Cheapest Motorized Fret Slots Cutting Aid (Drill-Driven Fret Slotter)

OK people here it is, the cheapest motorized  fret slots cutting aid ever, but I have to give the concept credit to Izzy Swan…

 

As you can see I took an electric 3/8” drill, used a compressor fitting, male to female to increase the size to 1/2”.

Grinded the little notch off so it would fit in the drill better. The reason why I needed to do this was the blade has a 1/2” hole.

The blade is what is a jeweler slotting blade and I ordered it off EBay:  

HSS Jewelers Saw 3" D x .023" W x 1/2" Hole X 230 Teeth Made in Poland, http://www.ebay.com/usr/toolmexonlineoutlet

I really would have liked a 4” blade but the asking prices I found or the shipping costs were ridiculous. I didn’t use sealed bearings as shown on Izzy’s video because I didn’t have any but I did use plastic spacer with 1/2” inside diameter (Lowes) and put a washer on the outside of each one, might have to replace these in the future.

As you can tell the table is pretty rough, scraps I had laying around, wasn’t sure it was going to work, I had to slightly shim the table support to get just the right height of the blade for fret slots. I kept the table away from the drill for 2 reasons, one was to get to the trigger and the other is where the table height is not too high because of the height of the drill.

Cut my first fret board, oak, as you can see.

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Hmmm, still think a thrift store scroll saw with blade turned around is easiest & maybe cheaper. Blade width is just about the right cut depth

Handy to have a scroll saw anyway, it has many other uses and can be used to cut fancy sound holes in boxes, A good tip is to put masking tape over the wood on the exit side of the cut to stop tear out.

Old Lowe showed me this way. works great !! Reverse the blade.

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