Thread: Need fret help

Originally Posted by dadovfor

You're a braver man than I am Gunga Din!!

hurry up and build a neck old man

Ever seen a marking knife? If you're marking out dovetails then you dont use a pencil...a marking knife is the only tool you consider for the task. A scalpel is just a very accurate marking knife. As long as you dont push too hard on the blade and flex it the mark will be as accurate as its going to be. The other beauty is the chalk rubs into the cut and makes sawing of the slot so much easier.

as an aside or detour from main thread but still about fret slot measuring:

i wonder, how do you guys measure the slots?

a) by measuring each slot from the nut ?

or

b) by measuring each slot from the previous slot (adding incremental distance) ?

Originally Posted by R3R

as an aside or detour from main thread but still about fret slot measuring:

i wonder, how do you guys measure the slots?

a) by measuring each slot from the nut ?

or

b) by measuring each slot from the previous slot (adding incremental distance) ?

Always measure each fret slot position from the nut. If you measure each slot from the previous slot then as you go up the fretboard then you're going to be dealing with an increasing cumulative error.

Originally Posted by kiwigeo

Always measure each fret slot position from the nut. If you measure each slot from the previous slot then as you go up the fretboard then you're going to be dealing with an increasing cumulative error.

cheers kiwigeo

i had thought this and your post confirms wht i have found from experience ...

and tht is incremental distance measuring does lead to progresively larger errors typically from 12th on..;.

i always put up the blank with slots marked in against a confirmed truely slotted neck to check for obvious errors before i go sawing

Originally Posted by jeffhigh

I would get the proper saw. I am using the stewmac japenese style saw and it is great.
Hammering frets into undersize slots is no fun at all
I would just use wfret to print a template (check for printer scaling errors and adjust)
and then cut the zero fret as any other

I'm actually going to use the .020" saw which is different from the hobby-craft one I was going to originally use, but it is still 1/3 the price of the Stew-Mac. I'm hoping that .003" will not be too tight of a fit. I was a little concerned about the bowing that was mentioned earlier, but then when I added it all together, the amount of wood that could attribute to bowing is about 1.14 mm; so I can't see that being a major problem-- unless I'm totally missing something here. Those Stew-Mac saws really look great though. If I could only find a use for it with other projects, I'd get it.

Thanks for the tip on wfret. It's comforting to know that the chart/template produces similar results to the fret calculator at Stew-Mac's site.