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I had the LMI power slotting rig for years, and liked it. But it went away when I built the cnc so I no longer had a need for it. The CNC is superior in every way except for speed for me, but I know there are ways to speed things up dramatically.
Your other options is to pay Andy Birko to cut them for you...

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Hey this has been some great input. Thanks everyone. I already have a UniSaw so I think I'll go that route which appears to be the recommendation of the vast majority. My first build that I am just now completing is a fretless bass so I haven't had to pursue this topic yet...but I've been infected with the lutherie bug and now have about 6 builds lined up in my mind, all of them with frets . Now if I could just get my adolescent boys to eat less food so I could spend more on ....

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Doug

Don't let fear or common sense stop you from trying to build something

Anyone tried one of these. I have access to one and have thought about trying one of the thinner kerfed blades. They have a .02 and a .025. Maybe the .025 and gluing in the frets. It seems like you wouldn't need a blade stablizer with such a small blade.
http://www.micromark.com/microlux-mini- ... ,7500.html

If you have access, sure, but what's the point of buying when you can get a DeWalt compact tablesaw AND the StewMac blade for less money and use sturdier blades, and build a stronger, sturdier slotting carriage?

EDIT: I was looking at the retail price. However, I still think larger sturdier lades will give a more accurate cut and last longer, and the larger saw will let you build a sturdier carriage.,

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I wish that I hadn't given away my Ryobi 8 1/4" radial arm saw. It would have been ideal for slotting fb's, and you could radius before slotting as well.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Some one just gave me one of those, at first she said radial arm saw and I said no way, but when I saw it, yes way, don't know about its accuracy, but it the size is just right.

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The other day I was bragging to Don that I slotted a fretboard in less than 5 minutes and he totally had me going that he did his in under 2.5!

I'm now considering a new 24krpm spindle for my cnc which should allow me to get down to about 3 or 4 minutes.

Don is spot on about the accuracy comment. It may not matter too much in the end but with cnc you're able to easily get within .002" or better with your slot positioning. Like I said, I don't know if that level of accuracy is necessary for a guitar to sound intonated but with all the other areas of fudging to get a guitar in tune, it's nice to know that your slots are right where they need to be.

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I have the SM kit, but I keep reading that the tablesaw method is faster.

So, over the course of a year, what would be the total number of hours saved by the average luthier using the tablesaw rather than the handsaw ?

I would estimate 5 to 7 minutes per board over my method. Only really becomes a significant factor if you are making a lot of boards. I doubt that your average Luthier will slot much more than 15 boards per year, so in that sense it's probably not worth buying a tablesaw just to slot fretboards. Of course hardly anyone does buy a table saw to use it for that sole purpose. If I wanted to save those 5 to 7 minutes I would do them using my Bandsaw.
I get within 0.2 mm (.008) accuracy , maybe the odd fret out a touch more. I've yet to hear one single complaint regarding intonation. . . touch wood.

hey I break a sweat too. I mud be outta shape as well. I use the stewmac system and saw and I find it a little laborious.

-sorry i suppose my rant was a bit unclear.. but yes, i'm using SM's Japanese fret saw with LMI's mitre box.

-i'd like a table saw, actually a band saw first, but until we move i live and work in an apartment.

it's interesting and as a standalone "fret slotter" could work. but for that price or a few bucks more one could buy a full sized machine and have more versatility imo.

I actually have one of these. I picked up a number of mini tools from an estate of a guy who was into building model ships. Got the whole lot which inlcuded a mini-lathe, the table saw, a mini-drum sander and a couple of other things. It was my intent to use the saw just for fretting, but hadn't gotten around to ordering the correct blade - it came with a 80 tooth blade (0.032 kerf) that is thin and really flexes bad in hardwoods. I was thinking I couuld use the mini-saw to cut bindings as well, but the thin blades may be a problem if you try to cut too deep, may be okay for fretting.

I've been using the SM blade and a sled in my very economical craftsman table saw (Craigslist - $150), and it works just fine. Just don't like having to change the blade out.

Here's the Bandsaw method:



Using a thin kerf blade. I first tried using a bandsaw to slot fretboards around 6 months ago. The test piece worked incredibly well. Unfortunately when it came to an actual Ebony fretboard it all went wrong. Between doing the test piece and the real fretboard I had swapped out blades. Even though i had replaced the correct blade it had moved position very slightly, enough to make half the fret positions inaccurate. With a bandsaw you can only do half of the frets because the pillar gets in the way, you have to flip the board. That's the moment where things can go wrong. The Blade has to line up absolutely perfectly with the indexing pin. Forget that little fact and it can all go horribly wrong, as it did for me. So I decided to have another go today. This time I pulled out the indexing pin and slid the carrier forward making sure that the blade entered the pre cut slot. That's when I glued the pin back into the slot.
The pin (actually just a piece of flat aluminium) engages into the slots of this homemade template:



Success!


You need a well set up Bandsaw and some method of acting as a depth stop (still not fully happy with my depth stop). If you try to force the wood too aggressively it will deflect the blade a touch resulting in out of square slots. Let the blade do the work and the cuts are as perfect as you will ever need them.
I guess that this method is just as fast as using a tablesaw but you obviously still need to take care and watch those fingers. In that respect it might be more dangerous than using a tablesaw, at least when it comes to cutting fret slots.

In other words, right now you don't use the mini saw for anything?

Man, that bandsaw method looks ROUGH and so unwieldy!

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Might look it but I haven't got a clue about ROUGH and unwieldy. You will have to elaborate.

Where I stole the idea (or perhaps another video) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz7mfvTbpKg

His looks a bit more engineered but mine works perfectly well, it's just as quick.

You might try their carbide toothed blade - it's supposed to work for hardwoods.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Interresting topic, I was about to ask the same thing myself.

A bit on the side, but does anyone know if LMI fretslot templates can be used with StewMac saw/mittre box and/or the other way around?
I like that LMI has more scales to offer than SM currently has, especially for short scale bass.

Best regards,
Tim