finkdaddy
Well-known member
I haven't built a uke in quite a while. So, I had a piece of wood thicknessed for sides that I had lying around and I decided to practice with it and make sure that my new bending form worked right.
I cut it into 2 lengths and put them into my bender, 1 piece at a time.
The second piece came out just perfect, but I wasn't paying attention on my first piece and let it go about 150 degrees hotter than I would normally let it go. I only noticed when my shop suddenly got hazy and the whole place filled with the scent of burning wood!
In a panic, I turned everything off, unplugged the heating blanket, and let it all cool down. In the end, no damage was done to anything. The clamps on the Waldron bender got a bit scorched, as well as the edges of my newly designed bending form, but it was all very, very minor.
However, the biggest surprise was how the bent side turned out. It looks gorgeous! If I had a way to control this effect, I might even use it for an entire uke. If I tried duplicating this with an oven, I wonder if I would do it before or after I bent the wood?
Anyways, here is some pics of the two pieces side by side. Keep in mind that they were both from the same piece of wood!
I cut it into 2 lengths and put them into my bender, 1 piece at a time.
The second piece came out just perfect, but I wasn't paying attention on my first piece and let it go about 150 degrees hotter than I would normally let it go. I only noticed when my shop suddenly got hazy and the whole place filled with the scent of burning wood!
In a panic, I turned everything off, unplugged the heating blanket, and let it all cool down. In the end, no damage was done to anything. The clamps on the Waldron bender got a bit scorched, as well as the edges of my newly designed bending form, but it was all very, very minor.
However, the biggest surprise was how the bent side turned out. It looks gorgeous! If I had a way to control this effect, I might even use it for an entire uke. If I tried duplicating this with an oven, I wonder if I would do it before or after I bent the wood?
Anyways, here is some pics of the two pieces side by side. Keep in mind that they were both from the same piece of wood!