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Permalink Reply by Grandpa on November 17, 2016 at 9:32am

Looks right to me. I've been using round head linoleum nails, but I like your results, Half. I have soldering gun and nails, so I'm going to try your method. Thanks for sharing.

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Permalink Reply by Stuart Baldwin on November 17, 2016 at 10:16am

Another idea that I've seen suggested, although I haven't tried it myself, is to use the "lead" from a coloured pencil, glued into a shallow hole of the correct size.

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Permalink Reply by Hal Robertson on November 17, 2016 at 11:25am

Pencil lead is interesting...:-)

I've seen baking soda/CA glue used for white, but haven't tried it yet. I've also seen weed-eater line (big stuff) used before. Just can't locate any large/black/round line around here.

Just a note, my 25w iron wasn't powerful enough, but the 30w iron worked pretty well. 10-15 seconds each for the small dots. A little longer for large dots. Of course, your mileage may vary.

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Permalink Reply by Shawn on November 17, 2016 at 11:43am

Great tip pun intended. To fill that space under the fret's with a mixture of some sawdust of whatever the fretboard is made out of and 10 min epoxy and press it into the gap then wipe clean with some clean rag to get rid of excess mixture. I saw them doing this at the Gibson build line when I toured the plant a few years ago.

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Permalink Reply by Hal Robertson on November 17, 2016 at 12:22pm

Nice! I'll do that next time. Can't always cut fret slots consistently. Between the fretboard and neck, that's some red oak wood filler patching edge splinters and a tiny glue gap. Way too red and not very oak-y.

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on November 17, 2016 at 12:03pm

That worked well, another simple idea for fret dots is knitting needles, all different sizes and colours, just drill,tap the needle in, cut off and sand, very simple.

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Permalink Reply by Timothy Hunter on November 19, 2016 at 2:44am

good idea daryl, might just pinch that..  op shops are full of old knitting needles..

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on November 18, 2016 at 10:46am

I picked up about three feet of 12 gauge solid core copper wire at HD. I found a drill  bit slightly smaller than the wire . I then sharpen the end of wire and cut a 1/4" piece that I can  tap into my holes. This  seats them in the hole. A couple of passes with a flat file and  they are  flush and shiny red copper fret marker. I think the three feet of wire  will last the rest  of my days.

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Permalink Reply by Derek Rose on November 18, 2016 at 3:49pm

Good idea. Looks great!

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Permalink Reply by Kigar on November 19, 2016 at 3:37am

Great idea! Another free marker and dot method is to make an impression into the side of the neck. I chucked a straight screwdriver bit into the drill press (don't turn it on!) and make dents for fretmarkers. A small rod or upside down drill bit makes dots. Dab paint into the dents and lightly sand the neck to clean it up.

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Permalink Reply by Shawn on November 20, 2016 at 3:35pm

I use 1/8 brass rod from Ace for mine

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on November 20, 2016 at 6:32pm

Looks great.  I've used a round-tip wood burner, 1/16" ABS rod, even 12ga copper.

The copper starts out being cool, but you can't see it.  The white ABS is very visible.   I did some pinkish purple, 1.75mm ABS for a 3-d printer,  used a #'d drill set to find one close enough...  

There are lots of 3d printer sample packs that get you 20' of different colors if you wanted some variety.

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