Official Luthiers Forum!

I saw this on Jerame's Instagram a year ago and was interested.
StewMac is now the re-seller.
Anyone using it?

https://www.jedwardsguitars.com/store/p ... lfretpress

The bladed version can interface with "Channel Lock" press, drill press, arbor press and the SM F-Clamp press, using the blade receptacle or equivalent off the F-Clamp (Jaws II).

Interestingly enough, that Jaws II F-Clamp was ~$40 cheaper from SM on Ebay

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

I got one a while ago. It does do a better job than an radiused caul on pressing in frets tightly. I don’t have to go back over the frets with a hammer nearly as often to finally seat a fret. Given the wider base, it’s also easier to get it lined up with the fret than the radiused caul. When I first started using it, it slipped off the fret and made a dent in the fingerboard. I watch for that now and haven’t repeated the problem. I use my drill press for fretting. The price seemed high, but the device works.

I'm personally not a fan. I utilize the double hammer method now.

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https://www.instagram.com/fostinoguitars/
https://www.facebook.com/PuraVidaUkuleles/

We played with this idea and built prototypes much like this one ten years ago and what we ran into is the same problem that our friends who have tried this caul are reporting. It does not press the fret all the way home in one press over its entire length you have to use multiple presses and move the caul from side to side. It's uneven pressure over the entire fret is the problem and I disagree with Bob above our experience pressing frets, thousands of them is vastly different from his.

If you use the right caul from the right caul set that has appropriate fits for every slot we don't have to press a fret more than once and the issue of uneven pressure is solved by solid cauls because they are solid and exert pressure over their entire length.

One press is all we have to do and the fret is home. We never touch a hammer except for the odd, unusual location fret. We don't have to relocate the press and hit it two or more times and we can ensure the ends are down in one press by selecting a slightly tighter radius caul from our Andy Birko set that Dave helped design the choices of radius available.

We would have bought a couple of these in a heart beat if we did not have friends who are also professional luthiers who bought these telling us that they are not a one press caul.

We have prototypes much like this one from our time trying to make this work and in the end decided that a solid caul, for now until the uneven pressure and having to press multiple times problems are solved.

I give Edwards credit but we don't think this tool works as well as it could or as well as is implied by StewMac.

Wanted to reiterate that the whole point of pressing frets is that a hammer is not required. No longer can you "spring" a fret and have to toss it because of a hammer blow a bit too hard, etc. We receive tactile feel from our well maintained Jaws II presses which really helps too with understanding the level of back bow we may be imparting and what we may need to do to size the slots correctly.

So when I speak of a proper caul set I speak of the original John Watkins sets that have not been made for 15 years now and the newer Andy (Viva Ukraine) Birko sets that we lended a hand on determining the graduations with Andy. The StewMac set does not have nearly enough different cauls or the right graduations for things such as a compound radius where every other fret may be a slightly different radius and need a more precise caul.

Forgot to add here is one of our process and yet another reason why the Edwards caul is not suitable for how we work:

We lightly wax the entire board with Howards because we glue our frets in with a quality thin CA wicked in from one side after the fret is pressed AND held clamped in place with the fret pressing caul.

So I close the press and the fret moves into the slot. I tighten the Jaws II and visually inspect that the entire fret including the ends are down. I've already prepared the slots breaking the edge of the slot with a three corner file so that the filet of material where the tang meets the bottom of the fret has clearance and the fret can seat properly and all the way. This also helps reduce chipping during a refret someday.

If the fret is all the way down upon visual inspection with a pipette I run a bead of quality (Bob Smith) thin CA along side one side of the fret and you can usually see the glue instantly wick up the other side of the fret.

The press is in place all the while fully clamped and then I spritz it with accelerator and in a few seconds remove the press and move to the next slot.

You can't do this with the Edwards caul it does not cover the entire fret and especially the pesky ends that need extra attention to seat them.

This one inability alone, to use the caul as a clamp for fret gluing is a non-starter for us.

I'll add you also can't press and clamp a fret in place its entire length with a hammer.....

Confession.
I bought a Chinese knock off, which was very well made, and I fitted it with a blade for use with a Bessey clamp.
I can also use it in a drill press with a caul holder.
I've only used it on one FB, fretted off the guitar (I bed my tangs in fish glue, and relieve the edges of the slot edges with a triangular file) and it worked extremely well.
Yes, because of the design, the pressing "length" is less than the width of the fret, and it requires 2 pressings to seat a fret, but I didn't find it awkward to move the board over slightly for the second pressing.
I bought it to see how well it worked (I made my own multi radius pressing tool some 10 years ago) for multiscale FBs and multi radius FBs which both change radius along the length for the board, and would otherwise require either hammering or several different cauls
When I checked, the frets were perfectly seated and level, best fret job I've done TBH (I normally hammer frets in)

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Colin it looks like you got a good introduction to pressing vs. hammering frets and you had great results too.

We don't use a drill or arbor press we use the Jaws II and we also use it with other jigs so we can get to over the body frets and the frets in the heel area where you can't connect the press to the neck and must use a jig instead and register the lower part of the Jaws tool on the jig not the guitar.

So for you with a board in your press like you said you need only pull a lever and then move the board a bit and pull a lever again.

For us we have to keep a jig secured and in place, unscrew the Jaws II, move the tool, be sure the caul is over the fret again and then screw down the Jaws II again. A lot to keep track and it doubles the time it takes us to put frets in. We've also received reports that some wider necks need three pressing with the variable caul discussed here and certainly 5 and more string basses which we work on all of the time will need three presses and maybe more.

So there is a situation where if you press a fret in a tight slot and the caul only spans a percentage of the fret the fret could get "sprung" and lose its radius. When that happens the fret is basically ruined and you have to cut another one and start over. When a fret gets ruined the slot also gets needlessly chewed up and subsequent frets may not grab a damaged slot well.

All of our refrets are conversions to a compound radius as well so we have to change our cauls with our Andy Birko caul set half a dozen times or so as we move down the neck. So for us multiple pressings just make more work and cost us time and money.

Don't get me wrong this is a good idea and we pursued it and invested $$$ in making and designing prototypes. I have one in my head that uses hydraulics to equalize the pressing pressure over the entire span of the business end of the caul.... The compressibility of fluid and how it set equalizes was on my mind.

But this one and the ones we made prototypes of just didn't save any time or effort which defeated the purpose and with this one multiple presses is a value killer to us over what we do now. We do a couple refrets a week so when things don't work well we have to struggle with it far too often.

I just fretted another guitar this morning with the tool. Yes, I use a drill press, and yes, it takes multiple presses per fret. The tool doesn’t save me any time, but it helps me to do a better job. For a long time, I pressed frets with shopmade cauls of maple. I got tired of having to make new ones when the surface wore out and ordered the StewMac brass cauls. Those work, but centering the fret in my setup took a little effort, and sometimes I had to finish seating the fret with a hammer after the press. So, I was willing to try the Edwards caul. It’s an improvement for me but probably not worth the investment if you already have a working system. My next improvement will be some sort of adjustable neck holding jig for the drill press table.

I bought one and used it on two new fret jobs, neck on. Worked well 1-10 with jaws 1, Difficult for me with Jaws 2. I didn’t consider it a major game changer for neck on fret jobs. Did require pressing in three separate positions. I use bottled hide glue in the fret slots.

I’ll keep using it though. The ones I did required very little leveling.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

had to have it
went back to my hammer

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I read this at 4:46 AM and started laughing Yep I can relate John