Benedetto's book recommends soaking the sides in a piece of drain pipe before bending, but I used an old livestock trough instead, because that's what I have. To the casual observer these might appear to be just any old rocks that I picked up from the driveway, but the sophisticated readers of Talkbass will recognize them as carefully selected Tone Stones.
This time I followed the instructions and let the bending iron heat up all the way before bending. I had another go at my test piece, which came out not bad, then on to the real thing. I did the tightest bend at the end of the upper horn first, then penciled in marks for the beginning, middle, and end of the next bend, bent that, compared to the template, and so on. No pictures of this because I was just trying to get it done.
Instead of a traditionally full mold, this is a skeleton mold made from shelf brackets, an idea which I probably stole from
@2groggy. The body template is held down to the melamine sheet with double sided tape, then each bracket butted up against the template and screwed down. Few brackets where the curvature is large, lots of them where it is sharper. This is definitely not as controlled as a full mold, but it's really not critical whether the side profile exactly matches the arbitrary shape I drew, especially considering that the body isn't symmetrical.
It came out reasonably well. Maybe slightly lumpy through the curve at the waist where I over-bent it a bit, but acceptable for a first attempt and probably nobody but me will ever notice.
Up to this point I had been working flat on the top of the workbench, then it occurred to me that I could stick one corner of the jig in the vise, which brought it up to a more convenient height and orientation.
Next, linings. I'm installing these reversed, with the solid side facing in, which should make the sides stiffer and help them hold their shape when taken out of the mold. The top and back are going to be arched, almost meeting at the widest part of the body, so the linings have to follow the curve. The pencil marks are me working out the body thickness at each axial line on the body template, transferring that to the side, then playing connect the dots to approximate the top and back curve. I had myself convinced that I could make the lining follow the curve, but that's not happening, so it's in sections at different angles. That looks pretty janky at this point, but the stair steps will go away when the sides are trimmed to match the top and back, and it will all be hidden inside anyway.
I also discovered some cracks in the side between the f-hole and end block, but they will mostly get covered and reinforced by the lining. I'll see how I feel about them when the lining is fully installed. Maybe add a veneer reinforcement between the top and back linings. I've had the side out of the mold a few times to mark the layout lines etc., and it really is amazing how much stiffer the linings make it. I knew it would be stiffer, but it really is impressive how much difference that makes.
Next step will be the lining up into the upper horn. As currently drawn the lining runs up to where the side curvature starts to get fairly tight, and it doesn't really want to bend quite that tightly. I could extend the corner block further and cut the lining short, but I think it's a better bet to make the lining conform instead of trying to fit the corner block to the side over a greater area. I'll try putting the lining on the bending iron to persuade it a bit more.
