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Part of yesterday was spent bending sides for a couple of guitars. As I was setting up and marking, posts of folks bending two left or two right sides came to mind. Of course yours truly never stumbled into that trap........................liar, liar, pants on fire. Maybe, a long time ago.
When preparing for bending I use a cabinet makers triangle on matching ends of the sides. Lay the sides end for end with the show faces up. Most times this is the mating faces that were cut apart during resawing. Make sure the mating ends abut each other. Mark these ends so it shows on the show face. Chalk works for me.
When setting up on your form make sure the mark is up and on the same end of the form for both bends. Voila, a right and left side. Hope it keeps someone out of trouble.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

I've always used a double width side bender, bending both sides at the same time. Joint the top edge of the sides, place together book matched, bend. Pretty hard to get wrong... Only one cooling off period, too.

If you have a single width bender, set up the same way (jointed edge to jointed edge), show side facing you and write "up" or some other equally insightful comment or mark on each piece of what you're looking at.

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

Open the book, draw some lines across the top with something that you can see. Make sure those lines are always facing up when you bend. IProfile before bending so the narrow side is always forward.

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Pat

Todd, I've bend many hundreds of sets of sides over the last 40 years, and unfortunately bent more than a few of them backwards using the lines and arrows on the wood method. The lines and arrows method is aggravated by the fact that I roll my sides in paper before bending, so the transfer process gets a little spacey sometimes.Your blue tape idea is excellent. Thanks for a very simple solution to unwanted accidents. Enjoy your building!

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

"This side up"
Neck ->

Yep...I always mark the ends on the show face. Butt or Neck. Just be careful with pencils though....its amazing how deep a dent a sharp pencil can make on some woods. I use chalk or tape now. Nothing worse than a linear crease from a pencil line in the waist area that shows up when you apply finish

Nothing worse?

make it simple
you have a flat side for the top. so do one left then one right. Also a chalk mark on the tail end when placed across the 2 sides all you have to do is check to see your chalk

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Big bite on the neck joint. Me can tell me teeth marks well enough...thats if me forget to knock off a small corner for indexing immediately after ripping them up.

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This post had perfect timing! I'm about to bend some sides!

I draw a line straight across the sides at the waist, on the inside. I bend by hand on a pipe, and I start at the waist.....with the line visible on top.

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John

I do precisely as John describes above, my line is in yellow pencil the position of which I determine by laying a piece of masking tape along my masonite bending template, trimming the ends and marking the waist then removing it, laying it down on the side and marking accordingly.
The reverse of the sides are marked "out" with arrows indicating "up" (top) as well as "neck" and "Butt".

I too bend the waist first, then upper bout, then lower bout.