MIMF

How thick was the side in the cutaway area?

I don't know for sure... but after the fact it just "looked" thicker than it should be. My son did the thicknessing. I told him to shoot for 2mm but I never checked when he was done.

It looks a little thick in the picture too but it is hard to tell from pictures. . .

That looks like it is working well, John.
I built one this year also, but haven't tried it yet.
I'm excited to get going.

Looks good! Is there any heat from below? How thick was the cherry- ~1/8"? Was it kiln-dried or air-dried?

No heat from below... only from the heat blanket, which sits directly on top of the wood..

The cherry is 2mm thick, and it's kiln dried.

Dj Parker. I would love to see more pics,both cutaway and non cutaway side. I think your design is perfect for my type of building. can you post more or pm me pics thanks.

Ive been going back and forth on this,to build a fox style bender or not. I just cant see spending the money on a heat blanket ,spring steel and timers and screws just to use it on one or 2 sets per year.could this design work with a series of ligt bulbs? Its a very cool fixture but I imagine youd have 200 bucks in it and many hours to build and tweak it. I might build a version with the old school light bulbs, im just not convinced---yet.

You won't be convinced until you actually build it and use it. There is a really good reason why the majority of builders use a Fox bender and a heat blanket.

The discovery of the heating blanket ranks right up there with the discovery of Novacaine.

No, you don't really need it to get the job done, but...

Go for the simplified version, ala Mario Proulx. Just a form, slats, blanket, wood and a few cauls. No need for a big old machine! Blanket can be on top or on bottom depending on the form size. My sandwich is, from bottom to top: slat, foil, wet Kraft paper, wood, wet Kraft paper, foil, blanket, slat. I do not wet the wood. Only the paper. The foil does not wrap around the wood, it's in strips so the steam can escape.

The half body forms are great for the regular (non cutaway) sides but the Fox style bender or a hot pipe or similar heated "iron" are needed to bend the cutaway.

I put the blanket on the inside surface so any scorching that may occur is not on the surface that will show.

I realize that a cutaway would require a special form. However, if you use the foil and Kraft paper, there is no scorching! Also no staining of the slats or blanket.

That's encouraging, Waddy.

Well as a bit of an update...

I've done a lot of "test" bends and have done some tweaking to the bender. I've also bent my first real set of sides and have an actual guitar started. A lot of other things have come up so it's currently on the backburner... but I'm hoping to get going with it again after Christmas.

Anyway, this bender has been a bit of an experiment. It's overkill in some ways and lacking in others. It's been time consuming to build and tweak and some of the components I've bought have been a bit pricey... BUT even if I only bend one set of sides per year, I'm glad I did this. If nothing else it will give me some consistency in what I do.