Building Bridges and Bending Wood

[Farrell]

I'm having a bit of a time building my first bridge root. The bridge is for a M&H upright. It is will be made of vertically laminated quarter sawn hard maple. The bridge design requires a fair bit of a double bend where the bridge goes under the plate strut between the treble and tenor sections. The way I have it laid out, the bends have a radius of approximately three-inches. I cut laminations down to 2 mm, and it is still pretty hard to get the curve I want (I am actually crushing the wood trying to bend it). I realize I could ease the bend a bit and simply move the bridge pins so that they lie more towards the bottom of the bridge on the late note of the treble area, and higher on the bridge on the first note of the tenor section. I hate to start over though.

How tight a curve do any of you bridge builders use? How thick are you making your laminations for that radius? Any special tricks you are using to make this all work?

Terry Farrell