shimmy
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Everything posted by shimmy
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ahh sorry my putes been down for a few days So....would it be possible to get a back shot of that bender? I can see the ply sides.....so whats in the middle of it? do you just bend the stips of metal over the sides? or is there an acutal solid peice imbetween those sides for the woodto bend across?
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Hi Rich, so how does one get the 1/2 inch ply bent into the perfect shape that you want your side to be? And whats the spring for? Sorry mate...Ill do some research on these.....I havent looked into them really hard... Thanks Shimmy
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The bending machines really do sound good..I just dont fully understand how do make one. The main bit the the sides get bent on are metal yea? when ever it comes to metal I tend to shy away because its not something I can normally do myself. How do you get the metal/aluminium the perfect shape of the side of the guitar youre trying to make? I saw a good way of heating it tho. with a few powerful light bulbs underneath..... I bet using the machine would give you a more accurate bend as well...I am actually starting to want to build one now..... hmmm...any pointers?
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Ive seen a mold made a few ways...Some are made to be deeper than the sides, and others are made just a few inches shallower than the sides.... any idea what the reasons for this would be? I figured if I keep the mould, I could use it for bending my timber bindings as well....I wanted to use ebony an maple for bindings..ive heard ebony can be quite tricky to bend...
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Thanks alot rich... Yea I planned on making a plywood mold....If I wanted to make it 2 layes thick, I guess another way to do it would be to make one perfect one, then use a router to do the other 3?
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Thanks friovani... That does look great I actually went to a appliance repairer and got this old " freezer defroster" basically just a perfect sized element with set into a simple aluminium frame....I pulled the frame off and it looks perfect...gets red hot... Problem is is that i think it gets too hot..Im going to look for a way to hook a simmerstat up to it to control the heat but the element is real simple..jst an element with a lead coming out of it to plug into the wall......only cost me $10
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Hi, as some of you know, Ive been looking for a means to heat a pipe to make a bending iron. Im in australia so I cant find a lightbulb compact and powerful enough to do the job. This morning I stumbled across this website...elements I emailed them to see if they have something suitable (im sure they do)...So I thought Id post this link incase anyone else is looking at making a home made bender.... Also partly because I thought somebody who knew their way around electrical sort of stuff might have a look at this and either find something that would work or break the bad news that none of it would Cheers Shimmy
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unreal..thanks guys Shimmy Far out..I had no idea you could get it from autobarn or whatever..perfect becuase its in a can too.... Thanks heaps
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Hi, I would really like to get my hands on some nitro for my latest project but I havent been able to find supplier in australia. Am I just really bad at looking or are they far and few between? I could buy it from stewmac but they dont ship it overseas.. Cheers Shimmy
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I see..unreal..thanks alot.my wood arrives next week so let the fun begin....although im still in several minds about what to do about a bender..hmmmmm The other thing is I am building a concert size uke but Im not sure what the traditional scale length is...i have seen them range from 14.75 to 15.5 inches
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Hmm Apparently the wood im using is nearly idenitcal to Koa how does it affect the sound? having the top thicker or thinner?
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The wood Im using for the front back and sides is Black Acacia (blackwood) which I believe is quite hard and dense. I think it would be good to have all the boards 1.8 mm....so I guess if I get it thicknessed to 2mm I could hand sand it from there Thanks for the tips Rich Shimmy
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Hi me with all the questions again.... jst wondering...I have a mahogany uke at the moment and the top is 1.8mm thick.... Would the sides and back be this same thickness? I just ordered some wood today and the guy is going to sand it to the correct thickness. I just need to tell him what thats going to be Thanks heaps Shimmy
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Wow...thanks for the all the advice... This is my first hollow body instrument so Im not so sure thats its going to work out or not to be honest. If it turns out great then I would definately like to build a side bending machine. I will probably just use a pipe bender for this tho..expecially because its just a uke. those tea elements and barbeque starteds sound great..Ill look into that today. Again thanks alot for all the advice. Hopefully Ill come up with something. Id love to just buy the real thing but as we all know theres so many other things to buy and it really ads up
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I could but i didnt think it would be hot enough? Ahh about the halogens..yea we can get those here for sure but dont then need a connection at both ends of the globe?jst wondering how that would go with water dripping around the connections...at least with the one sided bulbs, you can have the tube attached to ply with one end closed.... I really didnt want to spend the $179 at stew mac for one at least not for my first attempt at making an accoustic instrument but mabye Ill have to. Has anyone had experience in using a propane torch? is it easy to get the right temp? I guess you would just need a thermometer...
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Ahh how about using a propane torch? I know I can get my hands on one of those..it just seems that it would be hard to control the temperature...how crucial is that?
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Hi, Ive seen a few bending irons made from an aluminium pipe with a 200 watt lightbulb in it. I am in Australia and I went down to a Electrical store and they didnt even have any ...They said they could get them in but only in a big round shape that wouldnt possibly fit in a aluminium tube..... Does anyone in australia know of these? If we can get them here? Or anyone in the states suggest somewhere online I could purchase one? Thanks alot Shimmy
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Great thanks alot setch... Yea i found a good idea for a bending iron on the net....Hooking up a dimmer to the lightbulb so you can change the temp.... Ill have a loook though the library for more side bending tips Thanks again Shimmy
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If your in australia, I have some african swamp ash....its enough to build a large guitar/bass. Cheers Ed
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great theres some good info there..thanks alot.. umm also wondering......Im guessing theres 2 ways to bend the sides...one by hand and a bending iron and the other...well ive gathered that they kind of clamp them to a mdf mold the same shape as the guitar is going to be? Just wondering if anyone has any opions as to which is the easiest/best method.. Also, When bending my hand, must the sides be bent to the exact shape...I mean to the mm? or can you rely on the top to pull it into shape? Also whats is a good temperature to have ones bending iron... Sorry so many questions.....I must say something about this forum is that the people here are so helpful...I have always had fast and very helpful replys and I would like to thank everyone for that.... Thanks Shimmy
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Hi......Im probably going to get shot down here but because Im sure this has come up before but.....before that happens......I did do a seach of the forum and just could find anything too useful Im trying to find a good tutorial mabye with some plans on building a good quality uke.... Any links or suggestions of good books would be greatly appreciated.... Thanks alot Shimmy
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Yea I actually did try to use some pincers but they must have been blunt because I could barely dint the tang...(we are talking jumbo fretwire here tho) If i could do that then finish with a file that would be great...mabye I need a sharper pair
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Thanks for the replys I actually didnt realise that they were that cheap. Unfortuneately I need to start this fretjob tomorrow. Perhaps Ill use the money to buy some tang nippers with the money Thanks again Shimmy
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Hi, Just wondering if anyone knew of a different way cut the tang short to fit between the binding other than tang cutters. I heard that some people file it shorter but using an ordinary bastard file, to me seems like it would take a very long time. I do have a dremel and was thinking of grinding it off roughly and then finish it with the file.. any thoughts? Thanks kindly Shimmy
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Thats awesome... I did consider getting one of those expensive ones from stewmac but glad I didnt...the glass worked perfectly for me...I couldnt be happier with the results.... Thats a really good idea with the glass and tubes tho....Thanks for the pics... Shimmy