HTS_Acoustic_Side_Manufacture

Acoustic sides form the foundation of a guitar, it is the very first part that is made to eventually be called a guitar.

This Dreadnought guitar being manufactured in house is going to have Mahogany Sides and Back, bending the wood is the part most scary to new builders.

Time to Bend approx 1 hr

For side Bending 1.0 to 2.5mm is the ideal range, the thinner the wood the easier it is to bend, the thicker the wood the harder but you have added stiffness to your guitar build.

Pipe benders come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, this is an electric version, you can also just use a heated pipe.

I like the electric version as it has different bending profile shapes in the unit.

If your building on a commercial scale, something like this bender from LMII is a great start. You still need to do some hand bending even after using the unit, but the bulk of the work is done with minimal risk to breakage.

One body Mold.

Here is a couple of links to making your own

With fresh water we lightly spray the wood

The correct way of bending is to lay a stainless strap over the wet wood..

The bender is at temp when it steams any spritz water onto it...

I always start with raw lumberyard wood, then turn that into dressed wood, purely for cost reasons.

Dressed Wood can be purchased from most Luthier supply shops.

Having dressed the wood, I then rip it down to a couple of 3mm "ish" thick lengths on the bandsaw.

I like the 1.7 to 2mm range, easier to bend and definitely stiff enough to support the guitar.

Using the strap as a backing unit, the water in the wood turns to steam and stays trapped due to the stainless steel backing strip.