Marshwood Acoustic, Chapter 1, The Sides

This year I am taking a course at RRCC in acoustic steel string construction. Since this will be the first attempt I have scrounged for materials. I milled the maple sides and back out of wood left behind by students. This will be a Martin-ish OM model guitar. Sitka spruce will be the top, Honduran mahogany for the neck and rosewood for the fretboard. These series of pictures show the bending process for the sides. One way of bending these is on an iron, but I was able to use a bending jig. This gives a more consistent result. I soaked the maple sides for a couple minutes, then put them in the bending jig. This jig has a heat blanket which steams the wood into shape. Once finished out it goes into the guitar form. We'll see how all this goes.