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Hello all,
I taped off my fretboard for finising. I used the 3M green tape. I taped off the face of the board to the fret edge. I used target em6000 gloss. I went through my entire process with the tape on. That is to say spray, level, cure, level, sand up to 3200 micro mesh, sand with white 3M scotch brite then put rennissance wax on it......feels great by the way!!!. Anyway, I too the tape off....pealing it off towards the center of the board as to not let it chip. Well it did not chip but it did have a raised edge. I did try to scratch it off with my finger nail and some of it chipped off. I sanded it with 400 to try to smooth the edge but there is still some areas where it wants to chip.

2 things.....1, next time is there a better way to do this and not have to deal with the edge? I guess I could of scored it with a razor prior to taking the tape off........and 2, what do you recommend I do with my project....sand with a lower grit?

Thanks of the info
Matthew

I'm no expert, but I recommend never picking at finish excess with your fingernail. You could probably have scraped it clean with a razor blade, without issue, and not had chipping. When you do scrape something like that hold the blade so it scrapes to the inside of the fingerboard.

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Mask the board so you're about 1/32" inside the edge, as Filippo mentioned. Thanks Todd.

What I do after buffing is use a fine cut file beveled to about 60* off vertical, so the file is lying more on the top of the board versus the side. Run the file along the lacquered edge gently till you remove the lacquer from the tape and it's pretty much at the edge by this point. then just sand the edge with 800 and hit the buffer again just to smooth it out.

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Thanks guys. I will try that next time.

I've done both, but can't decide which I prefer. I have a really good clamping caul when I glue the fretboard to the neck. I also pre-shape the neck to about 90% so any internal stresses are essentially gone when I glue the fretboard on, thus eliminating the potential for warping after carving the neck. So fretting before would still be simple.

I guess I just want the chance to level the board one last time before the frets go in. I've also chipped lacquer when fretting after finish from the end of the fret hitting the lacquer

Now with the frets in, I just ran the file along the edge of the frets to trim down the lacquer and then the tape. And finish the edge of the frets as usual.

I don't know, is there a best way to do this? Or actually a fool proof way to not chip lacquer at the fretboard edge?

Oh, that's the long answer to your question.

The short answer is... Yes

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson