Side Bending Jig

In order to bend the sides of a guitar a jig has to be made to form them around. There are a variety of different jigs that can be made for guitar side bending and they all work in a similar way. Some jigs (the fox bender type) have the capacity to heat up the wood with a heat blanket however my jig did not need the capacity as I did the side bending by hand. The jig just served as something to check the guitar sides against and something to clamp them into whilst the moisture evaporated from them.

I constructed the jig out of 10mm thick plywood and dowel rods. The total cost of the materials was about £15 or $25.26 however I bought more materials than I needed so this cost could be radically improved.

Before constructing the jig I made a reliable template by laminating cardboard, sticking a paper template to the top and cutting to the line on the bandsaw. Making a reliable template like this means drawing out the shape of the guitar body is much easier.

I drew out the two side pieces and base of the jig onto the piece of plywood and then cut them out on the bandsaw. The side pieces of the jig are connected together using dowels approximately 120 mm in length.
In order to connect the sides I drilled the holes for the dowels undersized and then thinned the ends of the dowels by spinning them in the drill press and using a rasp. This created a nice tight compression fit.

In order to get the holes on the two side pieces in the same place I clamped them together meaning there was no need for careful measurement. Using the drill press means you can be sure the holes are completely square and so there won't be any sort of twist to the jig.

Below: the finished side bending jig

Note: one of the dowel rods does not extend flush with the side of the jig because I accidentally cut it too short and did not notice until it was too late. Luckily it is long enough to hold itself snugly in to both sides of the mould.