Side Bending Practice

[scamp]

I would like to get a feel for bending guitar sides without breaking the bank.
Build a heat controller and a bending iron out of a solid round rod of aluminum and 250 watt cartridge heater.
Does anyone have any recommendations on what wood I could get to do this at a reasonable price.
Stewmac sells practice sides but with shipping they are rather expensive and you don't know what your getting.
I heard someone suggest poplar but not sure how similar this would be to the real guitar sides ( probably rosewood) I would ultimately use.
Also, the thinnest poplar I could get is 1/4 inch so I would need to thin it down to 0.08 or so for bending ( which I guess might be good practice on how to use a hand plane to thin material).
Anyway... open to suggestions.

Thanks

[tippie53]

contact RC tonewood he has practice sides and can thin them for you

[Morecowbell]

+1 on RC Tonewoods for practice sides

[scamp]

I just ordered some from RC
This should be interesting.
Thanks for the suggestion.

Scamp

[scamp]

Update on Side Bending Practice

Purchased some sides from RC as suggested for practice.
They sent me a nice selections of woods.
Thanks again.

As an FYI.....
Built a heat controller using parts from Amazon.
Modeled it after the LMI box.
Wanted a controller which could be set to a specific temp and hold it.
Works great. If anyone wants any info on it let me know.

Also built a heating iron.
Used a solid bar of aluminum ( I know... total overkill) for $35 and drilled a hole to fit a 250 watt heating cartridge.
Seems to work well but as a heads up... you need to drill the hole very accurately so the cartridge just barely fits so it conducts the heat into the aluminum. Otherwise the cartridge will burn out.

Anyway... did my first bend with Monkey Pod and although a bit of a struggle went reasonably well.
I think my next practice attempt will go better ( I hope ).

Again... thanks for all your help.

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[tippie53]

As a person that bends a lot of wood
here is a tip
When starting to bend know water can be both a friend and an enemy.
I use windex and water . I my old days with the hot iron I learned a steam cloths iron helps
a great deal in getting the wood plyable. Then use the strap to set the bends. It takes a few
practice pieces to get the feel but you will learn.

I learned to bend from the man at Martin that did the bending. He used a pipe that was full of water with a touch
of fabric softener. He would dip the sides in it. The started at the waist and then did the bouts. He did this 8 hrs a day 5 days a week for 30 years.
He said to me once you get the feeling of when the wood is ready is the secret. so practice and you can keep your coffee warm on the hot iron LOL

[MaineGeezer]

Would it be possible to embed the heating element in "something" (no idea what would be good) to improve the heat transfer?

[scamp]

As a person that bends a lot of wood
here is a tip
When starting to bend know water can be both a friend and an enemy.
I use windex and water . I my old days with the hot iron I learned a steam cloths iron helps
a great deal in getting the wood plyable. Then use the strap to set the bends. It takes a few
practice pieces to get the feel but you will learn.

I learned to bend from the man at Martin that did the bending. He used a pipe that was full of water with a touch
of fabric softener. He would dip the sides in it. The started at the waist and then did the bouts. He did this 8 hrs a day 5 days a week for 30 years.
He said to me once you get the feeling of when the wood is ready is the secret. so practice and you can keep your coffee warm on the hot iron LOL

Thanks for the suggestions. Will try the windex trick as well as the iron to start the process. For my first attempt I did start with the waist and then the bouts and it worked fine. Think I’ll stick with that sequence. I’m encouraged that I can perfect this process with practice given what I was able to do first time out.

[scamp]

Would it be possible to embed the heating element in "something" (no idea what would be good) to improve the heat transfer?

Good question. I did an investigation into using heat cartridges in metal blocks on the web. Seems like the key is just having a tight fit. There is something they do put on the cartridge before putting it in the hole to keep it from seizing as you put in in or try to take it out. Locctite makes something called “ copper antiseize” for this purpose ( good to 1800 degrees F ). I thought about using a heat transfer compound like they use on electronic components attached to heat sinks. The problem with that is the compound needs to be very thin or it actually acts as a thermal insulator. Also the max temp for these compounds is 390 degrees F. I’m sure the cartridge exceeds that temp. Anyway, it seems to work fine. Also, I believe the Sewmac and LMI bending irons use 200 watt cartridges and I don’t think they have any thermal compound on them ( they actually sell replacement cartridges to install).

[BlindBo]

I ran my first ever bending a few days ago on approx 0.090” mahogany using one of the Blues Creek benders and following John’s video instructions. While not “perfect, they come out better than I anticipated. They are now have the end blocks glued in and are in the mold waiting for a short bus ride. 👍

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