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Side thickness recommendation
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Side thickness recommendation
I am having a little trouble bending my first acoustic sides. The wood is a interlocked mahogany. I am hand bending on a temp controlled 2″ curling iron. I have thicknessed the sides down to 1.9mm but still got some wrinkling and cracking trying to bend around the cutaway. I am trying to figure out how to improve this for the next attempt. I have read some conflicting information on how to do this though. Thus far my plan for the next attempt is to sand down to 1.5 mm but not sure if I should try a higher or lower heat. On the previous attempt I had a damp cloth mostly to prevent scorching. Not sure if I should have more or less moisture next time. Suggestions on how to proceed? Pictures below to show the grain and some of the wrinkling and splitting I was getting.
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6 Replies
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Your thickness seems fine. You need a broader surface to bend on. If you can have a 3 or 4 inch surface with with a slight radius in one side it’s really nice. Because you can hold the wood flat on it. And then slowly push it off the edge into the shape you want.
I guess what I’m saying is. You need more surface area getting heated really hot and then the wood does what you want it to
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Thank you for the reply. I will be sure to remedy this before the next attempt
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The R M Mottola guitar building book has the best info on hand bending I’ve seen. A very systematic approach. It was helpful to me.
One thing he talks about is getting the area that you want to bend hot and then sliding it forward, so you are bending it when it’s not in contact with the iron, simultaneously you’re warming the next area you’re going to bend, so its a sort of slow fluid motion.
Also he shows you how to mark your sides for the bends in a really systematic way.
His approach is sort of idiosyncratic but it was worth it if only for that.
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That’s a great resource thanks for sharing it
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Hi Nicholas,
I would agree with Anthony, it sounds like you need a larger surface area to heat up the wood. A small pipe only allows you to heat up a small area at one time. I have the ibex bending iron and the flattest part is the part I use most, first thoroughly heating up an area then slowly moving the wood to tip it downward once it is “relaxing” from the heat. Generally I leave my sides at 2.0-2.2mm, but certain woods like ebony and snakewood I’ll sand down to 1.9mm. Some woods benefit from soaking, but for the most part I’ve found soaking sides causes more issues than solves them. Especially in figured woods – don’t soak those! I spritz the wood as I go and never have issues with scorching and sides stay much flatter than when I used to soak them.
The crinkles in your photo tend to happen with really light-density woods. It’s the wood compressing and basically crushing. I don’t really know a solution to this other than to try to avoid super low-density woods for sides.
Another great tip is to first overbend all curves then unbend starting from the waist outward. It saves you a ton of time chasing curves back and forth.
Like everything else, you get to know tricks as you bend more and more sides.
Hopefully this helps!
-Zach
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