Bad day in the shed

Timbuck · Nov 26, 2015

Earlier this year I made 6 sets of mahogany for soprano ukes..today I started bending the sides....I only managed to get one set out them...all the rest cracked ( grain runout I suppose)

the one set that I was successful with was bent by hand at the waist first, then finished off in the foxy machine.

BR Ukuleles · Nov 26, 2015

I had a day like that last week. 3 sets that just wouldn't bend for love or money. All went in the bin. The final 2 came out perfect.

Timbuck · Nov 26, 2015

Yup! .. After sourcing the material , purchase , resawing, thickness sanding, profile shaping, heating up the Bender , then crunch...all money down the drain

. ..it's a good job I don't do it for a living

Gary Gill · Nov 26, 2015

I had a cherry side crack last week. Working with bloodwood today. So far so good.

mikeyb2 · Nov 26, 2015

I am a complete novice at uke building, but in some ways it's encouraging to hear this happens to experts, and the 2 of 3 cracked so far were not entirely down to my incompetence or lack of experience.
This might seem like a silly question, but is it possible that when the weather is cold, there is more of a likelihood of having problems like this?. I'm thinking in terms of what you said Ken in in your motivation thread, about the workshop being cold. Then I'm thinking of a piece of wood being very hot on the iron side but colder on the other(where the cracking is likely to appear.). Any thoughts?

Trevor Phillips · Nov 26, 2015

Timbuck said:
the one set that I was successful with was bent by hand at the waist first, then finished off in the foxy machine.

Standard practice now after many crushes/breakages in the early days.

Michael Smith · Nov 27, 2015

Have you tried a veneer softener like supersoft? I won't go without it on sides I can't afford to crack. I have also used a "pandoras box" with positive results on valuable sides where breakage would be a disaster.

orangeena · Nov 27, 2015

What is a Pandora's Box Michael?

Timbuck · Nov 27, 2015

I normally have no problems with bending, apart from occasional creases....But this batch was snapping with a clean break with just light pressure..on closer inspection the grain is all wrong....my fault I suppose .

Michael N. · Nov 27, 2015

Try highly figured maple. The grain is always wrong.
I recently bent some Yellow cedar (very soft) and I was concerned with the creases. I just cranked the heat up such that it was in danger of scorching if the wood/iron contact was too lengthy. No water. Thankfully it worked.

Michael Smith · Nov 27, 2015

orangeena said:
What is a Pandora's Box Michael?

Timbuck · Nov 30, 2015

I enjoyed that video Michael....and I've had a lot better luck to day with the bending, and managed to get seven sets out of this awkward wood..by bending the waist by hand first...I also discovered that it's possible to iron out mild creases with a hot tube by applying a bit of pressure and sliding the side up and down the tube in a masterbating style motion.:rotfl:

Moore Bettah Ukuleles · Nov 30, 2015

Michael Smith said:

That's a great video (as are most of Robbie's videos.) I especially like the LMI temperature controller. I was a bit puzzled about what the steam did beforehand since the side cooled down before he put it into the bender. Maybe it' a function of the water penetrating deeper into the wood and not so much the heat. BTW, I use two blankets, sandwiching the wood in between, (along with the spring steel slats) and rarely have any breakage.

ksquine · Nov 30, 2015

A bad day in the shed is better than a good day at work!!

Michael Smith · Nov 30, 2015

Moore Bettah Ukuleles said:
That's a great video (as are most of Robbie's videos.) I especially like the LMI temperature controller. I was a bit puzzled about what the steam did beforehand since the side cooled down before he put it into the bender. Maybe it' a function of the water penetrating deeper into the wood and not so much the heat. BTW, I use two blankets, sandwiching the wood in between, (along with the spring steel slats) and rarely have any breakage.

I'm not sure why it works better than spritzing and blanket bending normally but it did work for me on some rosewood sides that broke using the standard method. You can get the steam generators at thrift stores for almost nothing. I had one laying around.

Bad day in the shed

Timbuck

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BR Ukuleles

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Timbuck

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Gary Gill

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Trevor Phillips

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Michael Smith

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orangeena

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