So, while I'm waiting around for raw materials to arrive, I have been making all new jigs, and templates to accommodate my new design.
One of the scariest things I've done is to make a new bending form and alter the shape of my Waldron side bending machine. My upper bout is so narrow that the machine as it came didn't work for my design, so I had to disassemble it, cut nearly an inch off the front of it, and reassemble it. It worked fine, but since that side of the machine is so much shorter, the springs didn't work the way they were designed to, so I had to pull that side in tighter with some twine while the machine did it's magic.
The other alteration I had to make on it was to make the waist shaping part of it much narrower because the waist on my design is so narrow. That was no fun at all! The metal that is used on it is way thicker than I had imagined, so it was pretty tricky to bend the steel back into place and get it all screwed back together.
I was scared to make any changes to the bender, because I was afraid of messing it up and it wasn't exactly cheap! But when it was all apart I traced all of the pieces onto large sheets of paper and stored them away just in case I had to make new parts. Fortunately, it all worked out ok.
I've got this one solved, so it's on to the next thing!
ps, I have no idea why that pic is sideways.