Official Luthiers Forum!

from a re-fret point of view, bound boards I find much easier. Anything that avoids finish issues Is a blessing . getting metal flush with finish that might be .003" thick is hard to do fast enough to make money.

I guess I didn't make this very clear.
I find that gluing the binding on the fingerboard and doing a bit of glue cleanup takes very little time. It's cutting the frets and trimming back the tang the right amount that add time over just setting full-length frets.
If you are planning on filling with dust and CA, you have to trim back the tangs, so have not gained much time over a 'full' binding job.

I also didn't think about the Gibson (?) style binding which is added outside the frets and shaped to match the fret profiles.
I never 'got' that idea at all.

Cheers
John

John, have you seen the fret tang removal tool from LMI? It saves TONS of time. I picked one up at the GAL conference a couple years back and now wouldn't part with it for love or money. No messing around with tang trimming nibblers, just shove the fret wire into the hole to the depth you want (you can rig up a stop if you're ingenious), then have at it with a few strokes of a file and you're done. Easy peasy.

Cheers,
Dave F.

_________________
Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Dave-
Thanks for that tip about the LMI tool.

I think I saved myself about $110.50 (US) with mine, though!
(And, no waiting for delivery, either!)
Left thumb presses on the metal bar- right hand holds the file.
Cheers
John

Nice one John!!

Is that part of an old drawer slide?

Why didn't I think of doing it like this.....

Next time, before I buy a tool, I'm going to check with you first!

Cheers,
Dave F.

_________________
Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Thanks, Dave!
I just looked in the 'scrap metal' bucket and saw a length of 'shelf support' that did the trick.
That steel U-section comes in lengths and is commonly found here inside cupboards with adjustable shelves.
Any metal scrap would do the trick, I think.
I played around with 'nibblers' and 'nippers' and I thought the results still needed filing, so LMII is correct with the write-up on their tool.
Cheers
John