Bending Black Limba

[seangil]

I'm bending a set of black limba sides with an iron and it is going slooowwwly. The wood is really stiff and it is bending, but probably took 30 minutes of work to get the wood to start becoming flexible for the waist bend. I've had the iron on highest setting and been trying both with a damp cloth and without, but can't see much difference.

My questions:

1) Anybody have experience hand bending this type of wood? What did you find in terms of time needed?

2) Any advice on how to speed up the process of wood that seems to take a long time for the cells to start to plasticize to the point that they will start to bend?

Thanks!

[Bruce Sexauer]

Both of my Black Limba guitars bent as easily as any other wood. I use a Fox Bender for the major bending, and a hot pipe for the cutaway, if there is one. Perhaps you are too thick or not hot enough. Limba does need to be thicker than some more structural materials, but .085” should be enough for the sides. Heat should be high enough on a pipe that the wood will scorch in 15 seconds if you don’t keep it moving. Wood has moisture in it which is driven out by the heat, and if you take too long to bend, the moisture loss can make the job much more challenging.

[seangil]

Hi Bruce,

Thanks for your response. I've been struggling with this wood for a couple hours and it just doesn't want to bend nicely. With patience, I finally got the waist bend, but the rest is taking forever. The sides are 0.090" thick, which is probably too much.

Any advice on how to get sides that won't become supple to cooperate? I'm making an OM build and using an LMI bending iron. I've been wetting the wood and then rubbing against the pipe which is about 230 degrees. I've been using a wet rag on the pipe to make steam and also tried without.

Help is welcome!

[kbinde2]

Hand bending is indeed a slow process.. but not impossible. You might be a little heavy on the side thickness, but it will bend. Sometimes I wet the sides and using heavy duty aluminum foil, make a "sandwich" for each side. the foil will contain the steam created and allow it to spread somewhat, instead of just the area directly affected by the heat. And you already know patience is a key..! kb

[rsmillbern]

I bent a set using a fox style bender with no issues (in a shop where I am taking a class)

I have a set and will try this on a bending iron soon. I sanded the sides down to 2.2mm (about 0.085" I think)

My plan was to try the aluminium foil sandwich technique as I struggled a bit with bending some ukulele sides in mahogany already.

I really like the look of the black limba!

Scott

[printer2]

I bend on a damp rag over a pipe. It can take a while, the 0.090" does not help but still should eventually bend. If you are really having a hard time and am in the US, you could order a little bottle of SuperSoft II.

[seangil]

As a post-script to this thread, I did manage to bend two sets of black limba sides on an iron, but both took a while. Also, in both cases, the Limba showed some wrinkles at the waist. The rest of the sides bent smoothly, but the grain of the wood did not fully take to the sharp waist bend. After everything was finished, it still worked out visually as it provided pattern/texture in the waist, but I couldn't sand it out.

[LHawes]

I've now bent 2 side sets of black Limba on a (home made) Fox style bender and found that in my case it seemed to need a lot of water as the first bends with little water had too much spring back to be usable. The last couple bends I really soaked the wood with no apparent down side. One man's experience.