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How do y`all fasten yor stainless steel to your fox-style side benders, and do you leave them on permanently? I am thinking about countersunk stainless screws, and have enough stainless for many different forms but am curious as to removing it for different forms. What do the rest of you do?

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The slats? No need to attach them to the bender.

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No, I mean the first layer of sheet that goes over the slats.

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Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
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Make a solid bending form and use a blanket and it won't be necessary at all.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
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   Let me get it straight. Maybe I read too much into it when I did my research. Is there not a layer of sheet steel, then the wood being bent, the heating blanket, and then another layer of sheet steel to make up the complete "sandwich"? That`s the way I tried on the first try-out sides I bent and worked OK, but didn`t use stainless for fear of it not working and didn`t want to waste good stainless sheet steel. I am now going with the stainless for cleanliness and stability in the metals I`m using. The first metal I used was some left-over heavy gauge coil stock from my house siding days.

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Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
Check my oil too, if you don`t mind,,,

you have the sandwich idea ok, the steel slat just is not fastened to the bending form.

   Oh, OK, Now I see it in a different light. How to you keep your reference for the end of the bottom bout? (That is how it`s done isn`t it)? I`m supposing a mark on the form? The way I did it (apparently incorrect, was to fasten a strap accross the bottom end and go from there.

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Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
Check my oil too, if you don`t mind,,,

The forms that I have seen that have metal attached are hollow, and use lightbulbs. With a solid form (and a heating blanket), you make a sandwich, take it to the form and bend the whole sandwich, and take the whole sandwich off when the sides have cooled for the second time.

Most times I've seen the reference mark made in the middle of the waist, because that is where most builders will tighten down the first caul.

DennisDennisLeahy38603.8896412037

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Coe

I think the confusion lies in the fact that there are several methods people use to bend sides.

If you are using a Fox style bender, then you have a sandwich of a steel slat, your wood, your heating blanket if you use one and another steel slat. This gets put into your form but is not attached. I usually measure from the butt of the guitar to the waist and mark that spot with bright colored tape on the edge of the side so I can see it between the slats and use it as a reference for lining up the sides in the form. It is critical to measure from the butt if you are making a cutaway so I do it that way each time.

Another method that peaople use is a form were the inside slat is attached to the form and everything else is clamped to that. I don't think the side is supported well enough during the bend so I don't use that method. Others are free to disagree.

Hope I have helped

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Mine is attached w/ roofing nails... works fine

I use a heat blanket no bulbs. Bender (form), wood, steel slat, blanket.

It's at least 6 inched wide so the nails are away from the side being bent.

RCoates38603.9298958333

There is more than one way and like John How noted about the wood support. I like the sandwich method. This will actually support the wood when bending. The layers of steel kind of act like a flexible press and add support to the wood .
    If you do want to attach the steel to the sides and you are using stainless steel or spring steel , be prepared to go through some drill bits. You should also use simialar metal as the steel or you can get some reactions to the metals you may not like.
     john hall

Ron,
That`s the way I interpreted the setup to be. The only difference is that I made the crank-down caul for the middle of the waist, with a spare (which I don`t leave attatched unless bending cutaways). I was thinking that if you use roofing nails, the heads might be a potential scratch hazard should something slip and slide when getting things lined up. On my prototype (and it was a much softer metal) I used my brad nailer w/18 gauge slight head brads so they would sink below the surface. Really had to hold my mouth just right to keep from shooting my brads through.
John How and John Hall,
I tend to agree with you on the concept of the side not being supported well enough during during bending. When I made my first bends, there was alot of creaking and groaning from the wood slipping as I drew it down (more than I considered safe). I`m grateful for the info on using reference from the butt- could have run into trouble down the line!
Cocephus38604.2670138889

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Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
Check my oil too, if you don`t mind,,,

I know I`m being long-winded here, but the stainless I`m setting up to use is .060". I don`t know my gauges w/out looking them up. Isn`t this rather thick? I`m thinking this might retain the heat a little better.

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Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
Check my oil too, if you don`t mind,,,

Here's a really neat set up that Mike Doolin uses that has the steel attatched to the bender. One day soon I'm going to get around to making one.
Doolin bender
Mike has some really useful stuff on his site.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

0.060 is very heavy. the heaviest i hae used was 0.026". currently i use 0.012" or 0.010" in my fox style bender.crazymanmichael38604.3497222222

Thanks for the help one and all! I can see now that I`m not too far off track. I hope to get my bender up and running this weekend, and I`ll post pics for critique and feedback-that is if I have more luck with pics than I did last week with the walnut the resolution sucked, didn`t it? As y`all can tell, I`m no expert at that, but I do think I can do it now.

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Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
Check my oil too, if you don`t mind,,,

Worked on getting my side bender rebuilt last weekend. Didn`t get quite done, but made good progress. I decided to go ahead and fasten a layer of stainless to my form, in addition to using the "sandwich" on each side of my wood for bending. The other two layers of stainless had to be brought down to .012" from .060". I was able to do this on my shop made thickness sander. For anyone considering doing this, let me warn you, Safety, Safety, Safety. Wear all protective gear to avoid injury! Leather gloves, safety glasses, and I even wore a leather apron in case the sander decided to spit the pieces back out at me. Be sure you have good abrasive cloth on the drum, and take light passes. Takes an eternity, but stay patient and determined.

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Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
Check my oil too, if you don`t mind,,,

[QUOTE=Cocephus]   Wear all protective gear to avoid injury! Leather gloves, safety glasses, and I even wore a leather apron in case the sander decided to spit the pieces back out at me.[/QUOTE]

Coe...RESPIRATOR?!!! I'd hate to think you have tiny bits of stainless in your lungs!

   Carlton, Yes, I did take that into consideration. Although I do have a respirator, I just used a bandana tied up bandito-like. I`m not having any problems, though others just might.

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Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
Check my oil too, if you don`t mind,,,