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Hi All,

I am hoping someone can help me.

I am working on a set of Ovangkol sides for a new guitar and I am having a little trouble. This is the first set of Ovangkol I have worked with so, I am hoping someone can help. I am using a bending machine with my sides wrapped in tin-foil and sprayed with a light mist of water. The bend seems to be OK but around the upper bout the wood is bubbling up.

Let me explain in more detail... The Ovangkol is figured and where the tighter bend around the upper bout is it seems to be bending irregularly in the figured areas. If I rub my hand over the bout, I can feel the figured area has swollen and raised up a little creating a slight bubble. There are two or three areas of this about the size of a quarter. The back of the side matches the deformity and are uniformly recessed in the figured areas. I think I could sand the outside smooth but this would leave this region very thin and that is not something I really want to do.

Does any one know why this is happening and how I can address it. I have another set of sides if I need to start over but I would prefer to solve the issue with the current set if possible.

Thanks!

Bueller?... Bueller?...

Anyone?

Hi Todd,
Thank for the advice and input.

I took a look at the three part video series and it was really a very detailed description of side bending. But... I basically am doing the same thing.

I didn't have any trouble with the wood taking shape or softening up enough to make the bends. What I think happened is that the wood fibers were stressed and relaxed slightly different in the figured areas. This created a slight bulging in the figure around the tighter bend. I have bent figured mahogany and koa with no problems but the figure in those woods is more traditional. The Ovangkol has these large wide figure lines similar to what you see in this picture:

http://media.photobucket.com/image/rece ... esBaby.jpg

Hope this helps describe my issue. I will try to take a picture of the bend but it is slight enough that I don't know if a picture will do the issue justice.

Thanks

I've had the same problems with some highly figured woods, and I agree with your description
of how/why it happens. I now use what Todd has suggested, damp brown craft paper wrapped
around the wood, then the aluminum foil. SuperSoft II has also helped a lot on these type of woods.
You can get a big roll of the craft paper at Home Depot for a few dollars.

_________________
Gene

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