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I'm trying to decide on a fingerboard slotting setup - miter box type or table saw w/sliding carriage.

I'm sure the manual miter boxes from Stewmac & LMI would suit my needs since I'm not doing mass production but I could get one of the special thin circular saw blades & template to use with my table saw for less money except for the time to build the carriage.

If I go the table saw route, which blade do you like? The Stewmac blade doesn't require stabilizers but the thin blades from Shane or LMI are less money but need the stabilizers. Can these thin blades be re-sharpened?

Which way are you doing it & what do you like/dislike about it?

Thanks,
Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

If you have a table saw you would be wise to build a sled and by a blade. If you by one from Shane and have to by stabilisers you will likely use them else where. I just did a FB this weekend and it took me about 1/2 hour from the time I had it thicknessed to fret slots cut. Half that time was mostly bead scratching making I sure I wasn't going to screw up............. and I didn't

Danny

I use my table saw with the sliding carriage arrangement. I'm using the LMI plexiglas slot jigs and the stabilized blades.
I love the set up but it does require that you slot a FLAT fingerboard as the slotted side faces down, then do you radiusing after the slotting. A radiused fingerboard would have a tendency to rock, resulting in uneven fret slots.

Now that I have an old Delta (small) radial arm saw from a friend, if I had to do over I'd set up with that (as a dedicated unit) so I could use either a flat or radiused board, depending on the situation and see my slots being cut. But, the current system is perfectly fine and I've slotted several hundred boards that way.

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Hank Mauel

Kevin: Years ago I made up a jig to do it by hand. FF a few years and LMI appeared on the scene and it's been them ever since.
Tom

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

I use e-fret and one of Shane's blades on my radial arm saw. Works fine. I've thought about getting a template, which would be easy to set up, but this is easy too.

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Waddy

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Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I Use the stewmac blade , lmi template , and a sled on my table saw , easy to do , then I built the fretboard radius jig from Todd Stock plans , makes the whole process easy and repeatable.

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Thanks for the replies. I never thought about a radial arm saw. That would give you more flexibility when dealing with radiused fingerboards.

What's e-fret?

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

I use the LMI system.

I have the miter box and template from LMI.
Actually I had it for over a year, but today I used it for the very first time. Couldn't be happier: Very easy to set up, fool proof to use and exellent results.
to LMI.

Stew Mac blade and template on table saw with sled.

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I use the StewMac table saw blade and the StewMac martin template. I made my own cross cut slide for my table saw out of scrap wood and aluminum miter bars. The half moon chunk out of the board doesn't do anything. It was just in the scrap board that was the size I needed.

used to use the miterbox setup from Stew Mac. 8 boards with that and I just picked up the SM blade for the table saw. I found the hand setup would bind, making it very tough to move the saw. Ended up with blisters every time! I didn't have a tablesaw at the time so I made it work, but I don't see myself using it again if I can avoid it.

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Rob

I used to use the LMI miter box setup, used it for years.
Now I have the Stew-mac saw blade and a table saw. I made a carriage for the table saw that uses the pin from the miter box and works with the LMI templates. It has two pin levels, one for 1/4 fretboards, and one for one-piece necks.
The fret slots are more even and consistent in width now.
With thte miter box arrangement, even when the slot was held as rigid as it could be and still saw, sometimes the slots would be a hair wider on one end or the other, just a little, barely noticeable, but there.
Plus it's so much easier! I'm never going back, if i can help it.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Wow! I'm a caveman it seems. I use a hand fret saw. I experiment with different scale lengths and do fan frets...Since I only do 5-7 guitars a year....I just spend a little more time and do it by hand.

Old man and old fashioned.

Kent

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Here's my setup. I think I copied Benedetto's setup though I'm not sure right now if that's where I saw it. The one I saw had a flat fingerboard as a template, and the template was basically fixed, I think. All I did was figure a way to do the same thing with the StewMac (or whoever's) templates and make it adjustable using what I think is a Kreg fence if I remember correctly.

Anyhow, here's what it looks like.





When I set it up, I make sure that the template is riding against the "fence". The fence is parallel to the front of the jig, and the front of the jig is square to the blade. Somewhere in there is the little pin the StewMac fret templates come with. I have some custom scale lengths I need to make coming up, so I will add an additional feeler gauge in there somewhere to accommodate my custom template. The feeler gauge will be some convenient width to accommodate my fret slotting saw.... .023" maybe? That was another great idea I'm shamefully copying from someone though I can't remember who at the moment (I've stolen so many great ideas from you guys, it's hard to keep track!).



Maybe overkill but it's pretty solid. Key that I found is having a good insert that is dead level with the rest of the tablesaw, and I usually put a piece of wood on top of the fingerboard to keep it weighted down and my fingers out of the way. I get nutty and calculate the sagitta of my FB radius at the widest part of the fingerboard so I know exactly how deep I need to go, but that's probably just a leftover remnant of my engineering past (I made a spread sheet for a bunch of neck calculations....LOL...how positively un-craftsman like!).

Anyhow, I'm just a fledgling but this is working for me at the moment, and I'm fortunate that I happen to have an old Delta contractor saw here that has no wings or fences so it's pretty useless for anything but this kind of work anyway. The other 99% of the time it has a little plywood top on it and serves as a nice sanding/routing station.

e-fret is a program that will plot fret positions for you. Then you can print them and use the printout to cut the frets. Sorry, I don't know right offhand where to get the program.

Joe

I cut a fingerboard with my LMI miter/template two nights ago. Start to finish it took me about half a CD, one cup of tea and two cookies. A very pleasant and satisfying experience. If I made fingerboards in batches, I'd do some kind of table saw set up. I just make them one at a time, so cutting by hand works fine for me.

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George :-)

Mine is old school also since I only build a few instruments a year. Just a miter box and a Japanese saw that I had that happened to have a .023" kerf. The block on the back of the saw accommodates a taper in the saw back and allows me to dial the block in parallel to the saw blade (setscrew on block). The cap screws on the fixture allow me to dial in the depth of cut ala the LMI fixture. A home made 1/8" ply scale length template completes the package. Since I'm currently not working, most of my tools and gigs are handmade. Works great and doesn't take long at all.

Waddy,

Do you simply glue the printed out scale to the fretboard and saw right through it? Somehow it seems to simple to me, so I apologize in advance if I am coming across as dull. LOL
What a great idea! I would think this could also work for fan frets as well since the RA saw could be adjusted for the angle of each fret, no? Thanks in advance for the clarification.

Tony

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PMoMC

Sweet setup Phillipo, bet it takes you 10 minutes to do a board!
Questions:
1.) What are the "Lining Guide" pin and reference marks used for?
2.) What is the purpose of the clear plexiglass mounted on the far side of the jig?

Thanks for posting!

Rob

I use the LMI fret slotting system. I bought a Stew-Mac blade but haven't had the time to put it on the table saw and make a sled for it yet.

Hutch

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"After forty-nine years of violin building, I have decided that the search for a varnish is similar to the fox hunt. The fun is in the hunt."
Jack Batts Maker and Repairer of Fine Violins

I saw a jig sold in many hardware stores in Germany. It's a hacksaw looking device that is fixed into a miter jig, which works just like a miter saw except it works by hand. I think such a device would be great for slotting frets by hand, and also for making 13 degree cuts.

They're about 60 euros each new, probably less if it's used.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

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I if am using a board from my stash, I use a dozuki with a block of wood as a guide to keep it square.

If I am buying the board from LMI, I use the super deluxe LMI system - I have them slot it !

-jd

Got it, thanks!!!