[Viking]

Originally Posted by dekutree64

Definitely thinner. .080" is good. About half the stiffness of .100", by cube rule.

Thicknessed the latest effort to .085, and it did in fact work. Thanks.

Originally Posted by kwakatak

I was where you are. My first build was mahogany and it sprung back and "cupped" even after I put it in the mold. I fussed with it and **** near split it halfway to the waist.

As for "ruining" rosewood, well my second is EIR and I'm at this point too. Rosewood has been a dream to work with in comparison. It almost WANTS to bend. Also, a key crack on one of my rosewood factory guitars has shown me that it patches up pretty easily too.

So don't be discouraged. You just chose a tough wood to work with. Like I said, you could probably patch that side and nobody but you would be able to tell.

Thanks for the encouragement.

Originally Posted by kwakatak

Yup. .1" was way too thick. It probably weighs a lot too. You could probably save it if it's a clean crack with no loose fibers though. CA glue can work wonders.

I don't think this crack is fixable... This was the result after fidling with it for a moment...

I think it's done. lol


The lights are on...


The wood is home.


And it did in fact successfully bend this time. No cracking at the waste. I made another mistake with this one, though it doesn't much matter at this point. I need to resaw more wood to have a matching side set anyway. I bent the other side to see if I could do it right. It bent perfectly this time, thicknessed to .085, bent with the metal flashing, and I didn't let the wood sit as long before bending this time. I had read somewhere that the amount of time the wood sits in the heat makes a difference. If you wait too long, it might cause it to crack.


The bend this time though revealed a weakness in my bending machine. A couple of the J hooks I attach the eye bolts to tore through their respective holes. And, I did not correctly mark the waste, and so the side was too long at the top and about an eighth to short on the lower bout. I could probably still use it as is, as an end wedge will cut that material away. But it won't matter given I have to resaw and re-thickness new sides anyway.