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Hello,

I'm looking for advice on bending solid linings for a cutaway. I use paulownia for the linings and follow Burton's tutorial from here to create the lining side and then cut into strips. For bending non-cutaway I've simply put all three layers (0.070 each) in the bender at the same time. They are stacked and so they come out nested properly. I then glue them up in a vacuum form. I use a bending mold which is reduced .275 so that the resulting lining sides will nest into the side & mold properly. Bending all three layers at the same time works well. I cut them a little long and I don't tape them together so they can slide against one another during the bending process.

I haven't tried this yet on a cutaway, it might be fine, but I'm curious what others do? Reading the archives here it's been brought up a few times but even with the previous answers I'm still unclear how folks are doing this. I could always use kerfed lining just for the cutaway, but I wanted to explore using solid lining first.

Any insight is appreciated.

Brad

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On the cutaway side I make three 1.7 - 2 mm strips which I bend by hand, and use the rims in a mold as my template. I bend in sequence inside - out. I then glue the whole stack to the rims at the same time just using a lot of small clamps. On the non-cutaway side, I bend all three strips in a side bender and glue them together and to the rims at the same time as described above.

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You certainly put more effort in than I do.

I just bend as normal, not stacked.

Then I glue the linings together by clamping them in the frame in the mold, just as if I were installing them, except I’m just gluing the linings together. Then the assembled linings come out again to get the edges sanded round.

One thing I have been doing lately that is very helpful is to cut the shape of the radius into the back linings using the side template. So I’ll draw the back radius, slide it up 5/8, draw it again etc. You’re left with linings that aren’t straight but sorta track the back radius. Then orient them carefully in the bender to follow the back taper.

This helps a lot since laminated linings are so stiff in the vertical axis.

And because they get glued together before being glued in, it’s easy to remove the assembled lining to clean up the rough bandsaw edges...

Yes! This is similar to Burton's tutorial and 100% agree it makes the back so much easier.

I think I can bend the lining using the non-cutaway form like normal and then do as you for the cutaway area. Just make it two sections which are split in two just above the waist where the cutaway curve returns.

Thanks to you both. I will give it a try.

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I bend the cutaway area in the bender with heat, no stacking, three at once side by side. Then I glue them up
against a mold, gluing and clamping the cutaway first. The remainder just get bent and glued around the mold
without any heat. I use maple, just using heat on the cutaway. When not doing a cutaway I use no heat at all.
Thickness is similar to John's.