Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Grandpa on January 3, 2018 at 3:25pm

Paul, I don't know squat about sharpening saws, but I tried to sharpen the Zona. Used a flat single cut file, held on a slight angle to the saw, but my efforts did not help. So I just buy a new saw .."for fretting only"..and use the older one for other quick, less critical cutting. I believe saw sharpening needs to be properly done tooth-by-tooth, so I'm out.

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Permalink Reply by Lane Martin on January 11, 2018 at 7:27am

You'd need a triangular file to sharpen those small teeth...probably a 4" xxslim. And good eyes (or a magnifying lens) and good light for teeth that size.

Though, personally, I wouldn't have thought that 15 fretboards would have dulled the saw to the point of it being useless.

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Permalink Reply by Grandpa on January 11, 2018 at 12:25pm

Hey Lane. Not useless, but enough edge lost to make it tough to run across the red oak boards I use for fretboards. Tough push and pull, sloppy fret board cuts. I need all the help I can muster, so a marginal edge to my saw is likely a &(*%% moment for me. As they say on the commercials, "you're results may vary". Saws still good for less precise cutting for a while, though.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on January 12, 2018 at 11:52am

That saw I use probably costs less than 5 bucks, so a new one will be bought instead of trying to sharpen it. I'm really surprised it lasted this long and it's really been needing to be replaced for awhile now.

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on January 3, 2018 at 11:19am

Hi Roland, like Grandpa said there are lots of different methods for installing frets, and over the years I've tried them all. Even tried, yesterday, as mentioned recently here, tapping [as opposed to pounding Ha Ha] frets in then tapping them sideways, does not work for me. But I tried it and now I know.

Reasons for a fingerboard:  it hides the truss rod [saves routing in from the back of the neck] - it adds stiffness/mass to the neck [better resisting string tension and assisting with better sustain, I believe] - being hardwood it wears better - and grips frets better - allows for a more suitable break angle over the fingerboard nut.

These are my rules, oops!, guidelines for fingerboards. 

In the photo you can see how I keep the saw upright [when I use the handsaw], also the saw has a depth "stop" fitted to it, there are many ways to do this.

Keeping in mind the above I use timber cut on the 1/4, "quatersawn" , grain running from top to bottom of the board. I choose colour or grain pattern that will suit the guitar and inlay material. It has to be very flat prior to fretting, either already glued to the neck or fretted after gluing to the neck.

My end nippers have the front face ground flat so that the bevels on the cutting edge are removed, this allows for the cutters to cut right up against the fingerboard edge. This means less filing or sanding of the fret ends, so less chance of causing them to loosen in the slot.

I build full acoustic and electric guitars mainly and find it hard to separate the processes and thoughts used there from building CBG's, so often my comments may appear over the top and not needed or available by people with limited resources. But the day may come when you may find these ramblings noteworthy.

Cheers Taff

  

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Permalink Reply by Richard Dean on January 3, 2018 at 12:59pm

Hey Taff, is your depth stop for the saw on the hidden side of the pic, looks something similar to what I did, I took my saw, drilled to holes through it and through an upside down section of a hacksaw blade to give me a full length depth stop. I may make another with the holes on the sacrificial hacksaw depth stop slotted for adjustable depths

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on January 3, 2018 at 2:18pm

hi Richard, yes its a Perspex strip about 2mm thick with 2 slots for depth adjustment and the length of the blade. The two brass thumb screws are for adjustment. This is the Stumac fretting saw.  Before this, on a different saw, I used a strip of wood and two small "G" clamps.

Taff

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Permalink Reply by Grandpa on January 3, 2018 at 3:36pm

Right your, Taffy. Tapping is indeed the process, not pounding. In retrospect, I wouldn't want any "theatrical license" on my part to mislead new builders. I forget that typing isn't the same as conversing. In my head I was gesturing while I typed! I had forgotten about grinding down the the front bevel on the end nippers. Might ought to do that myself...save a bunch of end dressing/metal removal time. Good tip.

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Permalink Reply by Roland Wood on January 3, 2018 at 7:53pm

As I differ from the majority of people, I tend to actually take advice of those more experienced than I am, so "These ramblings" are very noteworthy to me, and I thank you and all others for any input, tips, and advice y'all can give me 

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Permalink Reply by Derek Rose on January 3, 2018 at 2:55pm

Like others have said, having the fingerboard does add strength to resist bending from the strings. It also reduces the amount of material you may need to remove from the headstock to step-down for tuners. I modified a mitre box to allow cutting slots in different width fingerboards and added some dowels which flex and work with scraps of wood made into wedges to clamp down the fingerboard.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Johnston on January 4, 2018 at 9:30am

Derek, this pic was timely.  I'm getting ready to build a new miter box and this looks awesome.  I take it that you drilled holes for the dowels and then put the miter box together?  

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Permalink Reply by Derek Rose on January 11, 2018 at 3:03pm

Hi Bob, it was a miter box I had but wasn't using. I had a narrow one I had made for 4 strings but needed wider for 6 strings, so figured I would take the store-bought one and drill holes and insert the dowels to allow for adjusting to different neck widths. Then found the dowels had enough springiness to work with wedges as a kind of 3rd hand. The dowels are tapped into place with a mallet.

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