Well I just used it on a full set of frets. Worked pretty good. You definitely need the piece of hard wood spacer over the fret when pressing. I made the head on the lever out of a block of carving wood. When I tried with without the spacer the fret would impress in the head. Also the length of the lever arm needs to be a little longer. It's probable good for someone under 50, but definitely not over 70. If your head stock angles down, you will need some spacers to clear it and keep it level.
The head is slightly less in width, but there is a piece of fret board the same width (which works like the flat press insert - all of my fret boards are flat) that moves over each fret between the hammer and the fret. It pushes it in on one press. I used to just use a piece of fret board over the fret and a big rubber mallet. It worked just as good, I just wanted to build something.
Is the head of your hammer as wide and flat as your fretboard? If not, you are taking multiple taps to set the frets.
As was explained to me by an excellent luthier/repair person in my area... you want the fret to go in ONCE and be done. The part of the fret (on real fret wire) that engages the slot is sort of "barbed". He explained that you don't want any part of the fret to be part way in and then be tearing out wood from the fret slot by coming outwards again. This can't really happen if you are pushing the entire fret in with one motion.
You can see this also by the tools that StewMac sells for setting frets. Yes, they sell a hammer (so clearly that can work),
It occurs to me that one could buy StewMacs flat press insert ($4.25) and incorporate it into this press design. You'll notice that it has a radius to help keep the fret stay captured and perpendicular during the press:operation.
Help me out here, what's the advantage to pressing in frets as opposed to pounding them in with a dead blow? Awesome build here by the way. Makes me think of a trebuchet.
Comments
Well I just used it on a full set of frets. Worked pretty good. You definitely need the piece of hard wood spacer over the fret when pressing. I made the head on the lever out of a block of carving wood. When I tried with without the spacer the fret would impress in the head. Also the length of the lever arm needs to be a little longer. It's probable good for someone under 50, but definitely not over 70. If your head stock angles down, you will need some spacers to clear it and keep it level.
Really cool!
The head is slightly less in width, but there is a piece of fret board the same width (which works like the flat press insert - all of my fret boards are flat) that moves over each fret between the hammer and the fret. It pushes it in on one press. I used to just use a piece of fret board over the fret and a big rubber mallet. It worked just as good, I just wanted to build something.
I had to pause the photo feed to figure out what this was. Very nice.
Huh! I would like it even it did not work.
Is the head of your hammer as wide and flat as your fretboard? If not, you are taking multiple taps to set the frets.
As was explained to me by an excellent luthier/repair person in my area... you want the fret to go in ONCE and be done. The part of the fret (on real fret wire) that engages the slot is sort of "barbed". He explained that you don't want any part of the fret to be part way in and then be tearing out wood from the fret slot by coming outwards again. This can't really happen if you are pushing the entire fret in with one motion.
You can see this also by the tools that StewMac sells for setting frets. Yes, they sell a hammer (so clearly that can work),
http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/Tools_by_Job/Fretting/Hammering/
but all of the other systems are designed for a pressing operation:
http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/Tools_by_Job/Fretting/Pressing/
It occurs to me that one could buy StewMacs flat press insert ($4.25) and incorporate it into this press design. You'll notice that it has a radius to help keep the fret stay captured and perpendicular during the press:operation.
Help me out here, what's the advantage to pressing in frets as opposed to pounding them in with a dead blow? Awesome build here by the way. Makes me think of a trebuchet.
This is great! Reminds me of a Da Vinci type of machine/invention
OK... this is pretty great.