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I have a nice Purple Heart Back and HAD 2 nice sides . They were 4-1/2" wide and The lower bout is 16" approx so I think that is an om ? Anyway I managed to break BOTH sides at the waist in my effort .

I am in southern Illinois , Is there anyone close who can bend a set for me ? I would be willing to drive to someones shop to get this done .

Leave it to me to make # 1 out of purple Heart

Also ..........Ummmmmmmmmmmmm... does anyone have a set of sides I can Buy ?

Thanks

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purple heart is very stiff wood.
how about doing something different,
and make the sides out of something else?

My experience is that purple heart bends quite easily with a Fox bender or pipe.

Maybe thickness was an issue. If it's very stiff, then sides in the 1.8 mm range might be in order.

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Waddy

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Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Right now I dont have the Money to purchase a fox bender , I would love to have one . I was using a Pipe and water and heat . Soooooooooooo right now , I would just like to get some sides and get them bent until I can afford to get a bender .

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Be aware that there are several different species of wood being sold as purpleheart. Of these species there are a wide range of characteristics as well as differing rates which the wood oxidizes -some of it stays purple for quite a while, others turn dark brown fairly quickly.

About the only thing these species have in common is that the are purple and they come from the Carribean.

-jd

I don't know if they carry purpleheart B/S, but I know that LMI can pre-bend your sides at the form you want.

Francis

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

Bending some tropical hardwoods sure can be a challenge....

One thing - The typical easiest "Solution" to trouble with breaking sides is just to go thinner.... If you can't bend them at 0.090" -- try 0.070"... or maybe even thinner.... Thin wood behaves so much better than thick wood -- it just covers all the evils like Runout....

You could also get a bottle of "Super Soft II" -- which is a Veneer softener (I have heard it is also used as a Fabric softener)... It helps the bending process quite a bit... especially on Balky wood...

Another thing... Bad manners while bending woods that otherwise are reasonably well behaved can be caused by funny grain runout -- if you notice you are having trouble with wanting to split out -- and notice it splits across the piece in on a short grain... Runout is to blame... and it seems to make the pieces act "Stiffer" than they normally would...

I have a J45 build in process with some really beautiful Sapele... Bending sides was impossible until I got down to 0.060" thick.... Then, I was finally able to get them bent without breaking in half (I actually turned 1 sides set into Charcoal and they still wouldn't bend...) ... but they were still not particularly well behaved.... Very hard to bend, even at 0.060"

You may decide in the end to "Cheat" and pick another choice for the #1 guitar -- one of the "Usual Suspects" known for behaving nicely....
Indian Rosewood
Honduras Mahogany
Maple
Cherry
Oak
Ash

All these are very nicely behaved in their straight-grained quartersawn flavors and are known for bending without too much trouble...

Post some pics when you get a chance...

John

SO far I have only used purple heart for bindings. But, the carpenters I bought it from had made a large project building tables and chairs from it, about a year later the påeople who bought the tables etc called and said there were cracks in every piece. they then called around and heard that Purple heart almost always cracks after some years. so I would be careful using it on guitars based on that.

Lars.

I sold my only set - just too "purple" for me!

The only 2 places I know to get purpleheart is RCtonewoods (A great OLF Sponsor!) and Kevin Murray at bluemountainacoustics (bluemtnacoustics dot com).

Kevin loves the stuff - I bought my set from him, but couldn't see building a purple guitar

Good Luck,

Laurie

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Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

Hey James,

I'll be at my local hardwood place tomorrow. They always have Purpleheart and usually some quatersawn. I'll keep you posted.

Steve

I have a set of purple heart. PM me if you still need it.