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Anyone ever use a multicarver for compound fretboard radius? I recently acquired one to carve mando plates and have made a fretboard template for it.
Justin

I don't think it would be accurate enough to carve compound ,or straight radius fingerboards. Grizzly sells a belt sander with an attachment that sands radii into fingerboards. You could probably buy the sander and make up an attachment. personally,I just hand plane my fingerboard radii. Not that hard to do.

Justin,
Which multicarver did you get? I have looked at them, but never got serious about buying one. Most of them are a bit pricey. I don't use the compound boards so I don't think it would pay for me to buy one. However, carving mando tops and backs might be worth it. Have you carved any plates yet? If so, how does it work?
Mike R.

I got the 1020. I bought it from Buddy Blaze for $600. Tough to pass up at that price.....

I didn't know what a multicarver was until I googled it. I don't see why it wouldn't work for radiusing a fingerboard. You may need to touch it up a little but that's necessary with almost any method.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

I have not tried yet. I think it is possible as long as the base of the machine is absolutely flat without any twist. I would try using a scrap piece of granite countertop on the base (needs to be secured) with the template and piece to be cut double face taped to it. I use my homebuilt duplicarver for my logo inlay and binding, but have not used it to it fullest potential yet. Below is a pic of my homebuilt with the binding head on, simple but requires welding.

Chuck

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I went ahead and took an existing board that Bob Garrish made for me and used it as a template to make a dedicated ebony template for the carver. It came out pretty good. Next up, an actual slotted and profiled fretboard....
Justin

Justin, was the fingerboard you used for a template already slotted? And if it was, did the slots cause any deformation?

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The board was pre slotted. I used a 1/4" spiral upcut bit and 1/4" stylus so the fret slots had no effect on the router at all...

incidentally, I took several small passes and the end result looked much like a cnc'd board. a few passes with a sanding block and it's perfect. I wouldn't buy a multicarver just for this purpose, but since I had it, it's saved me the trouble of building a compound radius jig (which I was planning to do...)