Bending Iron

[Matthew Noykos]

I know many of you are always in search of the next cool tool. I bought a bending iron from David Buchi a few years ago and I really like it. I have used the Gewa irons, the universal bending iron design you can get from so many suppliers, and a couple of homemade creations out there. I like this one the best. The heat is really consistent and the shape is absolutely perfect for violins and violas. He has made another batch of irons and I am putting this out there for the Maestronet community. I don't get any kickback for this so I think it is OK to post on Maestronet. My own reasons for posting are that I would like to see him sell more so he can offer more. He's planning to expand his inventory into some other specialized violin tools.

Many of you know David already because he was one of the people taking pictures of the competition instruments at the last VSA convention. He's not a violin maker, but he's engaged to one and gets ideas for needed tools from many working luthiers. He's got great attention to detail and he likes problem solving so I hope he continues collaborating with luthiers.

I told him I wanted to post about the bending iron and asked if he had any pictures so he sent me some today. He also said he doesn't mind people contacting him through e-mail. His e-mail is buchiphoto@gmail.com

[~ Ben Conover]

Looks very well made.

Sent him an email.

[Matthew Noykos]

Hey Ben, I meant to ask this earlier but I have been MIA lately. Did you actually order one? If you did, I'd be curious as to how you end up liking it.

[Stephen Churchill]

I like the idea of consistant heat. I'm perplexed why we don't seem anyone coming out with PID temperature controlled units. I ended up having to rebuild my own.

[Guest]

Ditto...I made mine you can too...

http://www.maestronet.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=322165&st=0

[pold]

Ditto...I made mine you can too...

http://www.maestronet.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=322165&st=0

I tried an 80 watts soldering iron attached to a 2cm diameter tube, so far so good, I like the fact that the tube is so small, I put it horizontally and can control everything easily with my fingers on a leather belt, without scorching myself. I tried even with a 20 watts soldering iron, it was ok, but 80 watts is even better.

[Stephen Churchill]

Ditto...I made mine you can too...

http://www.maestronet.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=322165&st=0

Very nice!

[C.B.Fiddler]

Dov Schmidt sells a temp controlled bending iron.

http://www.dov-music.com/proddetail.asp?prod=1195

I have not purchased one - I just altered an Ibex for my purposes.