I didn't get to spend too much time working on the side bender tonight. We are having a pretty big ice storm around here so I spent a couple hours after work with a chain saw cutting limbs that have broken out of trees. Driving home from work, I was greeted by a fairly large limb from one of my willow trees that broke under the weight of the ice, and landed across the road. Needless to say, my first priority was to get that cut out and dragged off to the side of the road so cars could pass. Hopefully the ice is done and the trees will hang in there for the next few days. Ice storms like this play havoc with the trees, and utility lines. So far [crosses fingers] our power is still up as well as the cable line.
Anyways, once all that was done, I went up to my shop and started working on the side bender. It is a pretty basic setup and I will use 200w bulbs for a heat source. I didn't have time to make the bulb holder but I did get the bending mold finished. You might be wondering why I am building a side bender when I got pre-bent sides from LMI. Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, my next guitar will probably be the same as this one and I will bend the sides for it. Second, all of the perfling I got was not bent and it will need to be bent before installation. Here are some pictures of tonight's progress.
3 comments:
Hello David,
Your blog is great. I'm starting on my own guitar building journey.
I'm building the side bender now.
Question: how wide is your side bender mold? I'm thinking of cutting the EMT tubing at 5 inches wide. Seems kinda narrow though.
Hi Harry,
The jig is 6" wide. My bending slats and blanket are all 6".
David,
Thanks for your quick response.
When bending the sides do you place another piece of sheet metal on top of the sides? Or does bending with just the slats suffice?
I don't have a blanket and am hoping to be able to bend my sides without having to purchase one.
Thanks again!
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