Comment

Comment by Jon Pruett on February 7, 2011 at 6:20pm

My new favorite tool - welding tip cleaners.  After a few frustrating experiences trying to cut slots in the nut to hold the strings tightly without buzzing, I was almost ready to pay the exorbitant prices the professional luthier companies want for their nut files. Then I ran across a post in the great interwebs about using these little doo-dads, and boy am I glad I tried it. For less money than a single traditional nut file you can get a whole set shipped to your door - and they cut great. Just eyeball the size or use a caliper to match it up to the string and in a few seconds there is a properly sized groove right where you want it.

 

Comment by DrByte on January 28, 2011 at 5:42am

Glad it helped out. I know it's much faster than my old plastic hammer.

Comment by Jon Pruett on January 27, 2011 at 5:41pm

Your picture was inspiring DrByte - I upgraded my block of wood and hammer fret press to a fancy drill press model (aka I stuck a leftover Ikea dowel in it) and wow - I'm a believer!  I finished installing frets in a half-finished project with less fuss, less bumps, and no smashed fingers!

 

Comment by DrByte on January 27, 2011 at 10:10am

oops! not maple and walnut, it's beech and walnut.

Comment by DrByte on January 27, 2011 at 10:10am

Don't know what happened to the pic.

Comment by DrByte on January 27, 2011 at 10:08am

Here is an 'end-grain' drill press jig I use to press frets with. This one is maple and walnut with a 5/16" shaft.  It works really great.

Comment by Jon Pruett on January 11, 2011 at 6:42pm

Those drill press fret jigs sound pretty neat. I'm having good results with this simple fret press made from a couple inches of poplar from the scrap pile.

 

Comment by John Hopper on January 11, 2011 at 5:43pm

Hey Jess, I'd like to see some pics of the drill press fret jig you use. I just sent you a friend  req.  thanks jh

Comment by Shawn on December 10, 2010 at 11:46am

I started putting single coil pickups in some of my latest builds and found that if you take a wood dowel of the right size for the rounded ends of the pup cover and use spray glue from home depot you can wrap it with diffrent grits of sand paper you can sand the ends really nice. I also take the strips of wood out of the cigar box ( the ones around the edges I use to toss out ) and give them the same treatment they make great files for shaping everything from the nuts to saddles and F holes and pup cut outs. I got the dowel's from a hobby store a bag of diffrent sizes and pot 100 grit on one end and 220 on the other end after cutting them down to 6 inches. Hope this help out someone

Comment by Mick Hardy (crikey) on November 26, 2010 at 1:55am

"Get ya hand off ya tool !" ha ha

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