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I have picked up a small table top table saw that I want to use for fret slotting. I ordered the SM blade, and I have the LMI and OLF templates
Does anyone have pics of their slotting jigs? I am just looking for ideas

Thanks
Richard

Based on Sylvan Well's design. I've used if for over 5 years and it works great. LMI blade/stiffners, index pin, and template.
Terry

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Mine's pretty simple. I tape a Stewmac fret ruler and eyeball it with magnifying reading glasses. A little 220grit helps hold the fingerboard in place so it stays put. A piece of UHMW for the slider. The 2 critical things are getting no slop in the miter bar/runner and to make sure that your fence is exactly perpendicular to the runner.





It's also a good idea to make sure your design doesn't cause you to feel like any area in line with the blade is a natural place to put your hands. Mine could probably use better guarding around the blade.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

It's handy to be able to slot tapered boards, so a way to do that is something to consider, if building a jig.

Cheers
John

No need to press my location pin in, its controlled with a piece of elastic band.

Am I the only one who raises the blade and cuts the board all the way off at the 1st. fret when finish with the slotting?

I do. That's one nice thing about the LMI plastic template. You can raise it so it just scores the underside of the template and that score line tells you where the nut will be when you tape on your next board.
TJK

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I can see that as a plus. I have the StewMac. Just remove and line the slot up over the blade and with the sled cut slot, pull the sled back, raise blade and cut.

No photo but mines much the same. The only thing I did different is made a removable fence since slotting templates from different companies have different registration slot sizes. I think It's easier to remove a couple of screws and change fences than try to mess with a registration pin. I only own two templates so far but they both have different slots and neither is a Stew Mac.

Danny

Mine is based on a jig I saw in Sergei deJonge's shop.
It doesn't use templates, but copies from another slotted board.
The 'master' fingerboard and the blank are taped back-to-back.
The steel indexing plate is a tight slip fit in the jig, sandwiched between the two plywood blocks.
The jig basically screws to a spare miter guide for the saw.
(Note that the indexer and the blade are offset from each other.)
Sorry about the dull pic.
Cheers
John

Interesting but wouldn't it have been easier to just put the locating shim or feeler gage blade in the fence like a pin ?

Anyone still slotting by hand. Just could bring myself to spend the money for a tablesaw blade, so I got a fretting backsaw and now I need to build the miter box. Any samples???

Thanks
Dave

Chris-
I'm not sure I understand completely- do you mean to run the steel indexer through the fence?

If you think about the need to stablilize the indexing 'plate' (thin steel) from bending and wiggling, it seems that more support is better. Also, it is more effective to have the indexer engaged in a good length of the slot, and this design (not mine; I don't know if Sergei designed this, or whether it came from another shop) achieves that.

Also, this allows the indexer to 'adjust' for different thicknesses of master/blank boards, which is handy.

In practice, it does work well and is extremely positive in engagement with no slop. This contrasts with my experience with the LMI setup (pin and slots in template) which I used for a while in a hand-sawing setup.

And, it cost nothing, and took only about 5 minutes to build - my kind of jig!
I was lucky to find a piece of steel (transformer lamination) in my junk box that fits fret slots quite tightly.

You do have to keep a bit of a 'library' of slotted boards on hand, but even if you have to buy a few pre-slotted boards, they are cheaper than templates. (I don't worry about the 'instability' of wood fingerboards- my RH stays in the same range year-round.)
This design also is very useful when using printed paper templates, as the thin metal indexer is easier to line up accurately with the printed line than a nail/pin.

As they say, "It worked for me!".
Just an idea to throw into the mix.... it could come in handy when you need to make a new replacement board with an unusual scale length.

Cheers
John

John,
No, not through it. I was thinking that instead of having it mounted in the block the blade would be mounted in the fence at the back . I'm assuming the board is slid under the guide blade and thought it would be easier to just slide the board in if the blade was at the fence and at the edge of the board. Does that make sense?
You could also slot some polycarbonate or plexi if you need to use one of you fret board templates too.

Chris-
Yes- I understand, now. The pic is not that 'accurate'- in use the indexer is usually 'back' against the fence. I think in the pic I had a straight board blank and a tapered 'master', so the 'master' was not touching the fence. It is not that clear in the pic, sorry. I have to slot some boards in the next few days and I'll try to grab the camera and take a few shots.


Good idea- also for making some templates which were more stable dimensionally. I'm a bit 'paranoid' about ruining that expensive slotting blade, but I guess that plastic wouldn't be any harder on it than a FB which might have mineral inclusions, etc. Binding of the non-set teeth in plexi is a concern, too.

Something to think about.

Cheers
John