Bending pipe heated with 6x6 Omega blanket

[ken cierp]

I certainly admire the ingenuity of our members -- but I got to thinking this morning and it occurred to me that I had on hand an Omega heat blanket (6x4) which I was not using. This thing only cost a few dollars and is off the shelf -- and most importantly they are design for such applications. So in about a half an hour I fabricated an outer sleeve to fasten the blanket to an aluminum pipe. This pipe is about 2-3/4" OD. The thing gets to about 400 degrees so I'll hook it up to a timer and light dimmer and a ground lead. The pixs that follow are pretty much self explanatory.

[Go4aRyd]

Great idea, Ken. I've been thinking of this kind of application as well for bending small pieces of headstock/fretboard end bindings. Now I have more to think on..... ;) Thanks.

[Kevin in California]

Great way to use one of those little blankets. Still have to be careful not to burn oneself!!!

Kevin

[TonyinNYC]

I recently used my 6"x6" blanket to bend some cocobolo bindings for the ukulele. Unfortunately, I did not set the temperature high enough and I broke the bindings. Runout was also a factor. I only set the temp to 275*F which is what I would have bent at in the machine. I neglected the fact that the wood is not in constant contact with the blanket when bending on a pipe. I will need to use this method again to touch up some wenge bindings for the all cedar OM. I bent the sides and bindings on two different bending forms and the difference in the waist curve is enough to cause major fit issues. I simply can not get the bindings to fit unless I adjust the waist bend. Anyway, it worked OK with the binding until I hit a bad section of runout and snapped the binding on the lower bout curve. I got the upper bout and waist bent for a concert ukulele. Th "easiest" bend turned out to be the toughest for me to do. I went with black plastic binding instead.

[Ray Ussery]

Ken, Omega shows a 2.5W; 5W and a 10W I would assume your 4X6 is a 10 W unit? It's currently $33
http://www.omega.com/ppt/FindPN.html?se ... rchbyp=yes

Ray

[ken cierp]

Actually that was a typo in the subject -- the blanket is 6x6 and yes it's 10 watt per sq. inch

[Ray Ussery]

Actually that was a typo in the subject -- the blanket is 6x6 and yes it's 10 watt per sq. inch

Ok...thanks,
Ray