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So when I was building my current guitar I gently hammered in the fret wire from one side to the other and they looked fine. So I went to work on something else and when I came back, the ends of the frets had lifted about 1mm or more off of the fretboard. this makes it very uncomfortable to play no matter how much I file them round. I had initially tried clamping and super gluing the ends down, but due to the roundness on the back of the neck I am unable to get a good enough grip to hold them down. They are too stiff to press down with hands so that's out of the question. Any ideas?

Was the fretwire pre-radiused before you installed it. Also make a caul that matches the roundness of the neck so that you can clamp the frets down.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Did you lubricate the fret slots before hammering the frets in?
Fish glue works well, real slippy.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

New builders frequently spring the frets from over hammering (take the radius out of them) and when that happens a new fret needs to be installed that has not been beaten into submission.

Frets should be glued as well and some people will clamp and glue. The glue should be insurance and not a substitute for a well fit fret in terms of radius and slot vs. fret tang size.

Also is the instrument dry, are you humidifying your home and/or the guitar. Dry guitars with suspect fret work can have lifted frets.

What Hesh said --

Here's a procedure I've been using for years, two key elements cut the fret wire over size so the ends can be bent over a little and use a clamping caul to compress the fret wire at the ends prior to gluing. I've had good luck with thin CA as added insurance.

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/fret.html

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

The only thing that has ever worked for me is to remove the frets with lifting ends and start over again.

During the installation process...
Make sure you have pre-bent your fretwire into a little tighter radius than your fretboard. This is critical.
A fretwire bender was one of the first "guitar tools" I bought because I had trouble with fret ends sticking up when I tried to fret with straight frets into a radiused board. Bending them by hand kinda worked - but I ended up with a lot of frets with "kinks" and bumps that took work to level and crown.

Carefully check the fret slots to make sure there's no residual glue or finish in them
Trim the tangs on the frets if you are using a bound board

Then - during installation... Don't use a metal hammer. I switched to using a piece of pine wood to push in the frets rather than banging with a metal hammer. I found I had a lot less trouble with dinging the frets..

Start pressing in the middle and work your way to the ends. They generally go in pretty easy if you put a little white glue on the slot before the fret.

When you get to the ends - push the frets down into the slot rather than banging the frets into their slots.

I'm a gluer now too... Is that a word? In fact I make my slots nice an wide so that barely a tap sets the per-radiused fret home. I have used Fish glue and Tightbond. Each seems to be just as good as the other imho.

Over radius a bit and use glue. I am partial to hide. I just use the Franklin product for frets. Dries nice and hard. Lay it in the slot with a syringe and an 18G needle.

This assumes proper slot/wire match and insertion technique.

I actually think filling the fret slot with something affects tone. It seemed like my guitars sounded better with hide glue in the fret slots.

I actually made a crude video a few years ago that shows gluing in a fret. That's Sarah Jarosz in the background.

https://youtu.be/EY0Dn8EUMG8

If I am not using binding I fill the ends of the slots with appropriate sawdust and super glue after the ends are be beveled and smoothed.

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

Over-radiussing with nickel silver wire, but not with EVO where exact radius works better due to it being springy.
In my experience.

Thanks all for the help, some new fretwire is on order and I will be following with your help

I over- radius with all types of wire, with EVO only so the unseated fret is about 30 or 40 thou proud at the center. I press frets usually but sometimes use the plastic face on a small hammer.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I use an old 40 yr old plastic english hammer with lead shot , with fish or the thin kids washable white glue from walmart. For really thin mando or uke wire I prefer the arbor press from HF, and the Sm brass cauls. It/s tricky to seat the real thin wire.because .if you hit it with a hammer, there is a possibility of missing and whacking the FB instead, especially if it/s bound.

I use an old 40 yr old plastic english hammer with lead shot , with fish or the thin kids washable white glue from walmart. For really thin mando or uke wire I prefer the arbor press from HF, and the Sm brass cauls. It/s tricky to seat the real thin wire.because .if you hit it with a hammer, there is a possibility of missing and whacking the FB instead, especially if it/s bound.

Its probably a radius problem as others have said...

A trick i have had success with before is to use a paige style capo, without the rubber as a clamp... you can wick in a bit of CA glue and then clamp the capo directly on the top of the fret.

If you have one of the over-sized ones you can get about as far at the 10th fret with it.




FTL

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www.leddingtonguitars.com

I also over radius the frets quite a lot, hammer them gently and precise in, then clamp them all down with a special, bending jig, and then fill the slots with CA.
Lots of work, but nothing wotks better for me. I hate it when there is only the slightest gap between the frets and the board.....

Not saying that this is the problem in your case, but if you install frets long and than trim back after hammering in, you -really- need to be careful not to hit the fret past the edge of the fretboard. It will definitely cause lifting fret ends in a heartbeat,
Mike