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I guess you could call this the "pro" version of what Brad is doing. Brad has already answered most of the questions, so I think the pics are self explanatory.









The brass shoe is curved to the same radius as coiled fret wire and can slide in as the discs wear. Two cut-off discs are required to take all the tang off. In normal use the fret wire just slides in the slot and the brass part remains fixed. Works great for stainless steel fret wire, but as Brad says, it gets hot.

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

Should have known Trevor would have invented the Rolls Royce version. . Very nice. Form following function.

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Brad Hall
Mystic Dawg Guitars

Trevor, is your jig a 2 piece unit? It looks like the base is locked into the router base. If true is there a set screw that allows you to slide the shoe in as the cutoff disks wear? I have too many corded routers to (as yet) justify a cordless one. Your set up temps me to bite the bullet and get one.

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Brad Hall
Mystic Dawg Guitars

If you need more motivation for getting a battery powered router, I have been loving this setup. No cord tangling and stops on a dime.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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Nice. I’m feeling so 2020.

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Brad Hall
Mystic Dawg Guitars

What holds the brass shoe in place?

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

The base is just one of the standard DeWalt bases. I started with a wooden sub-base bolted to the router screw-base, but decided to ditch that and just routed a tight slot direct into the perspex sub-base, which means the sub-base can be used as normal, if you want, and you don't have to mess with fitting a separate sub-base. The brass shoe is a piece of the brass bolt bar I use on my bolt-on, bolt off neck design (details of that in the book). The brass shoe is a tight friction fit in the slot in the perspex, no fixings required. Double sided tape on the bottom of the shoe would be enough if the shoe was a loose fit in the slot. The wheels seem to wear slowly enough that I can do all the frets on one guitar without shifting the shoe. The collet is a Precise Bits 1/8" collet. Use a decent mandrel and cut-off discs, as the knock-offs tend to have a lot of run-out.

The battery router is a very nice tool, but I could swap this straight over to one of my 611's (all accessories are interchangeable) and it would work just the same, though you'd probably need to hold the assembly in a vise. The battery tool is smooth enough just to sit there on the bench and is quite a bit quieter than a mains powered one.

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

We still use the original Stew Mac fret tang nippers and they work fine for us including with big arse, jumbo stainless or small Mando wire.

Our's have been disassembled and the tables have been flattened and polished to a shine and the cutter has been sharpened and the bevel also polished just as one would with a chisel. From time to time, maybe every couple of years we resharpen.

I'm approaching 65 and have some hand strength issues so it's not easy for me to cut stainless with my tang nippers but they do it without much or any mangling.

Additionally once the segment of the tang I want removed has been removed the remaining tang may have been slightly curled and can be easily straightened in two seconds with pliers. Also the stump left from where we cut the tang I invert each fret, set the crown on my vice (leather padded) and hit that stub with a 1/2 round file until it's gone, 4 - 6 strokes.

We've done hundreds of refrets with the original Stew Mac nippers which IIRC were made from a Radio Schack offering. Not sure on this but I remember something about it from the past.

Just checked the Stew Mac site, first time I've been there in a couple of years.... and they no longer sell what we use and have and like. Oh well.

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Ann Arbor Guitars