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I am quite happy with my fox bender. But I really would like one of those adjustable waist cauls.

They do look pretty cool and high tech but I'm more than happy with my Bluescreek one. Make sure and do a review when you pick one up Mike!

The waist caul on my first bender was like that. It was built from the Georgia luthier supply plan. I used a stack of 1/8” hardboard as the slats. It works best for waist like D, OM, 000, etc… but on tight waist shapes like ukes, parlor guitar, etc… I would end up with 3-4 slats in the center and then next row was much higher up. This creates a high pressure point right in the center without support surrounding it. I hope that makes sense.

I switched to John’s universal bender for most guitar shapes and dedicated cauls for smaller bodies. Hope that helps.

Brad


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The first bender I used was Charles Fox’s at his school in Vermont. It used a deck of 1/4 inch Masonite pieces for the waist and had a spring loaded aluminum support that held the side and slats tight against the center of the adjustable caul. Worked fine and that’s how I built my first bender. Now I use one of John’s and it also works fine. Most of my instruments have fairly tight waists.

Dave

Both Fox-style benders in my former shop were originally fitted with adjustable waist cauls. Both were converted to dedicated waist cauls made up of maple or poplar 2" x 4" stock which straddled the center press bar, so quite readily changed out when bending forms were swapped.

Reference the fitness for service of the adjustable caul, I recall the gentlemen made comment to the common theme that adjustable components on jigs and fixtures fell into two categories: a) works some but never all of the time, and b) one size fits none. If I recall correctly, the adjustable waist caul as received from the vendor was of the later category, but it is possible that the Stewmac version has been miraculously cured of all functional maladies. One might hope for better given the passage of time.

To my mind there are exceptions offered by a few vendors such as LuthierTOOL Company, but sadly nothing on offer in the way of a Fox-style side-bending machine.

My current bender was a parting gift from the boys, along with a plethora of other useful jig and fixture doppelgangers... although sadly no clone of the eight-foot-long, 400 pound Scandinavian woodworking bench was offered. This bender has all of the evolutionary enhancements seen in Mr. Stock's other current in-service machines, and generally follows the classic Fox and Blues Creek bender model with some dimensional changes; longer press screw welded up from two shorter examples; and tie-downs, sans the aforementioned adjustable waist caul, and assorted gewgaws and fripperies of the more useless variety stripped off or replaced with more functional kit.

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A little off-point, but a guy is selling a "fractal caul" he designed for fret seating. Waist bending would be a great application of that design

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

Robbie posted a picture of his that was just set up. Looks like they rounded the edge of the slats and the overall caul is wider (longer?) that I usually see. Might help.




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I tried a few different things for the waist area and finally came up with a winner. I typically don't make dreadnoughts so I want something with adjustable curves. I finally settled on a flexible piece of sheet metal in a U shape. It doesn't take much to crank it down so it can match a variety of curves. I still need to make a cut-away ram.

Charles Fox's slats were rounded on the ends too. The machines really haven't changed much over the years.

Dave

Any links to the spiel?

we redesigned the bender that can do sides from ukes soprano to D 12 fret and under $900 it comes with cutaway or non cutaway options our waist caul is self adjusting and can handle tite bends as a soprano Uke to a D12.
it has everything including the first set of bending patterns and the heating blankets are made in TN MADE IN USA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SZpQFWA3zo
along with this we also have the bending library
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tdfW4f0rqA

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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

I like that the sandwich can be all clamped up and slipped in from the side. Especially if you use two heating blankets.

I had to make the top of my Fox bender removable when I built it back in 2003 because I made the uprights too short. It turned out to be a good thing because then I could lower the clamped up slat/wood/blankets combo in easily and position it. Same for removal.

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What I use is a bit more crude, but is quite adjustable, and when a sufficient number of clamps are affixed works for most body shapes. I use it for both bending and laminating sides.

Can U purchase just the adjustable caul? The crank rod is that standard thing from mcmasster carr, 1.5"x 1.75" base

yes you may

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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