Recommend a fret saw for me

[Josiah Bartlett]

I've done electric guitars before but I've always purchased the neck. Now I'm doing an neck-through-body electric 6 string bass in walnut, and I need to fret about fretting. Is the Stewart MacDonald fret saw ok or should I look for something else? I plan to make the fret board radius on the flat side since my hands are huge and I'm very used to a 5 string bass.

Also, is there a good source for extra jumbo fret wire that isn't precut into short lengths?

What's your favorite method for jigging frets? I'm not going into production here, this is a one-off.

[John Coloccia]

Stew Mac's fret saw is as good as anyone else's. It's essentially a cheap "gents" saw with the blade turned around to cut on the pull stroke and the kerf adjusted to .023.

re: fretwire.
I'm not sure how big you're thinking, but LMII carries fretwire similar to Dunlop 6000s. The 6000s are the biggest that Dunlop makes. That's some BIG fretwire. Anyhow, you can buy it in 4' lengths or 100' coils.

re: fret jigs
Unless you intend on doing them on a tablesaw (and I can help you there), StewMac's setup is pretty reasonable. LMII's has got ball bearings but is a LOT more. I like have the depth stop on my fret saw. I don't think it's necessary with the jig but I use the fret saw freehand all the time to go back and cleanup the fret slots. Having the depth stop is very convenient, especially when you're working on a radiused fretboard.

Many people have also made fret slots with very careful layout and freehand sawing. Some use a square to gauge how perpendicular their blade is as they're cutting.

[Russell Sansom]

I have a Stew Mac .023" fret saw that cuts on the push. But there's no magic in fret saws. Find a gent's saw that's a little wider than your fret slots and simply file off some of the set until it cuts exactly the width you want. Any backsaw would work, I guess, but for some distant reason I've always used the gent's saw handle, so I have a small stable of those. I like "just about" zero set but for the following reason.
I make a cutoff box especially for a given saw and a given fretboard. If a great piece of rosewood or ebony is on the line I always want a freshly cut slot in the cutoff box anyway so there's almost no slop. I leave the fretboard blank square. Not tapered. If it's already tapered, I make a couple wedges and temporarily glue them to the sides so I end up with a rectangle. With a modest bit of board prep and taking great care laying out the slots, anyone can build a box in 15 or 20 minutes.
Done this way, the fret slots look as if cut by machine. I then shoot the fretboard to a taper, slightly wider than the neck to be trimmed down the last 1/16th after glueing up (leaving out here all the hassle of registering the fretboard on the neck so their center lines coincide). Theres a real danger of blowing out some of the groove end grain when shooting the taper. I've been able to avoid this by taking a very lightly cuts with the plane. I seem to remember filling them with cardboard once eons ago with a cranky maple fretboard, but it's a dim memory and I haven't done it since, so probably not necessary. I've only built a handful of radiused fretboards but in those cases I chased the fret slot around the radius freehand, making certain not to go too deeply at the edges. Nothing looks more amateurish than a fret slot that is way deeper than the fret that's trying to fill it.
This might seem like a lot of work, but compared to table saw jigs or freehand I find it faster and more easily-controlled.

[John Coloccia]

Russell: How old is your fret saw? I'm surprised that it cuts on the push stroke. This is a stupid question but are you sure? It's tough to tell at first glance because the teeth are so small. Anyhow, I'm not doubting you but I'm curious.

re: tapered fret boards
It drives me nuts that fretboard blanks come tapered, as if that's helping me. The very first thing I do it joint and square them when they get into my shop!

[george wilson]

I made my fret circular saw blade out of a 6" plywood blade. I ground it on the faceplate of my lathe with a toolpost grinder. It has tapers on both sides. I think the Stewmac has only 1 side tapered. I don't know if that might lead to drifting. I guess it works,but I prefer 2 tapers. In 1964,I used a hand held die grinder that you can still buy(takes 1/4" shank grinding points),and ground my blade in a Unisaw while it was running,without the throat plate in place. I tapered both sides of it,too,and used it for many,many years. I know that sounds dangerous,but I was only 22 at the time(not as safety conscious?),and had no problems. You might IF you ground all the way through the blade!!! Anyway,you couldn't get anything like that blade back then,and that is what I did. I had no machine tools back then. I still have it,but it isn't as pretty as my newer one,though it works the same.

I can make stuff like this since I have a machine shop,and also have been a toolmaker as well as instrument maker for many years.

[Bryan Morgan]

The Stew Mac saw is good, I have one and use it. The cheap little Japanese saw from Harbor Freight is also pretty nice and only costs about 10 bucks, same kerf, though it is flexible.

[Jack Briggs]

Miter boxes are for making picture frames. If you really want accuracy, get the power slotting saw setup from LMI. I have a dedicated Atlas table saw (early '40's all cast iron construction) with a sliding table and index pin. Using either LMI's or Stew-Mac's templates and the specially sized blade with 1/8" steel stiffeners (essential) I can get get slots much more accurately than with the miter box jig even with a pull-cutting hand saw.


Cheers,

[John Coloccia]

Miter boxes are for making picture frames. If you really want accuracy, get the power slotting saw setup from LMI. I have a dedicated Atlas table saw (early '40's all cast iron construction) with a sliding table and index pin. Using either LMI's or Stew-Mac's templates and the specially sized blade with 1/8" steel stiffeners (essential) I can get get slots much more accurately than with the miter box jig even with a pull-cutting hand saw.


Cheers,

Any chance of seeing a photo of your setup? In here somewhere, I posted my fret slotting concoction, which also lives on a dedicated table saw (no wings, no fence...it's basically useless to me for anything other than fret slotting).

edit: just for reference, here's mine. It's sort of a loose copy of Benedetto's setup
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?157009-Luthiers-post-your-favorite-jigs!

[Erik Jarvi]

The first time I saw (heh) this I thought Fret Saw. Amazingly expensive fret saw.

http://www.bridgecitytools.com/default/tools/jointmaker/jm-sw-jointmaker.html

[Roderick Gentry]

Cheap version of an Amazingly expensive fret saw:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOW_pP3b8iI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m44jBZeS1QM&NR=1

I have often used an Eclipse hacksaw, which is one of those mini hacksaws. There are chinese versions also.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002TYZMMQ/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3?pf_rd_p=103612307&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B002TYZMMG&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1NZCRF7TDPMEDP0ZBKNE

I find it cuts really well, it is nominally the correct size, but I open the kerf up a little with one of those little backsaws for which they sell those blades that are graduated in thous. I got mine from a luthiers supply, but they don't seen to sell them any more. However the blades are cheaply available from industrial supplies.

[Henry Smith]

Hello,
If a great piece of rosewood or ebony is on the line I always want a freshly cut slot in the cutoff box anyway so there's almost no slop. I leave the fretboard blank square. Not tapered. If it's already tapered, I make a couple wedges and temporarily glue them to the sides so I end up with a rectangle....!!!! :)