Official Luthiers Forum!

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

That's cool, thanks Ken. If you build one be sure to post it.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

The cool thing about that style cutaway bender is that it can be made to be universal. Instead of needing a dedicated bending pattern for each model, you can bend your side into whatever shape and then add the cutaway. The drawback is that it breaks one step into two steps...

Our current cutaway bender is a hybrid version of the common Fox style with the added arm. Its works fine but I am sure dinking around with the attachment adds at least five minute to the process. For standard side we spend about eight minutes per side including a waist curve pre-bend. I believe this version will allow tighter bends to be made -- we'll see. Here's a pic of our current side bender which has some proprietary features added to a bender design that's been on YouTube for some time.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Ooh, hinges! Clever!

That looks like a pretty complicated jig to make, lots of metal work. I'd love to see how you do it. Post pics!

Yep, being able to take the top off your bending jig is huge when removing a cutaway side or even a regular side for that matter. You can tie down the bottom slat so it does not want to spring the side straight when the clamps are removed and the side just pops out the top.

When I built my Fox bender many years ago I made the tower too short for the side to clear easily for removal so I made the top removable thinking it was a cop out for not doing the job right. It turned out to be a great idea especially for cutaways.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Wood - Sheet aluminum skin over a couple of small heat blankets. I could machine solid aluminum on our CNC's but in reality its no different than a common bender laying on its side, and of course split to provide clearance and accommodate the double action feature. I am not going to engineer it in a forum thread but I think you can get the idea.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Ken just to clarify: am I seeing tensioning springs on the under layer of steel and the over one? This the arrangement I have set up and after much failure with a bending iron got to work. Without that longways tension you don't get the support on the outside of the two bends involved.

Dave

Sorry our design is proprietary but it works much like this one.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Ken thanks that's fine. That is where I got the design ideas. Dave

Mine is kind of similar, works well.

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Ken

That's pretty cool -- looks like it works great

How thick are your lamentations? I've done Selmer laminated sides with no heat at all.

One of the the things I like most about the "Taylor" bender is that it warps one curve at a time while applying heat to the inside (compression side)

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Thanks Ken. I want to make something like that. Glad I'm not the only one who builds in my jammies!

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Pat

Each lam is about 0.05 thick. I do use heat, but to cure the glue in minutes, not to help bend.

But this could be used for bending also.

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Ken