Bending Binding: Ammonia/Heat Gun - Ridiculously Simple?

I came across a video of a luthier using household ammonia to soak binding (a so-called wood "plastisizer"), wrapping it in aluminum foil, heating it with a heat gun and then clamping it in a simple plywood mold made to the shape of your uke.

Has anyone ever tried this technique and is it as simple as it seems?

To see the video, go to the link below: Beware, Laplante is a mellow guy and takes a while to get to the point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTbc6FDusUQ

I saw this video a while back. I stood a cpvc pipe vertically filled with ammonia and walnut bindings. After about 30 minutes, I placed the bindings in my side bender and proceeded to bend them. The ammonia did make them more pliable than those I spritzed with water. No cracking at the tight radii.

I used ammonia to bend balsa wood sheets to go around the leading edge of foam wing cores in my RC aircraft building days. You could bend 1/16" balsa sheet around a pencil! Haven't needed to try it on the few ukulele sides I've built, though.

Bob

To the OP . . . any relation to Dave Sigman?