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Permalink Reply by Skeesix on January 15, 2017 at 6:08am

Stew Mac has various solutions for cutting fret slots including a table saw. http://www.stewmac.com/SiteSearch/?search=fret%20slots

I do what you do, except I use a tri miter square instead of blocks. I lay out the fret lines on the computer, and print that out and glue it on the board, then cut through the paper on the lines, using the square as a saw guide to keep it accurate.

I personally wouldn't use a table saw unless I was doing mass production.

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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on January 15, 2017 at 8:12am

I use a table saw, but only because I make large numbers of fretboards (20-50 at a time). You'll need a template and a special narrow kerf blade. It's almost as quick to do it by hand with the proper saw and a mitrebox. A good template helps accuracy and repeatability - here's my set-up for slotting fretboards by hand.

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on January 17, 2017 at 7:22am

Like CBJ, I make 30ish fretboards at a time, so the investment in a stewmac blade and template made sense.

Before that I used a thin kerf saw and a homemade miter box... which I still use for odd scale lengths (bass, mostly)

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Permalink Reply by lawntrout guitars on January 17, 2017 at 9:40am

here is a little video I made with a lot of hints of building.Fret cutting is in there. Trust me, I have made all the mistakes.

https://youtu.be/A3B-REk0aJU

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Permalink Reply by john mackay on January 18, 2017 at 8:14am

I made my own fret marker .

I bought a CB Gitty paper fret marker,I used that on a piece of wood,mark all the frets 25.5",24.5" and 24" inc the fret dots up to the 12th frets.then I cut a small grove in the wood and thats my fret marker.as for dressing frets.. I now put fret wire on 1st before I attach it to the neck. by doing this I can dress the edges on my belt sander,this save all the faffing about with a file. no rough or sharp edges.(I rub over with a 120 wet/dry paper on the edges.) anyway this has work for me.

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on January 21, 2017 at 12:53pm

Hi, here's my set up for cutting standard scale fret slots. Its dedicated to the task and ready to go in seconds. For special scale lengths I use the method I posted a while back.

Cheers Taff

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