First time bender

[Steve Belko]

Hello all,

Last night I made my first attempt at bending wood and am so excited about it I decided to quit lurking and make a post or two! I have a pile of what I was told is white ash. My very improvised iron is a 120 watt soldering iron with a 1" copper tubing sleeve. I ripped a couple lengths of ash 3" x about .080" and started playing. Sure I cracked it a little, made a few creases, and had some scorching. I can see how this will take plenty of practice but, I think I'll get the hang of it in time. I've been woodworking and playing guitars for nearly 40 years and it's finally time to combine these two hobbies!

Thanks to all who have posted in the past to help those of us just starting out!

Steve

[Michael Lewis]

Steve, you may like a heavier copper or brass pipe to hold the heat better. The thin wall copper tubing can run out of heat sometimes if your heating element can't keep up with demand as the wood draws off heat. The heavier material heats almost as quickly as the thinner material but holds heat longer and helps keep the heat more even as you apply it to the wood. Thermal inertia is the essence.

[Ron Daves]

Hi, Steve
I, too, am a FTB (First Time Bender). I've played with a bending iron in the past and had my share of cracks. Last night, I went to work on one side of a Uke. I was bending Myrtle, which turned out to be quite nice to work with. I'm not excited, because I'm accustomed to disappointments. I've always been able to fix the unk-unks and am at the point where cracks, fissures, bubbles, etc. don't surprise me. Anyway, my bending iron is a egg-shaped 4" metal pipe, about 3/16' thick and 10=inches in length. I put the pipe in a press and flattened it. I welded tabs on it so I could mount it on a plywood base. At first, I used a propane torch for heat, and that worked okay. However, this time around, I used a 110v charcoal lighter plugged into a router speed controller. I got the pipe up to 300-degrees (+/- 20 degrees) and proceeded to bend. I found that nothing I did stayed bent. First, I worked on the waist. Then the lower bout. When I worked on the LB, the waist flattened out. When I want back to the waist, the LB flattened somewhat, ditto with upper bout. However, after about an hour, I discovered that the whole side was pliable. I got it close to the shape I needed and clamped it into my Uke shaped holding fixture. It's morning now, and I'm looking forward to going out to the shed where I work and remove the side from the holding fixture. I will not be surpriised if it "sproings" back to flat, nor will I be surprised if it holds it's shape. As I said, I'm not surprised with disappointment. However, I'll add here that I am always pleased with a surprise success.

[Steve Belko]

I can see where more mass would help alot. It also makes sense to me to have more contact with a larger diameter pipe. I've seen pictures in "Build your own guitar" books where the iron is oval in profile, I assume to give different radius options.

Ron, do you know what wattage your charcoal lighter is? Sounds like a good idea. I have a soldering iron temp controler (from stained glass working) but I'm not sure what it's rated at.

[Steve Senseney]

I had trouble keeping my pipe hot enough with the charcoal lighter. The end of the pipe lost too much heat. I covered it with a little piece of galvanized metal, and it maintained the heat a lot better.

Since Ron seems to have access to welding and machine equipment, he could easily put a thin cap on the end if needed to maintain the heat a little better.

[Dick (DT) Trottier]

Hi Steve,
To your question about charcoal lighters: output is usually 500W. You can use a standard light dimmer switch for control as they're typically rated for 600W.
Good luck...