I have been looking at bending fixtures over the years and have seen many different designs running the gamut from lightly-built (as exemplified by Mike Orlen's bending fixture shown in JayCee's post ) to heavier-built (as exemplified by Chuck H's fine looking bending fixure). All of these designs apparently work quite well. The simplicity of Chuck H's fixture has finally inspired me to make my own.
Since the stock bending process requires the wood to be softened to the point that it is easily moved (i.e., requiring much force beyond finger pressure to move the wood indicates that either it has not been sufficiently heated or you are at the limits of the wood's bending potential), I am wondering if a heavy duty fixture is functionally necessary? My thought is that if finger pressure or slightly more is sufficient to bend the wood, then as long as the fixture is straight, stable, and reasonably well constructed, a lightly-built fixture should work fine for stock bending purposes . . . ?
I ask because I don't have much in the way of wood or metal working tools, and making a heavy duty bending fixture similar to some that I have seen, as impressive as they are, is beyond my meager capabilties. However, a carefuly constructed, lightly-built stock bending fixture is something I can pull off, but if it won't reliably make good bends, I won't bother.
What do the stock benders say: is not much force required to bend a properly heated stock and thus a lightly-built fixture will function perfectly fine for stock bending?
TIA
--shinbone
