Thread: side bending

Gday Titan, welcome to the forum
As far as the steam box method, I seem to remember reading that because the sides are so thin, they lose too much heat, too quickly...
From what I understand, by the time you get it out of the box and into the jig, you've lost too much of the heat to be able to bend it in one go.
I found with the bending iron, it was a process of... a little heat; a little bend.. a little heat; more bend... and so on.
Good luck with the guitar and let us know how it all goes, preferably with lots of pictures

Hi Titan,

Forget the steam box. For bending guitar sides you have two options:

1. by hand on a gas or electric powered bending iron.

2. a Fox style bender with heat blanket or light bulbs as a heat source.

I use an electric iron to bend my sides. A Fox style bender is easier and theres less risk of splitting but the hardware required is more expensive than for a bending iron.

There are many schools of thought on how much water to use when bending sides. I use a spray bottle to lightly spritz the side of the wood in contact with the iron. To reduce risk of splitting I work with a metal bending slat against the wood. I'll eventually go to a Fox style bender and heat blankets but for now the bending iron does the job ok.

thanks for the advice fellas, a little less trial and error is always a good thing