F Hole Binding Iron?

[Jehu]

Do any of you happen to have any experience making a small-radius bending iron for f-hole bindings? I tried making one using a length of aluminium pipe tonight. I was feeling quite proud of myself when I fired up the propane torch and almost immediately started to melt the iron. Like, within about 60 seconds, with the torch as low as it will go.



Any hot tips? Maybe trying to somehow have the smaller pipe extending from the inside of my larger pipe, so that the heat transfers to it without it being directly exposed to the flame?

Thanks!
Jay

edit -- sorry, I suppose this should be in 'Jigs & Fixtures'; mods feel free to relocate.

[kiwigeo]

Might be time to go electric. My bender has a small radius section for doing binding etc that bolts on top of the main iron.

Note that the radius of the pipe needs to be a bit tighter than the desired radius of the bend....dont ask me how I know this

[56nortondomy]

I use a little gas burner torch that i've had for years, it works well dosen't get too hot. I've also got a propane torch but i never use it, because that does get too hot. What about using some heavy gauge steel pipe, or take Martin's advice and go electric.
Wayne

[Jehu]

I may eventually go electric, but it's just not feasible at the moment.

I wonder, would a decent ceramic curling iron get hot enough?

[Trevor Gore]

Never tried it, but how about a soldering iron and a light dimmer?

(I use a 500W dimmer on two other bending irons, one heated by a tungsten linear flood light, the other by radiant heater elements)

[kiwigeo]

I may eventually go electric, but it's just not feasible at the moment.

I wonder, would a decent ceramic curling iron get hot enough?

Well if you don't have any luck bending your F hole trim with the curling iron you can always cut your losses and do yourself a nice perm

442275791_phil_spector_la10305232138_xlarge.jpeg (18.3 KiB) Viewed 15170 times

[Nick]

Never tried it, but how about a soldering iron and a light dimmer?

I've used a soldering iron before Trevor with reasonable success, I bound some F holes on a thinline Tele before I had my current bending iron setup. Can't remember what Wattage the iron was but it must have been at the lower end of the scale as I never suffered any scorching.

[Jehu]

Interesting -- the soldering iron idea is definitely worth checking out. I would have never thought of that.

And thanks, Martin; very helpful.

[jeff crisp]

I once bent the sides for an archtop using an old soldering iron with a vacuum cleaner pipe over the top. I've also bent several sides with a heat gun placed at the end of a pipe. The skies the limit...or the fire brigade

[sleake]

I use a paint stripping heat gun into steel pipe of various diameters. Distance, settings and on and off give pretty good temp control, and no flames to set fire to my beard - a vital consideration!

[Woodsy23]

You could use a cartridge heater. There are available really cheaply on ebay, if you are prepared to wait. For example:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10x100mm-220 ... 2a46fc08f5
You will need some type of temperature controller and would have to be comfortable working with electricity, hooking up and properly insulating the electrical wires.

I used one like this to make a bending iron, based on a method someone has described on the net. The cartridge heater is installed inside a larger steel tube and the space around the heater is packed with aluminium foil or similar to conduct the heat from the heater to the tube.

[lucpet]

http://lukethier.blogspot.com.au/2015/0 ... est-1.html

http://lukethier.blogspot.com.au/2015/0 ... nding.html


My Cartridge heater works well enough as far as temp goes

[Jehu]

The cartridge heater looks like an interesting option for the future. I just bought a soldering iron and will try to track down a dimmer switch... we'll see how I go with that.

Thanks again, folks.