The Most Useful Thing In My Shop...Today....

[Hesh1956]

Well we all have bad days when things seem to go.... wrong.... I am having one right now....

So I thought that I would share what just happened here at Heshtone Global headquarters.

Currently I am building my first ever "batch" of two guitars at once. So far so good and the economies of scale just in the set-up time for each operation have been great.

Today I attempted to bend the sides for the second guitar an OM with beautiful Tiger Myrtle from Bob Connor (thanks again Bob!!!).

Everything was going fine, the wood was wrapped in craft paper, lightly spritzed with distilled water, the waist mark transfered to the edge of the craft paper and visible through the slot in my bender, and the blanket had been cooking the stack for about 3 minutes when I started to lower the waist caul.

Then, to my horror, I noticed that the bending form in the bender was a stinkin dread*ought still in the bender from the first guitar in this batch. The bending stack with the spring clamps on the ends had already started to relax the wood (wood is a cheap date, no wine needed...) and the ends were drooping downward.

Some quick thinking to make up for my completely stupid mistake in not changing the bending form and I dawned my heavy leather gloves, pulled the plug, released all the bender's cauls, and yanked the very hot stack out of the bender and placed it on my bench. Looking around my shop for something heavy to use to flatten out the stack since the bend had already started to take shape I spied my bricks.

I never hear anyone talk about what they use in the shop that is not by definition a tool but still very useful and often used. For me my bricks qualify. When I install a rosette the bricks get used to weight it down and I use them for many other things even though I am no longer married.....

Anyway the bricks were placed on the wavy shaped stack and used to help take the bend out of the wood while I made like an Indy pit crew and changed the bending form in the bender to an OM.....

With my gloves on again and the wood nicely preheated.... the stack returned to the bender, the blanket was plugged in again, turned on, and I waited a few minutes to get the heat back up and then did the bend.

When I finally sat down I was rather proud of myself for the quick recovery and I didn't even burn myself either....

So this got me to thinking, always a dangerous thing for me to do.... and I am wondering what are some of the useful things in your shops that we all might benefit from having?

Here's my bricks and thanks for looking.

[WaddyT]

Here are some 7 1/2 lb. dumbell weights that I inherited from my father. I have these and some 12 1/2 lb ones that I use all the time. They used to be rusty & ugly, now they are only ugly.

[Ron Wisdom]

Those are some fine looking bricks, Hesh. I don't use them (yet), but I do also use dumb bells and free weight plates.

Ron

[Allen]

I've got about 1/2 dozen slabs of granite in various sizes. Off cuts from counter tops that I got for $1 each at the local "Buy Back" shop. They also have the advantage of being close enough to dead flat to be useful for all kinds of things.

[jeffhigh]

Hesh,
Bricks are certainly useful but they look so out of place.
Maybe some purple and pink padded velvet covers?

[Taffy Evans]

Hi Hesh, your workplace blows me away, I have visions of you working in a white suit, with a white apron of course. Here some of my wieghts 3 lead I big round steel base from a big desk lamp. Their last job was to hold down a back [Walnut] that had buckled after book matching. Worked a treat.

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Hi Hesh, good save buddy.
Bricks are fine guitar-making tools.
They have that weight thing going for them, and they're also cheap...
making them a very attractive addition to a lean budget.
Here's a shot showing some in "action" at rosette time.
You will also notice the wife's clear cutting board, which helps keep
things flat, as well as distributing the force:




Steve

[Lillian]

Its been a long week already and I know I'm still tired and fuzzy headed, but is there something I'm just not seeing or thinking through?

If a side is bent on the wrong form, which happens to be bigger than the one you wanted to use, why couldn't you just consider it pre-bent and finish bending it on the correct form? Why flatten it first?

[Hesh1956]

Its been a long week already and I know I'm still tired and fuzzy headed, but is there something I'm just not seeing or thinking through?

If a side is bent on the wrong form, which happens to be bigger than the one you wanted to use, why couldn't you just consider it pre-bent and finish bending it on the correct form? Why flatten it first?

Sister Lillian that probably would have worked but I wanted to start with something flat so that the bending stack i.e. slats and blanket, were right up against the wood so as to heat it more uniformly. Once the wood has some bends to it it's not easy to get the slats right up against it for support and better heat transfer.

Good point though.

[Lillian]

Makes sense.