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Greetings all,
What do you do when your slots are too shallow? Deepen the slots with a Dremel, or grind a little off the bottom of the fret tang?
TIA

Can deepen them with a dremel and right dental burr, but go easy. Can use the saw blade. I know tapered probably, but can be done..

Not just tapered but bound and installed on a completed instrument. I pulled them and reprofiled the FB to give it more relief and lost the necessary clearance in the process. Them two way truss rods are starting to look pretty good...

I think you need to buy (or make) one of these saws...
Looks like just the thing.
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Special_tools_for:_Fretting/Refret_Saw.html

Pics of one in use at http://www.guitarspecialist.com/paulsimonguitars.htm




Cheers
John

That could do it. Sweet FB, is that one of yours?

No- not mine but by Jimmy Foster - I just picked up the image of the saw from Doug Proper's (well-known repair/setup guy) website.

John

+1 on the Stew Mac saw and the hooked xacto blade. works good.

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Rob

For 36 years I've sucessfully used a Dremel tool with a router base and a 3/32's collet for a #699 carbide dental burr.

_________________
"Try to be the person your dog thinks you are."

http://sites.google.com/site/bertsguitarshop/

In class, we found the dental bits worked well, but if they were new and sharp, they'd grab and fight you. A used bit tracked a lot better.

Mike

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Mike Lindstrom

Don't Zona-tools make a 0.023" hand saw? They should be available where Zona tools are sold. Worth checking locally.

I cut fret slots with a 0.010" saw blade and then draw a 0.023"saber-saw through to widen the slot.

Bob

Bert-
Thanks for that reference on the 699 burr. I looked for one online and found the specs.
The #699 burr is tapered (from .018 to .035") - can you still seat frets in the normal way (no glue/epoxy) after deepening the slot with one of these?

I have found that a .023 mill cutter is a very fragile thing- it might do better in a higher speed handpiece, but in my Dremel it was easy to snap, even with quite a light cut. I imagine that the #699 would be quite a bit better/tougher.

Cheers
John

I get used bits from my dentist.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

I try to make gradually deeper cuts because if you try to cut too deep the burr will also break. I sneak up on the proper depth. Also a bead of old glue will form on the burr and you must keep your eye on it and snap it off the bit with your fingernail on your thumb. Ocassionally you will have to use an exacto #11 to chip it off.

I never have to cut deep enough to get into the part that is .035. That said I always put three drops of cyanoacrylate (Zap, Hot Stuff, etc...) One at each end and one in the middle just for insurance. I keep a folded paper towell and wipe immediately. I clean up any glue stains using a single edge razor blade as a scraper.

Frets that have been glued are not that difficult to remove. I heat them with a soldering iron with a little solder on the tip to transfer the heat better. You can see the glue vaporize when it's time to break out your end nipper and get under the fret crown and walk the fret out starting at either end. If the guitar has plastic binding be careful not to overheat the ends.

_________________
"Try to be the person your dog thinks you are."

http://sites.google.com/site/bertsguitarshop/

Thanks, Bert.
Good tips.
A few days ago I converted a spare soldering gun into a fret heater- just a couple of thin brass rods (with concave filed tips) sticking out of the holes where the soldering tip used to attach. The fret completes the circuit and heats up quite effectively. As you said, watching for glue (or years of oil/gunk) to heat up tells you when the fret is hot enough to pull.

Cheers
John

Stanley knife blades are just the right thickness - you can re-grind them into a chisel shape on one end, and grind the other end to fit into a handle (dunno what the handles are called but they're the same ones you use for a razor saw). This setup up it also good for pulling out excess glue that gets in the slots on a bound fretboard.

Nice tip. I just measured some standard stanley utility knife blades and they are .0245". Cool!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"