It is more work to make the molds but the precise action of the tension rollers is a worthwhile tradeoff for having to cut the slots. I recently had the opportunity to bend OM sides together with three other builders on three different bending machines. The other three were far more experienced builders than myself and all agreed that the LMI bender was worth the investment.

Yeah, Yukon's bender was da bomb... it worked really well, and that small blanket for the waist was really great.

The 'tensioned' rollers are held firmly against the side, heating blanket, and form with perfectly even pressure throughout the bending of the side (it's the reason for the slots.) This allows a very slow and deliberate movement of the roller throughout the bend.

Using the small heating blanket and slat in the waist makes for a less stressful, even heating/bending process that I imagine reduces the chance for cracks (especially for the less experienced among us.) Of course you may also perform this step without the LMI bender.

It really looks cool but my 11 year old Fox design which I copied from his course has performed flawlessly with two heating blankets, a kitchen thermometer, and some mods that allow me to remove the top to drop the sandwich in and remove the bent side easily. I do have the old grey box LMI controllers with the built in timers and they have held up well.

A shout out to whoever came up with the wet brown paper trick and the technique of bending the waist 50%, doing the bouts and clamping them snug and then finishing the waist with good tension on the bottom slat. ( was that you John?) Also kudos to whoever introduced me to Super Soft.

I started using Super Soft about 10-12 years ago because I was doing a lot of veneering back then. I decided to try it on a set of WF Bubinga and it worked fine. I told JJ Donohue about it and he wrote a post outlining how he used it. The rest is history.