Wood bending with Rockler Steam box?

[Branndon77]

I watched a youtube video by Big D Guitars bending wood using a steam box. The process seemed quite fast and painless. Does anyone have any advise, recommendations or complaints using a steam box to bend sides? At $75 for the Rockler kit plus materials to build the box this seems like the most economical and easiest way to bending sides.

[tippie53]

I have watched his video
I also tried steam bending in my early days. I had so much warpage that I never pursued it. I do use it to make wooden rakes and bending thicker wood. If you look at his guitar sides they are thick , and we normally bend at about .075 in thick. you certainly can try a steam unit but you may find there is a lot of potatoe chip cupping and grain separation.

Take your time if you are looking for a cheap bending method a hand bender can be made with a torch and a piece of pipe.

[Branndon77]

Thanks for the insight!

[ruby@magpage.com]

I built a bunch of the oval shaker boxes a few years ago with a friend who has built a lot of them. The wood used is about the same thickness as a guitar side - maybe a full .010. The way these are done is boiling for about 10 minutes in a pan the right shape to hold them. Then you bend them around a solid wood form in the shape you want and the form has much much (did I say much) tighter bends than you will find anywhere on a guitar.

The pieces did not seem to become wavy/corrugated after they dried. I wonder if this might work on guitars?

Ed

[tippie53]

Much depends on the wood . It is iffy and if it was more efficient the production companies would do it. The better the quarter the better the bend results. On shake boxes , they are often maple or spruce and very well quartered.
Lets face it , you don't know till you do it , so try one , and let us know your results.
My early days I was untrained and tried many ways to bend wood. I finally ended up heating. I never had luck with the steam .

[Diane Kauffmds]

I steam bent the sides to the Cherry/Spruce guitar. This guitar has extremely figured, wild grain in the sides. Here's the blog so you can see what I'm talking about: viewtopic.php?f=48&t=7502

I can attest to what John Hall said. I had some cupping, which I'm positive had to do with the wild grain on this guitar. I think the different grain lines, going different directions, and forming extreme curl, caused the cupping.

However, I was able to straighten this out with a lot of clamping. I steamed them again (using a canister steam cleaner with a hose), and I clamped the sides, top and bottom, to the mold and kept them there for a couple of days, making sure that they were absolutely straight and dry. You can see the end result in the blog.

As a result, I'm building a pipe bender, so I can better control the bending process. The steam worked, but it wasn't without problems.

I'm with John. The better the quarter sawing, the better the result with steam. A nice, straight grain would react better. All you an do is give it a try. I used steam to bend the binding on all of my guitars; it works great on the binding.