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neck fretted and how not to do it!

finally got the nerve to fret the neck and ran out of glue half way through. so i got some more glue today i am using Loctite Gel Control in a silver bottle with blue side grips. worth the $5.80 AUD it cost. the other glues i tried either took too long to set or soaked into the wood and didnt stick to the frets.

The frets are made from a Champion branded split pins 7/64 x 50 mm. even though we have been metric since the early 70's there are still some weird combinations around still...

2 mistakes i made. first dont cut the frets until you have sanded the neck! i initally cut the frets too long and had to nip about 3mm off and then round them with a file. i used the square in the picture to keep the frets square.. mistake 2 was starting at the nut end. if i had put any thought into it i would have realised that the frets were too close together to use the square at the bridge end....the other frets get in the way!!

would i do this again for frets? maybe but i would take more time and get the fret lengths even. the trouble with the split pins is the metal is quite hard. it took me one night of work to cut and dress the ends of 20 frets. they turned out slightly different sizes and i didnt get all the frets even from side to side.

still i am pretty impressed with my first try.

the box is cut for the neck, but changed my mind about using a piezo pickup. will attempt to engineer my own CBG Nation Collaborative Induction Pickup. as soon as the parts arrive from ebay ...

got to fix the neck to the box next,leaving the top unglued for pickup testing.

then i have to stop procrastinating and fix the amp i am halfway through rebuilding. got to play it through something...

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Comment by Southern Ray on March 27, 2021 at 12:18pm: How'd your "CBG Nation Collaborative Induction Pickup" turn out? I made one a couple of years ago, it was pretty cool, but I drifted off to building wall-wart wired, low-z wood bobbin, hardwood sheathed scatterwounds.instead. May try the Nation's induction pickup again soon.

Comment by smilingdog1 on February 15, 2017 at 2:35pm: I've listened to this debate glue/no glue for years and really it is a matter of personal preference. I personally do both but most of the time because of the soft wood fret boards and aggressive fret dressing I do, I choose to glue mine. I don't spend but a few minutes to fret a 22 fret board. It is well sanded and I seal the grains with danish oil before frets are laid.The oil prevents the glue from overrun and discoloration. Where I spend the time is in dressing the frets to where they are supper smooth compared to most necks. Awesome to feel and easy on the fingers. I could never work them with a file and buff them if they were unglued.

Comment by Moritz Voegeli on February 15, 2017 at 1:19am: Timothy hi, don't let impress you from the photos of the workshops of other CBN members, to build just some CBGs there's no real need for power tools. For me the real power tools are these:

1. if you work with scrap wood for necks you have to saw it lengthwise along the fibres which is a pain with a normal cross cut saw, saws for length cut have different teeth: check if you can find one.

2. fretting a neck is simple and fast with the correct type of saw, with around 0.55mm for blade with equal kerf, with its teeth in line without bending one to left one to right.

Comment by Timothy Hunter on February 14, 2017 at 10:21pm: the lid has warped a little in one corner so i was going to add a little hotmelt to get it to sit down and also to stop any buzzing from the lid.

not going to glue the lid to the box. was after midnight last night when i wrote that so sorry if i mislead into thinking that. i have to cut some support blocks for between the neck and the box bottom. will glue those to the neck and then screw the bottom of the box to those blocks as well as through the side. i have the neck cutouts quite snug so i shouldnt get any buzz from there.

just thought would it be better to glue the support blocks to the box then just screw the neck to the blocks?

Moritz, i didnt want to invest too much money into this at first so i took the easy way to fret( or so i thought). next time i will use proper frets. trouble i only have a few hand tools the only power tool i have is a drill.

Comment by Shawn on February 14, 2017 at 8:54pm: No Glue neck to box you'll be sorry. Screw it that way you can fix mistake #13

Comment by Moritz Voegeli on February 14, 2017 at 10:00am: Timothy, I suppose for the money you spend for glue and split pins you could get real fret wire, for the 20+ necks I fretted I hadn't to use even a drop of glue. By the way: why do you want to glue the top to the box?

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