I Love my Bending Blanket

[jeffhigh]

Half an hour to bend bindings for two guitars including setup insted of a full morning slaving over a hot iron
No breaks,delaminations etc just perfect

[auscab]

Looks good Jeff ,
Did you glue the WBW on first ?
And the glue holds withe the heat ?

[jeffhigh]

That's blackwood binding with BWB attached from Tim Spittle. I don't know what glue he used, but it was fine.
I bent dry, pulled down the waist after about 1 minute then the lower and upper bouts

[Nick]

Damn you Jeff! Was thinking I'd get myself a blanket at some stage & your post has just brought that stage closer! Plus the fact that I have a Ziricote build stewing in the sludge inside my head, which bends much better under the controlled conditions of a blanket apparently.
Could I ask where you got your blanket?

[jeffhigh]

It's an LMI blanket with a 1200w dimmer switch on the power supply for temp regulation

[Nick]

Thanks Jeff Convinced this 'hobby' is going to see me in the poor house by years end .

[auscab]

Have you been bending all those nice guitars on your website with a hot pipe or lights Nick ?

I spent one and a half hours doing my first side and the second side took four hours after I got a twist in it.
That was with a pipe.
The next one will be with a blanket.got it at LMI

I just went and had a look at the binding on Tim's web site and noticed he has Blankets for sale as well .

[Nick]

Have you been bending all those nice guitars on your website with a hot pipe or lights Nick ?

All done with my Ibex bending iron Rob (fancy edition of the hot pipe). I didn't take long to get the hang of it, it just seemed so natural to me. I do love hand bending but certain timbers do better with a form & blanket such as the aforementioned Ziricote which, apparently, has a nasty habit of splitting/cracking along the grain with any other method and at 400 bucks (NZ) a set I can't really afford to take a chance with the stuff .

[J.F. Custom]

Aye.

I wouldn't be without my blanket now. It makes bending even the most troublesome (or expensive and often both!) timbers a breeze. It pays for itself just in the lack of angst!

I do all my sides and bindings etc with the blanket. I too have the Ibex electric iron, but mostly I only use that to bend my unusual inlays or rosette purflings and the like these days. It can still help as a touch up aid though - some timbers still spring back more than others when fresh from the blanket/mold setup.

I usually use Titebond when gluing up my custom purflings and binding. I have had no issue with them delaminating when bent with the blanket. It has been mentioned before and others use different glues without issue as well.

Good luck with the Ziricote Nick! It is right up there, if not at the top itself in the visual appeal department for me. I'm doing my third ukulele out of it at the moment though and it bends fine with a blanket - that's on much tighter radiuses than you are likely to have. Worthwhile investment they are.

I got mine direct from MEI (they are listed in the suppliers section) which is where Tim @ Australian Tonewoods sources his too.

Jeremy.

[Allen]

I glue my purflings on to the bindings with HHG and never have an issue with them delaminating using the blanket and solid form. Bend dry though.