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I built a nice bending pipe using a barbeque starter that seems to work very well. HOWEVER, it gets extremely hot - +450 degrees. I've scorced several sides.

For those of you that use a home-built pipe with a barbeque starter, how do you regulate the heat? Do/can you use some type of voltage regulator? Or for those of us on the cheap, a dimmer switch?

Waddy, I see from your photo's that you use one. How do you regulate your temp? Do you use a wet rag over the pipe as compensation/protection?

Looking for advise. One day I'll buy a heating blanket and build a suitable bender, but for now this is working ok - minus the scorching .

Steve

Harbor Freight Router Speed Controller. Wait till it's on sale. You can usually get one for somewhere in the $12 - 15 range. Works great. I bent a set last night with mine. You could probably use some other rheostat dimmer, but the speed controller pulses the power instead of reducing the power, as I understand it. A barbecue thermometer is a decent temp checker. I just drilled a little hole and stuck the probe into it.

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Waddy

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Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I don't use a barbecue lighter so I'll let others answer that particular point.
In the mean time try this technique on scrap wood:



I 'borrowed' the idea from the machine benders but simply applied it to bending on a pipe. Works very good on Rosewood, perhaps too good on Maple.
The foil gets very hot. Wear gloves.

Just curious, Michael, but what does it do, when pipe bending? Hold the moisture in? Distribute the heat better? Reduce scorching?

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Waddy

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Sound Clips of most of my guitars

+ 1 on the Harbor Freight speed controller. I find I need several as they are very handy.
L.

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I think the key elements are that it retains the heat marginally better but more importantly it acts as a moisture trap. When dry bending the moisture evaporates very quickly. leaving the wood drier and more brittle. In effect you are wet bending except that you are effectively using the moisture contained within the wood. Both Rosewood and Maple seem to bend faster. The downside with Maple is that unless you have some means to retain the shape it has a tendency to lose some of the very bend that you have just made. You can remove it from the iron and hold it in position until it cools but that prolongs the process.

I use a variac .... have no clue what the temp is, but its below scorching ....I used to run it hotter but is was drying stuff out to fast, causing stuff to crack. Mine is a 500 watt starter, now running at about 77-78 volts ....

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

I don't use anything to regulate - I do however place a damp paper towel folded over the pipe - without it the sides would scorch. When the paper starts to dry out - I wet it again.

Once I am done with the bender - I unplug it, remove the paper, remove the charcol lighter and place it on the concrete floor. I remove my pipe from the vise and place that on the floor, and spray it all with water to help cool it down faster - trying to keep the house from burning down.

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I just let mine scorch. I use the rag thing on the waist sometimes, but sometimes I notice that it slows down the process.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

A standard dimmer is within the wattage of the bbq starter. I let mine heat up on high, then take it down to around 6 or 7 if it were numbered like a volume knob. I use my spray bottle to look for dancing water, and do use a wet rag, but it does bend easier without the rag at the danger of scorching.
Rob
I did a post on this some time ago and got some great help
viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=26551

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I got a pretty good router controller on fleabay for like 20 bucks.

What is a good pipe size? The waist of the guitar seems to be close to a 2” radius so would a 4” O.D. pipe be about the right size?

Joe

I've been using one of these cheap 500W dimmer switches with a 500W starter: http://www.amazon.com/Westek-6089B-Range-Control-Dimmer/dp/B000FPCEGI/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1284603433&sr=8-5

Here's my pipe. 3" diameter, relatively thick walled.

Free from a muffler shop scrap bin. $10 for the starter, $10 for the dimmer, couple bucks for the brackets and bolts, mounted to a scrap of 1x12 that was otherwise going to waste.

I do bending outside, with it screwed to the porch so the pipe extends over the edge, about waist height when standing on the ground. Shove the charcoal starter into my end of the pipe, dimmer switch dangling from the cord. Just gotta be careful not to drip water on it. I don't use a lot of water for bending so it's never been a problem. I could put the starter in the far end of the pipe so it's out of the way, but would take longer to heat the whole pipe up. I suppose it might give more even heat that way, but it works just fine as it is. I also bend bindings against the charcoal starter's element directly for tight curves like the top of this headstock.


4" pipe would probably be good too, but maybe harder to find and I like this one.