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After recieving abuse at the hands of Rick Turner over using a wallpaper stripper to bend wood, I've finally succomed to setting up a hot pipe bender. The fact that there are a set of Leopard wood and a set of Granadillo arriving tomorrow may have something to do with it, after I cracked a set of maple sides bending them with the stripper.

so, here we have a paint stripper heat gun, a lump of aluminium pipe and a vice




(and BOY does that VICE get hot!!!!)

In the background you can see some practice on some scraps

And here's some maple mandonaught sides.

I had to cut a set of sides from the back set to bend these as the guitar sides were banjaxed.

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Hi, Martin-
I like your 'can-do' attitude!
Maybe it's just distortion in the pictures, but those 'sides' look pretty thick. What thickness are you going to before bending? Average values tend to be ~2mm or .080 inches for most folks.

I used a hot pipe (with a propane torch- no wimpy heat gun for me!) for a couple of guitars but my pipe was larger diameter (about 3-4" as I recall). More heated area in contact with the wood makes the job a bit easier. It also helps to reduce 'kinking'. Some folks coil up extra metal inside the pipe to increase the heated mass and keep the temp more stable.

Also a metal 'strap' on the outside of the wood can help prevent 'bust-outs', but it gets to be a lot to handle when bending freehand.
Good luck
John

Martin,
I also have used a pipe for bending.

This is a bad picture of the 6 inch steal pipe that I found and crushed in a big vice to get various curved surfaces out of one pipe.
It is mounted on a big block of wood with a hole cut through so I could have a torch heat it up from the block side.
Lately though, I bought a short heating blanket and drape it over the same pipe to do my bending. I can still “feel” when the wood is ready to bend and I can control the heat much better with the blanket.
You may still want to use your small pipe for tight bends.
Good luck with the new wood comming!

Wade

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Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com

John.....

I have a strap coming from Stewmac, but there was rosewood bindings in the order and they're out of stock so I'm waiting..........

as to the thickness of the maple, bear in mind that these are mando and not guitar sides!!

they are 2mm thick

Wade, I'm wary about using the torch as I'm in a school here and safety is 200% more important than it would be if I was at home.

Maybe some day I'll try the balnket, but I need to get bored with (or blow up) the heat gun first!!!

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Martin-
The last set of sides I bent on an iron were koa, and a bit on the thick side as well. One side ended up with a 'kink' like the mando side in your pic. I figured it would 'go away' once the linings were in and the body was sanded.
I've been looking at the darn thing for 25+ years now and still notice it!
I switched to a bender after that! Use machine to replace lacking skill.....

John