Another day, another...

Another not much, actually.

Yesterday I laid out the fret lines on my fret board.  I printed out a 20 fret scale from StewMac's calculator and laid the frets out in mm using a tape I bought from Duckworks for my boat project.  Measured from the nut.

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Then I measured from fret to fret as a backup check.

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Went back and forth two or three times, measuring and checking, until I was reasonably happy with it.

I decided that I needed a miter saw to get as perfectly square as I could.  I've got a power miter saw, but of course it makes a kerf an eighth of an inch wide with its carbide tipped blade, and the circular blade wouldn't work anyway.  Wednesday nights I jam with a couple guys - play keyboard, not all that well but enthusiastically - so I left a little early and stopped by Lowe's and bought a fairly high-end manual miter saw.  Bad idea.

You've got to put everything together, you know.  You can't just take things out of the box and use them.  That's where part of today went, assembling the miter box.

Sawed two fret kerfs.  Way too wide.  Grim.

So I scratched around in my stuff and checked my saw collection.  I picked out a little Stanley imitation Japanese pull saw.  It looked pretty good.

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I figured out a little jig to clamp the fret board square to a steel rule and cut along the edge of the steel rule.

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The last three things I did today were:  

  • Lay out a new fret board in case I can't save this one
  • Fill the oversized fret slots in this board with sanding dust and glue in the hopes that it will allow me to salvage this board, and 
  • Take the blasted manual miter saw back apart so I can take it back to Lowe's tomorrow on my way into Kansas City to the VA Hospital.

I did spend some time in the evening sitting in the back yard with my neck, a file, and a 22 rifle, prettying up the neck while I hoped the varmint that's been eating my wife's ducks would show up and volunteer for target practice, but it was not to be.  Made a little progress on the neck, though.

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Comments

  • Yeah, I may have to epoxy 'em.  I haven't yet, and they're looking ok, but epoxy is a stock item around here.  I've been known to build a boat or two.

    I didn't so much try to glue them in with the sawdust & wood glue as make a filler, let it harden, saw a new kerf, and put the fret in.  So far it's looking ok.

  • When you install your frets, make sure to glue in the ones with the wide kerf using epoxy. Wood glue and sawdust won't hold 'em.
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