Sides

My first procedure is to slice the side wood from a mahogany board.  The board in this picture is about 4 1/2″ wide, 1 1/2″ thick and 34″ long. After cutting the wood on the bandsaw, it is planed and sanded to a thickness of about 0.075″ before it can be safely bent to the desired shape.

The sides are bent in this press.  There are 2 pieces of sheet metal which are heated with 3 200 watt light bulbs.  A wet side is placed between the hot sheets, then clamped into the form.  After about 12 hours, I can remove the side from the press.

After both sides are bent, the kerfed lining is glued along the top edge and the mahogany head and tail blocks are glued into place.  The lining serves two important purposes: first, it stiffens the sides to help them retain their shape until the top is glued to them; second, it increases the surface area for gluing the top and back onto them.   Here is a picture of the completed sides with linings and blocks installed: