Question About Side Bending Thickness

[pariah223]

I recently got my bending iron up and running and had suprisingly good success bending a test piece of wood to a guitar shape. I realized afterward howerver that the wood was about .140 and the book i have recommends the wood be .90 thick. my question, which may or may not have an obvious answer is, is thinner wood more likely to crack or is it actually easier to bend to shape without cracking. I had no problems with my wood cracking at .140 thick, but i dont have another piece of test wood to test it out before i go doing the real thing so i was just wonder if anyuone knows the answer to this. Thanks!

[Mattia]

Thicker wood is harder to bend evenly because it's harder to heat through, and you're more likely to crack things. I thin sides to at least 0.085" (well, 2.0 to 2.2mm, really), thinner for tighter bends (down to .070 or so). Thicker also means quite a bit of unnecessary weight.

[fryovanni]

+1 to what Mattia said

[pariah223]

hm maybe i just got lucky then.. it just seemed too easy. I am using mahogany though and i assume thats probably the easiest wood to bend

[Mattia]

Mahogany is either easy to bend, or a pain in the butt. Indian rosewood, walnut, cherry, those are 'easy' woods.

[Daniel Sorbera]

Mahogany is either easy to bend, or a pain in the butt. Indian rosewood, walnut, cherry, those are 'easy' woods.

+1 to that. I've had some very easy mahogany, and some that was a pain. Indian Rosewood is always easy.

[John Abbett]

How about maple? I'm getting my bender together to bend sides for a Maple 335.. Any tips?

-John

[pariah223]

ive heard maple is one of the easy woods, as long as its straight grain. What kind of bender are you getting together? a bending iron or a fox style?

Edited April 22, 2008 by pariah223

[Jyrki]

How about maple? I'm getting my bender together to bend sides for a Maple 335.. Any tips?

-John

I did maple sides for a 335. I have quite limited experience of bending but among the woods I have bended the maple was the easiest.

Maybe this is because sides for 335 are so narrow. At least it helps.

- Jyrki

[Mattia]

Straight grained maple bends without much trouble. Figured maple, however, is a different story, and should be bent fairly dry. NO SOAKING. It's the wood I've bent the most of (OK, not guitar sets, but lots of binding for doublecut electrics, breaks common along the grain).

[John Abbett]

I'm getting together a bender made out of copper pipe, a 500 watt charcoal starter and a light dimmer. We'll see how it goes. The most expensive part was the copper pipe. Metal has gotten expensive in the past year or two.

The maple is not figured on the sides, I'm doing a burst, so it didn't need to be. I cut plenty of practice boards. I'll let you know how it goes.

-John

[Mattia]

For a traditional acoustic burst you have visible grain on the sides, though...

[fryovanni]

For a traditional acoustic burst you have visible grain on the sides, though...

Those crazy traditions

[Mattia]

For a traditional acoustic burst you have visible grain on the sides, though...

Those crazy traditions

Come on, though. Tell me with a straight face that you think Fender-style bursts are prettier than the ones Gibson does on its acoustic instruments. Here's an F5 Mando and a J-200 for illustrative purposes:

http://www.12fret.com/usedSoldGallery/gibsonJ200nA24893.jpg

http://www.pinrepair.com/vgi/gone/59_j200_1.jpg

[pariah223]

funny, i never actually noticed a guitar with a burst on the sides... what an awesome look. Guess i should open up my eyeballs a little wider

[benbenda]

it's not that you can not use thick wood. it's thick wood doesnot usually provide even heated curve and more likely you end up with unsmooth surface by hand. ask me why I know this.