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Here is the latest Luthier Tips du Jour video - The topic is how to thw LMI Fret Tang Filer
This video as well as all my other videos are available via my website http://www.obrienguitars.com/videos/, LMI's website or on Youtube.
Enjoy!

Thanks for the video Robbie. That looks pretty slick although I don't think I would attempt the apparent precision you are implying by cutting the fret wires exactly to length and using a piece of binding as a spacer so that the exact amount of tang is removed. Does that really work? My approach would be to leave the wire a little long and sneak up the amount of tang to remove, install the fret and then trim to the edge of the fret board prior to filing etc.

Cheers,
Pat

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There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

I have this tool and I can't make it work as accurate as Robbie does in the video, ok I never even tried ... BUT it does work great and I do essentially what Pat suggests.. I'm very happy with it and the results I get.. used it on about 4 fretboards thus far..

Kerry

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My Website http://klw-strings.com
My Luthier's Blog...http://klwstrings.blogspot.com

Is it me or from the video it looks like it's not all filed off, leaving a little burr on the overhang, or is this adjustable?

That's what I thought too. Trick of the light maybe?

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Old growth, shmold growth!

If there is in fact a "little burr on the overhang" ( which quite frankly I cannot see ) would it not be possible to fine-tune the filing process by simply slipping a shim under the file? Or maybe adjusting the set screws?

Seems to me that this system has potential as an adjunct to the Stew Mac fret tang nipper, which doesn't always remove the body of the tang right down to the body of the fret crown.

The one thing I don't like about this setup is that it takes a radiused fret and pushes it flat to file it. I wish they could have used an angled setup so the file wouldn't flatten the fret so much. I've been using the StewMac/Collings nipper for years and quite frankly it takes a while and the occasionally mangled fret to file the residual tang away. So this could be helpful.

If you watch Robbie's video that is posted on the LMI site, he says that there are set screws under the file which must be first adjusted so that the file is just the right height to remove all the tang.

I am also thinking this could be better than the nipper I presently use. With the nipper, I always have to follow up with a few swipes of a file anyways. I do this kind of freehand and I'll bet it would be cleaner in the end using the LMI rig. Also with the nipper, I do get the odd mangled fret (I always do my frets from longest to shortest so the mangled ones can be re-trimmed for a shorter fret) and sometimes the nipper itself gets jammed with fret tang bits so I have to stop and poke around to un-jam it.

Pat

_________________
There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

It looks like the tang to me. The un-shrunk picture is even clearer, but I think that some adjustment would take care of that using a file with a more squared edge, most files are kinda rounded. Kinda makes me wonder how much fussing I really want to do with that though. My fret tang nippers followed up by a few swipes of a fine sharp cornered triangular file takes care of that very quickly per fret no problem even with stainless steel. I cut my frets fairly close to the edge and nip about a milimeter at a time.

Definitely a nice tool though, I'm sure it's not easy to do it perfectly for a quickie video and like most tools the more you fuss with it the better it can be.

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Old growth, shmold growth!