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I purchase my fingerboards from LMI - and I have them service them for me - which means radiusing and slotting them.

I'm looking for a good/quick/repeatable way to taper the fingerboards. I don't have a table saw, but have a 12" Craftsman (newer) band saw.

When I tried making a jig for my router setup, straight cut bit and bearing, I had problems with chipping of wood on the fret slots.

I tried cutting the taper on my band saw - but my cut was less than straight, which required a lot of work to get the fingerboard to the point where I could bind it.

I'd love to hear/see ideas on how to do this better/easier.

Thanks

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P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

Paul,
Time to get a table saw. Then you can make a sled to do this easily.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

yep! Can't get any better than a good table saw....

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

Paul: I just cut mine on a band saw and true up with a long handplane or on the jointer. Be careful of grain direction and in most cases plane from large to small.Use a bevel protractor to make sure slots are perpendicular to centre line of board. Lots of folks use a jig on the table saw. The same jig could be used on bandsaw and again clean up with hand or power tool.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Some of you guys type fast. Thought I was first in line....!!!
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Steve, Can you show us a picture of your table saw jig?

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

I did it essentially like Filippo and Tom… I marked the taper using a white pencil, free hand cut to within about 1/8 inch on the bandsaw, hand planed down to outside edge of the lines with a No. 4 and made the final few passes with a No. 7. It came out perfect.

Joe

Paul,

I made a tapered jig to cut close to shape on my bandsaw, then I run it down my router table with a straight cut bit a few times to get it straight and smooth.

Chris.

Bandsaw rough and take it down on the old 6 X 89" belt sander...bout half a minute.

Bandsaw and a handplane here too.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Another bandsaw and handplane here

Bandsaw and 6X30 edge sander. Does bass fretboards as well, no chipout or chance of chipout ever. Perfectly smooth and perpendicular edge ready for binding, with no chance of accidentally planing the side facet off 90 degrees. Fast, easy, and extra-fine control over where the edge is.

If I WERE to use a handplane, I'd go sideways on a shooting board as if I were jointing a top.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Sure. I copied it from several others. The sled rides on the slot to the left of the blade.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

very cool jig. I like the simplicity. I used one of those cheap aluminum ones and if I recall correctly made a bad cut which forced me to improvise with edge binding. I think one like yours would work better.

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"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

i like the router method, do the work once to make a template and then you dont have to worry about it again.

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~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/

My table saw jig is even more simple. It is about 10"X36"X3/4" (36" because I want to build an accoustic bass one day) plywood sheet with 2 staco clamps. The taper is layed out on the fretboard and lined up with the edge of the sled. The clamps are thrown, the rip fence set to 10" for the first pass. Clamps are released, the other side lined up on the sled edge for the second pass. The edges are (provided you used a good blade) ready for binding, or to be glue to the neck, or fretted, depending on your methods.

Danny R. Little

I don't have a standard taper. I measure the amount hanging over the edge for the taper, and set the fence for the width.

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

Ditto. I make templates from clear acrylic on my laser engraver, then route the slotted fingerboards using a 1/2" pattern bit in my router table. If you are getting chip-outs, then you're probably using too small a pattern bit (1/4" maybe?) and/or you aren't running the router rotational speed fast enough. I set mine to max (30,000 rpm). Smooth as butta with absolutely no chip-outs! Watch yer fingers though!!

Cheers,
Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

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

A dozen or so beers, a squint, and a good hard whack with a broad axe for me...Haven't actually cut a good one yet but the tonewood vendors all reckon I'm a great bloke..



OK... bandsaw close, and then finish with a hand plane. If the wood is looking nasty just shy of the line the job gets finished against the table saw fence with a sanding board clamped to the table.

Cheers

Kim

When you get your tablesaw go to Sylvan Well's website and read his tutorial. Simple, accurate, and guarantees symmetry.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

That would be a lot of templates.
6 scale lengths, with and with out binding, 2 1/8, 2 1/4, 2 3/8 spacing at bridge and 1 11/16, 1 3/4, 1 13/16, 1 7/8 at nut.
It takes me about 5 minutes to lay out and cut each board.
The router also makes a lot more mess and noise.
YMMV

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Bandsaw to get close then to the granite plate held against a fence for me. Fast and effective.

NICE Jig!!!
Can I ask what blade your using and what using on the bottom of the sled to make it track?
Cheers