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I am very excited and pleased with how the sides turned out. These are amazon rosewood, and they bent pretty well. I actually bought a brand new Ibex bending iron and was bending at 5.5 (they say not to leave at high), and I bent the first side, and was working on the second when it stopped working (I had done everything but the lower bout. I must have gotten a bad iron or something, but I was ticked because I was so close to being finished. I was trying to think of anything and everything that I could use to finish the job. I wondered if my wifes curling iron would work, or the toaster somehow, etc... Well after thinking about it, it suddenly hit me. I have a wood stove, and I though if I could stoke that thing up hot enough, I could use the vent piping coming out of the stove to finish the lower bout. Well to make a long story short, I put some shorts and t-shirt on (it was going to get hot), and started the fire up. To my surprise it worked perfectly. Doesn't the saying go "Desperation spawns ingenuity". (Although if I had known my guitar making history, I would have known that is how it used to be done).

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Always remember you are unique......just like everyone else.

Nice job.

Yup, I was going to say, that's just the way they use to do it before.........

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Good job, and thinking! Keep up the good work.

Chuck

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Good job James!!!

Your first sides look fantastic and you just helped me out too because I have been wondering how Amazon RW bent.

I also applaud you for not only getting the job done but doing so in a most innovative manner. Do beware though when bending sides in shorts or more specifically boxer shorts...... Not kidding......

Good improvising, James. Glad to see you got 'em bent, and a nice job you did on them, too.

But what is it with all these reports of IBEX irons not working on 'Hi', or in this case, even on a lower setting?
I notice that LMII has a 'Don't use HI for more than 1 minute' caution on the webpage.
Is it the heating elements burning out or the controls?
I notice that the current iron is described as 'Improved' !! My IBEX iron is a few years old and I can run it for an hour on Hi heat- in fact if I couldn't leave it there (on Hi) I wouldn't use the iron, as it wouldn't get hot enough for the way I like to bend. (I started with a propane iron and it was a LOT hotter (even with low flame) than the IBEX.) I want to get a cloud of steam if I slap a wet rag on the iron, or hear the sizzle and pop if I splash some water on it. Heating wood for too long at too low temp has caused me nothing but problems (scorching and hardening) in the past.
IBEX/LMII etc should really 'fix' this issue, supply better cartridge heaters, thermostats or whatever. It's 2010, not 1910! Keeping a chunk of aluminum at a few hundred degrees shouldn't be beyond our technology!!

Cheers
John

Great job James, and that is some real pretty rosewood.

I was a little disappointed with the iron too. I couldn't believe that it died after using for not even an hour. But I must say that LMI was very gracious about returning it. I am now gun shy of bending irons so to replace it I bought the deluxe bending pipe and a surface thermometer instead. I bent my koa bindings with that and I liked it much better than the iron. I also wasn't worried the whole time that I was going to burn an element.

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Always remember you are unique......just like everyone else.

I recently had an iron crap out on me as well, going to try using a charcoal starting element instead with a router speed controller to vary the heat. I am going to a machine shop tomorrow to see what its going to cost for a small piece of pipe bent into an oval and welded to a flange.

I've got a 'spare' IBEX that I bought at an auction a few years ago- I think I'll fire it up and see if I can get it to fail.

I'll report back.

Cheers
John

I've had my Ibex for about 6 months now. I always run it on HI and, so far, haven't had any problems.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

James,
I have never heard that. I have heard "necessity is the mother of invention" Plato is supposed to have said that.
In any case nice job on the sides. They look great and good seat of the pants improvising.
Link

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

I'm wondering if it can be a line voltage issue?
The line voltage here is 114 volts at the bench outlet.

If it was the 'thermostat' failing in these units, I'd just wire mine up to run 'wide open' all the time.

Well, it's been a bit over an hour now, and it's still on 'Hi' and still 'sizzling' those drops of water.
It doesn't show any signs of failing. So ,that's 2/2 units that I own that can run on Hi with no problems. I must be lucky!

Perhaps the suppliers (LMII others?) should just test the units before they are shipped?
Or perhaps IBEX changed something when they went to the 'Improved' polished form?
Or maybe it's a line voltage issue- which the manufacturer could figure out in a couple of hours with a Variac. OK at 115, fails at 120+??? Pretty 'iffy' engineering if that's the case.
BTW, I dropped an email to LMII with a link to this discussion - let's see what happens once the work week is underway.

Cheers
John

Always beware the "New and Improved"! They never are! The improvement is that they are cheaper to make and won't last as long!

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James, great job on your first set of sides! keep up the good work.

About the Ibex,
I've bent two sets of sides on my home made fox style bender and touch up on my 2" copper pipe with propane torch with good results. I was thinking of up- grading to an Ibex iron but I've been reading about the bad reports now for awhile now so I may just stay with the propane torch until I hear more positive comments.
The propane torch is a little fussy, sometimes it blows out(not blows up )but it always works unless it runs out of gas.
René

First thing this morning (Monday) I got an email reply from LMII:
"We are following this topic and have addressed again with the vendor."

That is so cynical, Waddy.

I agree completely.

Good work, James!

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

I have an iron which is identical to the Ibex (possibly is but a very old one). When I got it second hand I got a note with it saying only leave on a high setting for 2 minutes or less or you can burn out the element. I had it on for over 50 minutes on number 7 and it was fine though. I stick to the warning I got but touch wood it has worked for over 3 hours of use so far. I have seen a few reports of Ibex irons burning out though. My main concern is, why produce an item with a high setting but recommends to not use it?

Exactly!
One sentence from my email to LMII said:"Would you buy a kitchen range that had a warning not to use the elements on the 'Hi' setting for more than 60 seconds?"

Since LMII is a 'sponsor' here, it will be interesting to see if they respond publicly. And, it's not just LMII that sells that iron, the Stewmac iron looks identical - though I don't see StewMac recommending against using the iron on 'Hi' in their instructions.

BTW, those StewMac instructions are excellent, IMO.

Cheers
John

Just a quick (final from me) report on the IBEX iron situation.
I've had a couple of very complete emails from Natalie at LMII.
She made a number of (good) points to me, two of which which I thought I'd pass along.
First, if you buy an iron from LMII and it fails, return it- they stand behind everything they sell.
Though they don't have time to participate in online forums, the people at LMII will be more than happy to deal with any problems you have with their products. I certainly found that to be true- I got a number of prompt and complete emails on this topic.

Second- You should not be afraid to use the iron, but don't leave it unattended. It's designed to have wood applied to it for bending and this helps keep the 'overheating' issue under control.

I'd suggest that if you get a failing/defective iron, return it for a replacement- I've had good luck with the IBEX iron and found it to be reliable so far. Apparently a few % of the irons are returned to LMII, but the great majority work with no problems.

Cheers
John

Thanks for the info there. The issue for me is if I bought an iron from LMI I would get it in a bulk order with other things and have it shipped to me in the UK. If it fails it would cost me half the value of the item to return it. I my current bender fails I will find an alternative method than an electric iron.