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Originally Posted by emmsone
... these were the only ones with any flame in, the others were all pretty boring. And also having seen these sides with flame in, i'd really like another set with flame.
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It is pretty common that beginning builders want to "hit it out of the park" with their wood selection on their first (or second) guitar. Beginning builders, especially if self-taught, are going to encounter problems and make mistakes - even the most experienced builders make mistakes. Instead, using tried-and-true, easy to work with woods - not the most expensive, not the rarest, not the most exotic - makes more sense. I'm not advocating that beginner's use "junk" wood to build with, but, instead, start with more modest materials while learning the basics of the craft.
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In the meantime I'm definitely looking into making an actual bender with a heat blanket.
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Bending machines are great, but nothing beats the speed and flexibility of a skilled luthier bending over a hot pipe. Bending over a hot pipe is a skill well worth learning, if you have the will to do so.
If you go to my website,
http://charlestauber.com/luthier/Resources.html, you'll find some dimensioned sketches of Charles Fox's bending machine - he and George Morris invented it - as it was in the 1970's. Dimensions are in inches, but can easily be converted to suitable metric sizes. That will give you some specifics of bending machine design and sizes. I've used the same bender for the last 30+ years, only last year switching from light bulbs to a heating blanket.
Since then, there are a variety of modifications to the design that have been made by various people. These include substituting the heat source - light bulbs - for heating blankets, modifying the shape of the frame of the bender to accommodate cutaways, using rods on the sliders, rather than springs, cantelevering the press to allow sides to be slid in from one side so that you don't have to remove the press from the body of the bender to install the sides, and a variety of other improvements and variations.
It is a fair bit of work to source all the bits and pieces, make the forms and assemble it all. Buying the controller, probes and blanket won't be inexpensive: it is an investment like any other guitar-making tool.