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I do not have any pictures yet, but I have began my first build attempt...a scratch build. This guitar will be Mahogany back/sides with Bloodwood binding, end wedge, and peg-head overlay. The Mahogany was from Stew-Mac; .094 thick. I bent the sides on a Fox-style bender purchased from John Hall (Blues Creek Guitars); thanks for the great service John. I had never even witnessed side bending, but had read many topics on this forum and watched as many You-tube videos as possible...including the Blues Creek videos. i sprayed a little water on the sides, fitted them into the bender, and turned it on. Once the bender reached 225 - 250, I bent the lower bout with no issues...amazing how easy it bent. By the time I got to the upper bout the temp was between 250 - 275. The upper bout did not seem to want to bend at all. I heard a loud crack and the upper bout immediately bent. I went ahead and bent the waist...figuring the side cracked but wanted the experience of the whole process. Upon completion of the bend, the temp was about 300; I turned off the bender for cool-down. When the heat-blanket was cool to the touch, I removed the side from the bender; surprisingly there was no sign of any cracking at all. I had a similar cracking sound on the second upper bout; again no sign of any cracking. I guessed it was actually the steel slat resisting going from straight to bent, possibly a slight cupping in the plate (due to alignment or something). At any rate, I have the sides glues to the blocks, reverse rounded kerfed linings installed, and the radii sanded into the rims (16' back and 28' sound-board. More to follow, I have an appointment to go to right now. You were all right, this is a lot of fun ;-)

Henry

Glad to hear things went well. Please enjoy the forum , as it is here for your enjoyment and to gain all the information we can make available.

John,

The forum is great; and is the reason I started this build. I was always interested, but the individual procedures seemed too foreign. Information gained reading the forum put much of it into a realistic perspective. Thanks for all who share information so freely.

Henry

Wow Henry you are brave starting out with a scratch build.
We will look foward with anticipation pictures of your process and progress!

Kevin

Kevin,

Not exactly a scratch build, I bought slotted, radius'd fretboards; as well as pre-formed braces. I have read this forum almost daily for several months now. It seems the long pole in the tent, so to speak, for scratch building was side bending; therefore, I thought it sensible to get the tooling to bend my own sides. That decision made a kit lose some appeal. I figured piece-milling would give me more options than buying a kit; therefore I started ordering tools and components. I am quickly seeing a need for better clamping methods...weights and a few common clamps are not much for building a process around. I will try to take some pictures; I have just been busy and cramming all the build time I can into my breaks. I have the plates jointed and am gluing braces to the soundboard. The vintage "zipper-back" back center seam trim is going to look nice, I think. Between dealing with the hospital concerning my dad's care and finishing the addition on my house, I am actually building on the dining room table...trying to get an impressive amount done before Amy gets tired of that lol. I will get some pics taken and post soon. I really apologize for no pice; I know how much I enjoy all the pics you all post.

Henry