Moore Bettah Ukuleles
Well-known member
This probably won't hold much interest to most of you but now and then I stumble upon little solutions that rock my world.
If you've ever done a bound fret board you know what a job it is to file all those little fret tangs so that the frets seat fully and properly with no little smiles on the fret ends. Stew mac sells a fret nipper which I never found to work very well. I've used files, rotary tools, sanding disks, belts, etc, and they all work to some degree but it's very time consuming.
The pictures are self explanatory and show what I came up with, adapting a home made Dremel base that served a former life as something I've long forgotten. The fret is inserted into the slot and slid toward the abrasive wheel. It's not only saving time but each tang is ground to precision, or at least as close as I've ever gotten. The only bad thing I've noticed is that that wheel started out as full size but after three fret boards as you can see it has worn quite a bit. I'm thinking it will probably grind enough tangs for about six boards. I guess I'll be buying those wheels in bulk.
Someone out there probably has an even easier and better way of doing this procedure but this is the best I've come up with yet.
If you've ever done a bound fret board you know what a job it is to file all those little fret tangs so that the frets seat fully and properly with no little smiles on the fret ends. Stew mac sells a fret nipper which I never found to work very well. I've used files, rotary tools, sanding disks, belts, etc, and they all work to some degree but it's very time consuming.
The pictures are self explanatory and show what I came up with, adapting a home made Dremel base that served a former life as something I've long forgotten. The fret is inserted into the slot and slid toward the abrasive wheel. It's not only saving time but each tang is ground to precision, or at least as close as I've ever gotten. The only bad thing I've noticed is that that wheel started out as full size but after three fret boards as you can see it has worn quite a bit. I'm thinking it will probably grind enough tangs for about six boards. I guess I'll be buying those wheels in bulk.
Someone out there probably has an even easier and better way of doing this procedure but this is the best I've come up with yet.
