Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Finished my side bender last night - it was a really fun project
Got the plans from here: http://ultimate-guitar-online.ultimate- ... ducts_id=7

Bought majority of the hardware from Bunnings. Porcelain light fixtures came from Cetnaj. The press screw came from McJing Tools: https://mcjing.com.au/searchresult.aspx ... ss%20screw.

I got the stainless steel pieces for bending (not pictured) from a local steel supplier. Cost me $30 cut to size.

I built it with a jigsaw and a cordless drill. The only thing I routed was the guitar mould, but you could handle that with a jigsaw also.

Took me about a month to build all up - but you could easily knock it over in a weekend, even a day.

I'll report back later with pics from my first bend

Looks like a great project have you had a chance to try it out?

Kiwicanfly wrote:Looks like a great project have you had a chance to try it out?

Thanks Kiwicanfly - it was a lot of fun.

I'm thicknessing my sides tonight, so I'll probably give it a go.

I'll upload a couple of pics during and after.

Cheers

I'm keen on building one. What sort of heating system are you using in it? Cheers Steve

Kiwicanfly wrote:I'm keen on building one. What sort of heating system are you using in it? Cheers Steve

I'm using 3 100 watt light globes Steve. Thought I'd try a cheaper approach before deciding whether a heat blanket was necessary. First bend tonight and it worked a treat

Here are the sides and two pieces of .6mm pear wood veneer all clamped up in a mould.

Here's a few pics of the completed side. I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out

The last two pics are of the side sitting flush in the solera, and of the solid linings that I'll use.

Hi Wayde thanks for the up date I'm looking forward to watching your build progress.
I have a few questions hope you don't mind I have PM you.
Cheers Steve

Both sides complete. Using a side bender and laminating the sides is a tonne easier (and better imo) than a pipe. I doubt I'll ever do it another way.