Bending the sides into the moulds
Now that we have managed (after many weeks) to get the sides of our guitars thin enough to shape we were let loose with the Bender.
The bender is an enormous bit of metal that heats up. Imagine the shape of a normal iron that you would use to flatten your clothes, then extend that shape up in a column – then you have a bender. It was explained to us that the heat from the bender would melt the fibres in the wood allowing us to shape it without it snapping.
To do the actual shaping, we soaked a piece of (very dirty and smelly) cloth and draped it over the section of wood that we wished to bend, then pressed it against the side of the bender. The cloth prevented the bender from scorching the wood. Lots of steam comes off and the wood becomes more pliable. The hand that you press against the wood is protected by a glove. Of course this glove gets soaked by the wet cloth and then the water heats up and fills the glove with steam, not a pleasant experience. However it is more than made up for by the feeling of satisfaction when you shape a piece of wood to what you want it to look like.
Eventually I fitted one side of my guitar into its mould and fixed it in place with clamps:
Many hours, burnt hands and clamps later I had the whole thing in the mould, finally this was starting to look like a guitar.
