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I recently bought the Michael Collins Slope Shoulder Dred plan. There is no reference to the fingerboard radius. Anyone out there know what it is? The other thing is I have not found a ready made fretboard for the scale length in this plan. I'm thinking of tooling up to cut my own fret slots. Which tools would be best for this process?

Thanks for the help

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Wisdom is justified by her children

Mark-
What's the scale length on that plan?
LMII and similar places will cut a bunch of different scale-length boards, and if you are just off by a fraction from the plan, you can adjust the dimensions a bit to compensate.
For slotting your own, I'd vote for a tablesaw and a fret-slotting blade (ShaneNeifer- HighMountainTonewoods) is one source.
Jigs are easily made. Templates can be made with Wfret or purchased.
Even if it means getting an older, small tablesaw from Craigslist or similar, I'd still go for this over hand-slotting the board. Though many folks hand-slot happily, I did a few (with LMI jig and saw) and found it was awkward.
A small tablesaw (with a Diablo 40T blade) has a lot to recommend it for 'finer work' anyway.
Cheers
John

The scale length is 24.75. I have a full size contractors saw that I could probably make work. The small saw blades I have seen I'm not sure if it will fit my 10 inch saw. I did not see the scale length available in StewMac or LMI. I will call them to check if they do a special order.

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Wisdom is justified by her children

Mark-If it were me, I'd be able to work with either the 24.625 or 24.9 boards available from LMII - just make sure that the soundhole and FB end location work out OK- 1/8" is not much difference in overall scale length, and at the fingerboard end, it will be even less difference than that.

I've used both the LMII and Shane Neifer's slotting blades and both will work on any 'normal' 10" saw. You only need a few mm of blade projection above the table. You will need blade stiffeners with those skinny blades, so add that to the budget.
The only problem I had was that a thicker blade stiffener pushed the saw blade on to the threaded section of the arbor on my older, small saw. This was not a problem with my contractor saw- a cheap Grizzly-type Chinese saw-, which has a wider smooth section on the arbor to handle dado blades.

Cheers
John

The radius of the fingerboard can be whatever you want. Since dreads are often considered a flatpicker's guitar, a smaller radius (12" to 16") may be in order, but it depends on the player's preference.
FWIW, I'd also go with a standard scale length. The differences are so small as to be negligible.
Joe

One of the things I like about this hobby is the details and skills you learn or improve with each guitar you build.

Joe- I have a 24.9 fretboard all set to go. I am going to try carving my own neck this time so like you said the scale length does not matter much.

It also makes financial sense also.

Thanks guys.

_________________
Wisdom is justified by her children