Hello tribe
Been out of touch for a while, but kept on working. Learning how to play the Spanish bandurria and came to start making a guitar from scratch out of some oil boxes. They are big enough and have enough twang and resonation.
I want to make the typical eight shape guitar but now that I am done and ready with the cutting, I do not know how to bend the wood for the sides.
Any one has any tricks or recommendations about this part.
Thank you so much in advance.
Andres
Replies
Taff
This is about as simple as you can get.A metal tube mounted on a wooden base.
Heat the tube evenly with a blowtorch.Splashing the tube with water will give an indication of the temperature,the water will ball up and roll off.Too hot and the timber will scorch.Rock the wet timber as you press it over the tube,keep checking the curve against your body mould and just be patient.
I ran across another youtube video with a similar bending rig using what was claimed to be a 200w incandescent bulb inside the tube as a heat source...
That is a good idea. Like a portable wood bending machine.
Thank you Michael.
Guys thank you so much.
I will see what I can do. Not much space at home but I will improvise and Show you the results.
Thanks to Darryl, Taffy and JL
Just to emphasize what Taffy said Luis, thinner material is much, much easier to form, it gets much more pliable, i've only done it in a small way , but guys like Taffy can give you great advice.
To use the pipe bender. The pipe has an heating element from a cheep bar heater inside which goes through an old oven thermostat to control the heat. The pipe is none rusting brass or bronze. On top of he pipe I put a water holding material [you will have to experiment] I've used kitchen washing up pads, what is shown in the photo is a course fibre sanding sheet. it has to hold a certain amount of water, it will scorch away in time. I use a squirting bottle to keep it and the timber moist, the heat from the pipe creates steam which goes into the timber. As you feel the side become pliable put pressure down using the two wood bearers shown. You need to generate lots of steam.
The timber has to be thin and would depend on the timber being used, also the timber is normally 1/4 sawn. You could apply Veneer Softener sprayed on to the wood to assist the bending.
There is more to it than I have explained here, but U tube has it all there. I still use this method for mandolins or custom shape guitars.
Cheers Taff
STEAM! Lignum is the glue inside wood that binds the fibers to each other, it gets soft with heat, and steam makes sure you don't cook the wood trying to heat it.
If you have a good sized roaster pan and rack, or a fish poacher, 1" or so of water in the bottom of the pan on your stove top; boil the water, put your piece of wood in and put the lid on, not to worry if a little bit that you aren't bending sticks out a tad, have your form ready to clamp the hot/softened bit of wood to.
I made some novelty drumsticks from 1/2" poplar dowel that curved on an 8" radius this way. At 20 min, not soft enough, another 25 min and they bent ok with the help of a lot of clamps.
your guitar sides should work much easier being a lot thinner.
You tube has heaps of videos on bending wood, 3 main ways i'm familiar with are; using a heat blanket, very easy, but the blanket will cost 80 dollars or so, steam, once again not too hard, but you need to make a steamer which you can do pretty cheaply, and one i've used a couple of times is just a heat gun and wet rags, much slower and only small areas at a time, plus it's easy to burn the surface of the wood and needs a lot of sanding then. If you intend to do a lot, i'd go for the blanket, small, takes no extra space and easy to use, the steamer is pretty much the same, but you need a 6" diameter pvc pipe or similar and a kettle or something to create steam, so a little more space required, the heat gun and rags is a challenge, but satisfying if you get it right