Sawdust
Well-known member
What temperature does the bending iron need to be? I assume there is an ideal temperature for the wood to bend with out scorching it to bad.
Thanks!
Sawdust
Thanks!
Sawdust
I always just turn mine on high. You can't scorch wood if it's spritzed with water. Have a spray bottle on hand and keep that contact area damp.
Even spraying the wood with water I'm having trouble with scorching.
I am assuming that we are talking hand (iron) bending.
It sounds like your applied spray is flashing off too quickly leaving the piece dry and susceptible to scorching.(Temperature may be far too high).
I have tried to measure pipe surface temperatures with IR and bi-metal sensors but got such inconsistent results that I did not bother noting them.
It took me ages to get anywhere near to working out the rights and wrongs of it. If you have never scorched, split, crushed or cracked a side while hand bending, then it will not be far off. Light coloured woods need extra care to avoid scorching. Very slight scorching on light coloured woods can sometimes be sanded out, but more often, not.
From countless failures, I have gleaned that four main factors influence heat requirements:
Wood type.
Moisture - intracellular and applied.
Wood grain orientation.
Thickness of the piece.
Initially, I had an experienced mentor who tried to help me to shorten the learning process, but I now concede that there is no substitute for 'just doing it'.
Start low and build up the heat slowly ... the wood will either bend or resist. Once you feel a bit of give, increase the temperature slightly to a point where it will yield within a minute or two. If you apply more spray at this point, and work fairly quickly, you should be able to avoid scorching.
Many people do not use applied moisture to assist in bending, but I can only manage that with very thin pieces like linings and bindings.
That is too thick. I bend at 1.6 - 1.8 mm
Isn't that a little thin for a tenor ukulele? The sides on the Stewmac site are 2.38mm ( 3/32" )
I could not find that spec on the Stewmac site. Please send a link... I've built a couple of Stewmac kits and my notes show the sides were around 0.065 (3/32 is almost a tenth of an inch or 0.1"). That is just too thick in my opinion. Plus who really cares how thick the sides are? They are the sides and not really acoustically active. I'm not saying you can't bend 0.1 thick wood, but why make it tougher on yourself than you have too?
…. so I bend at 0.90” for most woods which seems to be a comfortable maximum thickness for me.
Chuck,
I'm always in awe of your beautiful work …. but for this I want to see photos