you. Take a look at the pic below.

[Ben-Had]

I think you're going to need to modify that a bit. You'll need something to hold the form in place from moving during bending.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Hey Jeff,
That looks pretty go so far. I used MDF for my waist caul, cheap material, and easy to shape. I just glued up a few pieces of 3/4" into a block and shaped, the screw to your screw press.
You are going to need a base on that bender to get it up off the table as your sides are going to hang lower than the ends of your form.
See what others are like.
How are you heating it up?
Kevin

[jeffrodite]

I think you're going to need to modify that a bit. You'll need something to hold the form in place from moving during bending.

I have a base that I also built that it attaches to. The form is sitting in 3/4"x3/4" grooves in the front and rear rails.Keeps it in place.

[jeffrodite]

Hey Jeff,
That looks pretty go so far. I used MDF for my waist caul, cheap material, and easy to shape. I just glued up a few pieces of 3/4" into a block and shaped, the screw to your screw press.
You are going to need a base on that bender to get it up off the table as your sides are going to hang lower than the ends of your form.
See what others are like.
How are you heating it up?
Kevin

I built a base that it rests on, to keep it up off the table(just not in the photo). Will be using heat blanket to warm it up.