Chuck Moore's tang nipper

Matt Clara

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I want to nip my tangs, and remembered that Chuck did his with a dremel at one time, so found his post on it and took a shot at it myself. Had to order some thicker cut off wheels, 'cause currently I'm just slitting the ends of the fretwire. The discs are bigger in diameter, too, which is why the recessed hole on the board appears oversized for the current cut off wheel. Mine uses the stewmac dremel plunge router base to hold the router, and it allows me to set the height where I want it. The base plate has a couple of threaded holes I was able to screw right into to hold it on, and then I added the c clamp to the other side for added stability. It works even with the slit, as I can easily remove the bottom half once it's been slit. Thanks for the idea, Chuck!

tang-nipper-01_PXL_20210425_050114440.jpgtang-nipper-02_PXL_20210425_050105397.jpg
 
Nice, however for the price of a dremel and a stewmac router base, you could just buy fret tang nippers.
 
Most folks already have a Dremel and a router base, need not be Stew-Mac, , so additional cost should only be a cut-off wheel, and those are pretty cheap. Fret tang nippers don't work all that well on small uke fretwire.
 
Matt, I use the reinforced cut-off wheels. They are bigger but more importantly thicker. The only improvement you might find
necessary in your jig is to use aluminum or brass guide plates for tangs. Otherwise you’ll wear that groove out pretty quickly. I’ve done 600 or 700 fret boards worth of wire and I’ve worn out a couple of pairs of guides. BTW, I couldn’t see cutting tangs any other way. Love mine.
 
Chuck,
For a long time I've used the edge of a knife sharpening belt sander to do the under cut. Takes some hand skill, but is extremely fast and clean cutting. I would like to try your jig though. Are those the Dremel wheels that say "fiberglas reinforced 1/32" thick"? Available locally or Amazon? Thanks, Bob
 
Matt, I use the reinforced cut-off wheels. They are bigger but more importantly thicker. The only improvement you might find
necessary in your jig is to use aluminum or brass guide plates for tangs. Otherwise you’ll wear that groove out pretty quickly. I’ve done 600 or 700 fret boards worth of wire and I’ve worn out a couple of pairs of guides. BTW, I couldn’t see cutting tangs any other way. Love mine.


Thanks for the tips, Chuck! Appreciate it.
 
I use StewMacs fret cutters to cut the the tangs off:

stewmac-fret-cutter.jpg

These are not ideal as it can ruin the edge on the cutting edges and it always leaves a bit behind that has to be ground off with a dremel grinding disk. What I need to buy are these:

stewmac-deluxe-fret-tang-nipper.jpg

But they cost $80!!! Sorry Jose, no sale.

Caution: If you do use a grinding wheel, be careful not to overheat the fret wire or it will discolor and ruin the piece. Also wear eye protection. I've had a red hot sliver shoot past my head and you do not want to catch one of these in your eye unless you want to look like a pirate for the rest of your life.
 
You don’t need an expensive Dremel...you can buy small inexpensive electric motors that are almost the same as the ones Dremel uses.
 
Caution: If you do use a grinding wheel, be careful not to overheat the fret wire or it will discolor and ruin the piece. Also wear eye protection. I've had a red hot sliver shoot past my head and you do not want to catch one of these in your eye unless you want to look like a pirate for the rest of your life.

Very good advice!
 
Chuck,
For a long time I've used the edge of a knife sharpening belt sander to do the under cut. Takes some hand skill, but is extremely fast and clean cutting. I would like to try your jig though. Are those the Dremel wheels that say "fiberglas reinforced 1/32" thick"? Available locally or Amazon? Thanks, Bob

Yeah, Bob, those are the ones. I order the 25 pack from Amazon. There
 
Nice, however for the price of a dremel and a stewmac router base, you could just buy fret tang nippers.
I have the older yellow nippers and the new ones Stewmac are selling now. I'm only using Stewmac's #147 wire and they always bend a little wiggly into the wire. While not a major issue, I do have to smooth them out after I install them. I've wasted a few ukes worth of wire with ones that bent a little too much. I've done a few projects with the #764 wire and the yellow ones worked great. I like the stop on the new ones, but I don't like that if I'm not careful, I'll pinch my hand with them again.

I bought the tap for the Dremel years ago to do this and even made an aluminum block for the base, but my procrastination has won out. Maybe this year?!
 
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