A bending good time.

I had initially planned on building my own bending iron using metal pipe and heating source (propane touch or heating gun) to save a bit of $$. In the end I decided an professionally made electric bending iron would be "safer" as I was having visions of me knocking the propane torch over, burning the workshop to the ground.

(Ibex bending iron from LMI)

When I ordered the replace neck blank I also had some offcuts for bending practice sent as well.
I read and watched numerous youtube videos the bending process and I felt confident I would pick it up quickly.

A few side bending videos:
NK Forster Guitars Making a Guitar - bending sides
O'Brien Guitars - Luthier Tips du Jour - Side bending by hand
There are heaps more videos but after watching a few you get the general idea.

Heres my first attempt at bending (Tasmanian Blackwood).

I soaked the wood in hot water for around 15mins and preceeded to start bending.  After about 10mins of slowly moving/rocking the wood over the iron and keeping the wood wet by spraying warm water intermittently the end result was a nicely shaped bend with no burn marks.  The only flaw was a very small part of the grain/wood that lifted up on the outside of one of the bends which I sanded off. Im not sure if this was caused by the wood being too wet or that I bent that section too fast but it didnt appear to be a major issue.

Im very please with my first bending attempt.  I have a few other practice pieces (flamed maple, mahogany ..etc) to experiment with before I do the proper bends for the guitar.