Side Bending

I made some improvements to my bending jig. After struggling with clamps and loss of bending time, I added screw presses to the upper and lower bout benders. The improvements work very well.
The koa wood sides were prepared for bending as follows:
1. Spray with "Super-soft" ( used for veneer preparation) let set 2 hours
2. Spray sides with purified water outside and inside.
3. Cut craft paper to size, spray both sides with water, wrap koa with the paper and mark waist center line on the paper.
4. Wrap koa in aluminum foil and mark waist centerline.
5. Place aluminum slat on flat surface forming the first part of a"sandwich."
6. Place wrapped koa on top slat.
7. Place heat blanket over wrapped koa.
8. Place second aluminum slat over heat blanket and align centerlines.
9. Clip the "sandwich" with metal clips and slide it over the bending mold.

The bending time is very short. There is about a 5 minute window when the wood is plastic enough to bend. Here is a summary of my process:
1. Set timer for 15 minutes to insure you don't leave the blanket on and burn your workshop down. Wear gloves to protect hands.
2. Connect thermometer between heat blanket and slat. I use a digital thermocoupler from Harbor Freight.
3. Raise temperture to 110C, wisps of steam should be noticible. Bend waist to 80%, then the upper bout, then 100% of the waist and then the lower bout. Cook wood ~110-135C for the remaining time. Turn off heat blanket, keep side in the bender for at least 4 hours. Transfer sides from the bending mold and clamp the sides into the uke building mold.

The bending of the koa wood was successful with no issues.  Once the steam was visible, the koa bent like butter.  The bending jig improvements helped make it a fast efficient process.