I soaked the sides in the tub for about an hour as hot as I could get before I tried bending them. Giving them another spray for good measure until I ran out of hot water again. Now I'll just leave them in the jig for maybe a week
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The jig has all the measurements marked out on it, but I wish I'd made some provisions for trimming the ends of the Dulcimer off nicely while it's clamped down
It looks very good though as it stands. A side mold will give you symmetry, but I imagine the old mountain luthiers didn't use molds at all. The Foxfire books give you a good idea of what life was like in that part of the world.
I got a steaming kit from Rockler, but i bet you can cobble together one for almost nothing. When I was building bows, I would steam the arms by boiling water in the largest pot i owned, and covered the top with foil to keep the steam in, and just laid the work piece on top of the pot. You could not steam large areas at once of course, but it was an easy system and cost nothing. I also know this canoe builder who built a steam box for his steamer out of sheets of styrofoam and held it together with duct tape. It seemed to work fine.
The bending iron sounds like a good idea. We have a small steamer I used when I made my first Dulcimer, but I steamed myself more than the wood. Should maybe have boiled water
Have you considered making an inexpensive bending iron? A steel pipe and a hand held propane torch are the major components. They don't look difficult to make. Or you could consider maybe using hot steam to bend your sides. Make a simple side mold or bending cawles, and boil a large pot of water over the range top, then use clamps and let it dry on the mold.
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It looks very good though as it stands. A side mold will give you symmetry, but I imagine the old mountain luthiers didn't use molds at all. The Foxfire books give you a good idea of what life was like in that part of the world.
I got a steaming kit from Rockler, but i bet you can cobble together one for almost nothing. When I was building bows, I would steam the arms by boiling water in the largest pot i owned, and covered the top with foil to keep the steam in, and just laid the work piece on top of the pot. You could not steam large areas at once of course, but it was an easy system and cost nothing. I also know this canoe builder who built a steam box for his steamer out of sheets of styrofoam and held it together with duct tape. It seemed to work fine.
Have you considered making an inexpensive bending iron? A steel pipe and a hand held propane torch are the major components. They don't look difficult to make. Or you could consider maybe using hot steam to bend your sides. Make a simple side mold or bending cawles, and boil a large pot of water over the range top, then use clamps and let it dry on the mold.