my wife the Luthier...

[37fiat]

Great work Dave!!

Were you able to use the press to insert the frets around the neck joint, or did you have tap those in with a hammer?

Can't say I've seen a percussion press like that before.
Seems like the perfect tool for this job though!

[Special-K]

Whoah... Love it...
Dave will you start now already custom making guitars and selling them ?

[Budman68]

> 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?? =(

Actually, lets just say she had some complications in surgery and we almost lost her...

I like that Dremel jig!

I know, it's crude lol! I can make some really nice jigs sometimes but sometimes you just don't feel like it ya know what I mean?

Great work Dave!!

Were you able to use the press to insert the frets around the neck joint, or did you have tap those in with a hammer?

Can't say I've seen a percussion press like that before.
Seems like the perfect tool for this job though!

Good call, my friend, I guess I should have explained that a bit better as it's pretty obvious I couldn't get the whole body under that little press right? You are correct, I didn't have a form fitting neckjoint jig so I had to hammer 3 or 4 of the frets in that area sitting the neckjoint into a bag of sand for support. I could do the rest of the upper frets just sitting the body of the guitar on the bench.

Whoah... Love it...
Dave will you start now already custom making guitars and selling them ?

I think not -

[CharvelFK]

Hey Budman that is one heck of a projecy=t there!! keep up the great work..wife is doing well.

[Immortal]

Dave, I bow before thee! You did an amazing job!

[Budman68]

thanks! Glad you are enjoying it -

[kruneh]

Have to keep the thread alive, been a while since last time I checked it out.
Amazing work, can´t wait to see it finished.

[AlexL]

That's looking awesome, Dave!

She's going to be a real beauty.


- E.

[69dodgecharger]

thats really cool, I cant wait to see it done.

[69dodgecharger]

oops double post

[Budman68]

Ok, had a few moments so I decided to bevel the fret ends and thought I'd share a few pics with you. First, the tool is a simple to make tool that I made very quickly instead of shelling out cash to buy one. It's basically a clamp that holds a mill bastard fine in which I removed the ends of and polished the 4 corners so that if I slip across the frets (and I did!!), it won't dig into my fret tops. You'll also notice that I put "lead-ins" on the ends of the file so that it can just slide over the fret ends and not bang into them. Just wanted to mention that the bevel is a 35 degree off the vertical.





Polished corners:





Notice the lead-ins?





In the pic below is the position I hold the bevel file. The first few passes are tricky as hell as you're just nipping off the ends from the cutter. It doesn't take long before it starts to go smoothly though.






Here we have her laid out and ready. I have paper towels over the neckrest because the metal filings get everywhere and I don't want to have those embedded into my neck rest!




A shot of the fret ends before:



A shot of the fret ends roughed, notice the metal filings...



....and finally a shot of the fret ends cleaned up. Now there will be a final clean up and polishing after I've leveled and crowned them.



That's all for now!

[rjohnstone]

Lookin' good.
Cool idea making your own tool.

[Special-K]

Yeah great idea...
Looking really good...
Can`t wait to see it when it`s done......
Keep up the good work..

[shobet]

This has the potential to be a killer, I can't wait to see the end product.

Is it like giving birth?

[nateb]

First of all, amazing job so far. Love it.

Question for you...

What is the proper way to buff down the edges now that you have filed them all the way the the binding? Those look pretty damn sharp.