For what it is worth, bending sides isn't as hard as it would seem. Patients, and finesse is your friend in bending them. I didn't have all the specialized tools, and skills as a professional would, and maybe bent mine is non-traditional ways, but it was fun, and didn't take long to learn what worked and what didn't. I just used a small heat blanket and a heat gun that I modified with a iron pipe nozzle to use as something to bend on. I powered it with a foot pedal from an old sewing machine to run or shut off with my foot as I was bending to keep it hot, but was able to easily let off the power so as not to get too hot to burn the wood. If I can find an picture of what I made, I will post it. But it gave me a curved, hot surface to slowly bend it on while staying hot. Once I got it to close to what I needed, I put it in a mold I made to clamp it in to cool and dry. I soaked the wood before slowly bending it to shape. After a day in the mold, the shaped stayed in shape to add the top and bottom, etc. It was actually fun and therapeutically satisfying to bend it myself with tools I made with my own hand. I tend to always use Mahogany, because that is my favorite wood, and it's much more forgiving to bend than say, Koa. I did one in Acacia, but it was more of a pain to do without cracking it, so I just stuck with Mahogany, which is the wood of my choice anyway.
