Zebrawood Venetian Cutaway

[John J]

Starting on my first Venetian cutaway. This will be a 00-14 with an Adirondack top. Ebony fingerboard and Spanish cedar neck (I think). I pre bent the waists last night. Seems to bend fairly easily. Worried about the cutaway bending. I have the mold all set for my bender, with a ram attached. Any tips/advice appreciated.

[ken cierp]

Like the waist curve --- pre-bend on a small diameter pipe

[ken cierp]

I found that the only consistency of the typical Fox bender cutaway adapter was to crack the side, even when the material was extra thin. As mentioned I now pre-bend the apex at the curve and return curve -- but most notably I have constructed a much more sophisticated bender which has heat inside and out along with spring loaded compression slats --- its design is proprietary so I can't share, but it looks like this:

http://acousticguitarconstructionforum. ... ?f=8&t=115

[John Parchem]

Looks like a fun project. I like the look of the tension applied by the spring loaded compression slats. I use a heat gun under the venetian cutaway and a heat blanket on the top. I also thin the venetian part of the sides to .070" . I have had good luck with the sides; successfully bending all of them. I hand bend most of the bindings for the Venetian cutaway as they either crack while bending or when I attempt to get them out of the bender.

[ken cierp]

Good idea with the heat gun -- seems like that should help a lot.

I found Zebra wood very easy to bend -- but problematic regarding rippling. So, I'd caution to use water sparingly.

[John J]

Thanks for the tips. Whew. Cutaway side bent successfully. Very light mist of water (after a mist of super soft II the night before). Pre bent the cutaway a bit first. Wrapped in parchment paper heat blanket and then aluminum slat onto the heated bender. Went slowly and after bending I let it cool down before removing. The other side a piece of cake. Now to figure the neck block.

[Kevin in California]

Awesome! You did it!