my wife the Luthier...

[Special-K]

nice

[rjohnstone]

Looking good Dave.
Can't wait to see the finished product.

[Model1VH2]

Amazing job Dave!

Much respect bro.

[VoiceX3]

You never cease to amaze me with your work Dave!

[Budman68]

Once again, thank you very much for the kind words, this has been a fun one and glad it's going well so far (knock on wood!).

I took a little time today to "nip" and press in the rest of the frets but unfortunately I didn't photograph the layout procedure so you'll have to use your imagination for that . First, I rough nipped the bottom ends of the frets so that they hang over the binding without the tang getting in the way. As you can see below, it's not very smooth until I grind away what's left after using the cutters.




Below is a comparison of the rough nipped fret end the ground fret end. Ground fret on the left.






Here you can see my crude little dremel jig that use to grind the underside of the end so that it fits flush on top of the binding. It has a slot cut in so that the tang of the fret can just slide right up to the edge of the grinding wheel.






Below I started pressing them in with my percusion press. The reason I really like this little press is because it's actually spring loaded and acts as a hammer when pressure is applied and "knocks" the frets in very nicely. Hence the term "percussion press" lol!




Below I started cutting off the overhanging frets because the closer you get to the upper frets, the harder it is to get the cutters in between frets that are hanging out there (cutting sideways, NOT top to bottom!).







All done for now!

[skorb]

holy cow that's cool!

[Norton]

I want to ask a question.


Don't you have to sand the fretboard to give it a radius?Could you please give me some information about that.I'm planning on building something this summer.

[Shotgun]

I, too, have a question.

Could anybody be any cooler? Could anyone rock any harder?

I don't think so.



Keith

[Norton]

I, too, have a question.

Could anybody be any cooler? Could anyone rock any harder?

I don't think so.



Keith

Me?

[Budman68]

I want to ask a question.


Don't you have to sand the fretboard to give it a radius?Could you please give me some information about that.I'm planning on building something this summer.

Absolutely.....first off let me tell you that you can buy pre-radiused and pre-slotted fretboards which would save you a lot of time and headaches. Unless of course you'd rather learn that but I would practice on scrap if you've never done it before.

What I did was make a radius template of 12" and hand sanded the fretboard using a long flat bar of steel and constantly checking my radius as I went along. Let me back up a bit for you though, I created reference lines with a pencil on all 4 sides of the fretboard so that I could see my sanding progress and it helps to keep your wood removal even all around so that you're not taking too much off of a particular area.

Did that help? Also, make sure you slot for the frets and put in your inlays first as it's a hell of a lot easier but be sure to remember to figure on sanding the radius which means your inlays will be thicker and your fret slots should be deeper.

[Norton]

Thanks Budman.It helped me to understand

[sully]

that is just flat out kickass, sir! thanks for the update!

[Bengal65]

Awesome work Budman. Just outstanding! I like that Dremel jig!

[petedz]

This is one of the most educational threads ever. Great eye candy too.

[delt]

> This is one of the most educational threads ever. Great eye candy too.

AGREED!!

> while she was in the hospital. The number is actually the date
> she started her new chance at life.

I might have missed something, but... what happened to her?? =(