Fretboard slotting miter box alternative

Found this miter box with depth stop on Amazon.com. I've not tried it, but it looks to be a viable alternative to StewMac's $75 miter box or LMI's $160 one. Neither of those come with a saw, either. The blade on the saw in the amazon.com miter box would likely need to be ground down to get the right thickness kerf. A bonus would be its ability to be used cutting things other than slots in fretboards.

Yep - my first fret cutting tool was one of these modified. I had the blades ground to .024" and then put them in the saw backwards - without any set you will only be able to pull this saw through the wood. You made a depth stop by creating a sleeve that drops over the guide rods and rests below the saw cradle.

I bought the blade for my table saw that has a .22 kerf. With it I'm able to just tape the fret rule on the back of the fingerboard so there is no error in tranfer marks to the cut. Come out production etched every time. In this photo I'm slotting a finger board for a mandolin:

And someday I'll buy a table saw...

I've got one of those, but I use it for general woodworking. Not Fretboards. The depth adjustment isn't very good. By the time you bought it and had the blade ground down, it might be better to get a fretsaw and miter box from SM or LMII.
Doug

I built a very accurate and dependable miter for cheap. I took a block of walnut, of course you could use any wood, and sawed it in half. Checked the halves to make sure they were square. Then I attached two pieces of clear plastic which i can adjust up and down to control depth of cut. Screwed the two pieces together with my saw blade in between to hold it tight and oiled the blade to let it glide easier. Put a couple of strips on the bottom to hold the fingerboard at right angles to the blocks. The clear plastic guide was made on my neighbor's mill but is similar to what you would get from LMI. Tape the fingerboard to the guide with double sided scotch tape and you are ready to saw. Slide the guide pin into the notch, saw the slot, move on to the next slot. (In the pictures Ihave the guide ontop of the fretboard. Of course when you actually use it the guide goes on the bottom.) The clamp is holding a piece with the guide pin. This way It is easyto adjust for the thickness ofthe fingerboard.

I never had any luck using a saw like the one in the link. But I never used one expensive enough, I was cheap in my younger days. But I still think it would be to heavy and awkward for fret slots even if you were to buy a good one.

Matt, we have a miter saw that looks exactly like that - it may not be the same model, but the block, cradle, etc. look the same. Anyway, guess which saw is in the back on the bottom shelf? I've never even considered using it for fret slotting - our fret saw with depth stop is now the standard for (most) slotting jobs.