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well, my bending iron died today.

I put meter on it and it seems to be the volcano heater element rather than the stat or a loose wire.

any ideas where I'd get another one?

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protherm what voltage and wattage do you need , also what is the size of the fire rod?

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

anything in the 4-500 watt range is tons .. I have a 500 watt BBQ starter in my pipe and I have to variac it down to about 80-85 volts or it burns everything ...

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Strange coincidence I was in Touchstone tonewoods last week and someone came in with a stewmac 240v bending iron asking for a replacement ones the 240v ones must be poor quality

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Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes

fear not, tracked them down at Grainger.

I'm going for the 150w one rather than 200w as

(a) they have them in stock and

(b) the Bending Iron from Stewmac fitted with the 200w one comes with instructions to keep it at 80% power or it'll blow.......

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Heating elements should be standard. You can get them in 120 or 220 . WW Grainger MacMaster Carr MSC Omega Protherm. In most cases these elements have a designed range . All you need is 350 to 400 max . Be sure it fits the hole well. Too much of an air gap will burn them up. You can shim with aluminum foil for better surface contact.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

martin let us know how you get on I'm thinking about making my own bending iron, I can cast some aluminium to shape, and I was told in my local electrical shop I could possibly use 2 100w soldering irons a tight fit in their holes, and a high wattage dimmer switch, which to me seems a feasible idea

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Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes

John, the soldering Iron heater element should work well, I'm thinking that it's the thermostat that is the tricky bit.

In my bender journey I've tried steaming the wood with a wallpaper stripper and then forcing the warm wet wood into a form (worked well with walnut and oak) then had a hot air paint stripper blowing into an aluminium pipe in a vice before geting the Stewmac bender about 30 builds ago. If it costs £20 to replace the element every 30 builds, I can live with that!!

I ordered two from Grainger to save postage down the line.......

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I take it all back.

Just got an email from Grainger saying sorry, we're a wholesaler and don't want your business.



the original question still stands

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LMI sell 110v and 220v replacement elements.

lmii.....

$35 plus shipping.....

I THINK I've found then at RS Components.

12.5mm rather than 1/2" but that's PRETTY close!!

£16.42

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McMaster-Carr, look up cartridge heaters and get what you need.
http://www.mcmaster.com/#cartridge-heaters/=3sdo9l
You can get solid aluminum cutoff stock and drill it out and make custom irons too.
I would think an electric range burner knobs would work for your temp control.

Many years ago (could be as long as 20) I made a wooden pattern and had a solid aluminium 'egg shaped' iron cast. For the heater I raided one of those glass encased elements from a Intrared/UV home sun tanning lamps. It's still in use today, same element. I never got around to fitting it with a thermostat. largely because it's not needed. The solid block retains the heat so well, it just a simple matter of switching off.

Anyone have any plans on building a home made bending iron? Since my first build was a lmi kit with sides and binding prebent, I will be forced to bend my new set of bindings coming this week on my rebuild project. My bindings are bloodwood and hear it might test my first time bending adventure.
Kent Bailey

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Wood Creations by Kent A. Bailey
EXCELLENCE IN SCULPTURE, CARVING, LUTHIER, ARCHITECTURAL MILLWORK AND DESIGN

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Here is a picture of my iron.

What it is, is a replacement section of truck tail pipe, with an electric charcoal starter stuffed inside, using a HF Router Speed Control for controlling the heat. It works fine.

Steps. The tail pipe (about 3" in diameter)was about 2 feet long. One end was flared to fit over the old, cut off pipe. You can see that I left a portion of the bigger section not cut and bent out for screwing to the board. This is where I drilled a small hole and inserted the grill thermometer. The straight, and longest part of the pipe was about 18", and I cut that section in half. I took the straight half, without the flared end, and slit it down one edge, with a hack saw. I made a slit about 1/4 to 3/8" wide. then I squeezed it together and slipped it inside the other piece of pipe, just to add mass to the pipe, as tail pipe is pretty thin. You can see the bent out pieces, some of which I drilled holes in for mounting. I cut a hole about 2 1/2" in the board, with a hole saw, bought the charcoal starter, and gently bent, squashed the already bent element, it so it would fit tightly into the pipe. Inserted it, mounted the speed control on the top, and plugged everything up. The speed control has a clip on the back, so it can be moved for other things I use it for, none of them controlling a router's speed. Anyway, total cost of everything was probably about $40. It works just fine. I could have squashed it to make a flatter side, but I don't have any problems with it, being round and not elliptical or egg shaped.

Here is a better picture from a different angle.


I stuck a jelly jar lid in the end of the thing to keep the heat off my pants!

Good luck.

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Waddy

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Don't know if you need 'plans' as such. Anything from a simple tube to more complex egg profiles will work. it's more important to get the heat and technique right.
Mine was a little involved in that it was solid cast aluminium. The shape and form means that it will do anything from a Cello through to a fiddle. Even though it's electricallyI powered I guess a spirit lamp might provide sufficient heat.