If you're interested, what wears down your diamond grinders is the stainless steel frets. When it gets hot, the diamond disolves in the steel (making it essentially carbon steel), up to the point that you get a flat surface on your bit. As a machinist's rule of thumb, diamond on stone, glass and ceramics; on steel and hard metals, always use carbide.
Diamond on steel is a bad combo. I would add aluminum to the list of things diamonds are good at cutting. We use diamond on aluminum at work and it is awesome! Run it nice and hard though...
Using some type of coolant while cutting also helps a great deal to keep the heat down. Especially with stainless steel which is much harder to work with as we all know.
This technique saves soooooo much time. I spent 2 hours just dressing the fret ends to a "semi-hemispherical fret end" and they didnt come out anywhere near as good as the frets I did with this technique. Took me all of 25 minutes to cut the frets to length, nip the tang(with nippers from eBay), then shape the ends and press them in. Absolutely incredible I cant thank you enough!
This is exactly the way I do my hemispherical fret ends and my customers love them! Been doing it this way for years (Since shortly after the Dremel and the abraisive discs were produced)... I guess we both think outside the box on designing easy ways to achieve consistently great results! I like your tang nipper attachment...I just use the fret puller to nip the tang, then hit the remaining tang (That was left) with a cut off wheel on a second Dremel... Very fast and clean.
I love the results of the rounded ends, but getting the fret wire EXACTLY the right length is very hard in my opinion. The one is this video overhangs the edge of the board, as a lot of mine are doing.The problem with nipping up to the edge of the board with radiused wire is that it elongates when pressed in the slot and then you end up with overhang. How do you negate this if you don't mind me asking Randy?
I know I’m late, but do you have any tips on getting a good ridge into the silicone wheel? I can’t get mine to be symmetrical enough to make the fret ends look good. Hopefully someone sees this 😅
The intelligence of your approach combined with your willingness to share causes me to shout a big THANK YOU! I will be doing my next fretting with your hemispherical technique. If and when I learn something new you can be sure I'll pass it along. Thanks again, and happy luthiery!
Good morning. I just want to thank you cause I recently started manufacturing my own guitars and I’ve learned so much from watching you work. I really appreciate it. You’re the man!!! Have a great day.
I have a technique for doing Hemispherical Fret Ends when you're working on a Guitar with the Frets already installed. I use an Ultimate Fret End File from FretGuru. It's a square Grobet File with the bottom ground level and polished. The nose is rounded and polished also. It cuts on the left and right side. This allows you to get right down to the point where the Frets meet the Fretboard. Great for creating Binding Nibs. Starting at the bottom of the Fret go up and over 2 strokes on the left side of the Fret and 2 strokes on the right side knocking the corner of the Fret Bevel just a bit. Then I use 3M Polishing Paper. I get mine, the assortment pack, from Rio Grande Jewelry Supply because you get 2 full size 9"× 11' sheets (12 total) of 6 different grits for the same price everyone else charges for one sheet. I use the 3M Polishing Paper holding it at approximately 35° - 45° I run up and down the Fretboard about 8 to 10 strokes working my way through the grits. This is the easiest and quickest way I've found. God Bless!! Jimmy in NC....
Made a Jig for removing the fret tang. Took 1/2 hour and glue is drying. Cant wait to try it. Even if I want to finish the frets with files it will still be nice not having to file off the tang! Thanks for sharing!!
Ingenious. Reminds me of how I made a custom bullet truss rod nut by putting a brass standoff in a drill so I could spin it against a grinding wheel to create that bullet shape. Worked perfectly.
Thank you so much for this video... it takes a tedium that I don't particularly enjoy (tanging fret ends with nippers and filing them smooth) and replaces it with a joy of making / using jigs in my woodshop. Plus you can't argue the results... BTW, that's a gorgeous fretboard.
Look up the A576 attachment. You can make a jig out of that attachment that works just like the jig Chris has. It's great because it telescopes up and down making it easy to adjust to whatever type of fret you're nipping. They're only like 4 dollars on Amazon too! Having said that, I would definitely love to have Chris' version as it's probably even more precise.
Thank you so much for your inspirational channel and great how to's. i am building a 7 string with Richlite fretboard. i wish to put in the frets as you did. Also i am going to use aged bone look binding There shall be a dragon skull inlay at 11th through 13th fret. Various other inlay and decor. Neon glow alien glyph letters for the name of some of the notes on the guitar in places. As well as some numbers. It is going to be nuclear radical -so far beyond. It is having a multilaminate neck. 27 stainless super jumbo frets. Angled at the fret board end. A 25.5" straight scale length. And it shall be 3MM wider on each side (54MM) than the custom stainless steel locking nut (48mm) that is bolted to the custom titanium truss rod. The neck is inline reverse, straight, with tilt back. However very shapely and pleasing to see. The neck shall also have Carbon fiber sheets heated and compressed between the sandwiches. The neck is further reinforced with twin carbon rods roughed and hard glued in. The neck profile is reverse contoured and convex in shape with a huge swell at the bass string side where the thumb does not climb. The double action side adjust truss rod is virtually 'non functional' because adjustment for pressure is not needed. The body is not as thick as a standard strat body and is in an extreme aggressive shape and full size totality. The final shape of the guitar shall be adjusted in balance against neck dive.. Body material shall be Swamp Ash with Richlite top. This shall be the most aggressive, brutal, ergonomic, and yet pleasing guitar shape in history rivalling Monson and BC rich guitars, as well as some Ibanez and Jackson models, and roasting all else It shall take every ounce of my personal Drain Brammage to muster it's completion, for it's then quick use and abuse of being played by i am me.
Thanks for this! My fingers are sore from doing this by hand for an 18 fret ukulele last night! The big challenge when cutting and finishing the frets before installing them in the neck is getting the ends lined up accurately. You can get them aligned on one side using a stop, but the other side will show the variation in length. If your cutting and finishing are accurate, this might not be noticeable. This method is going to save me a ton of time! Remember - music works better if you can hear! Wear hearing protection whenever you use a Dremel!
Great video on some work efficiencies that can be implemented. Also like the common sence straight forward safety advise that so many youtubers either dont discuss, or ignorantly miss.
I've done this before, using a file. it can also be done with a dedicated internal-half-round fret file. But the good thing about this method is that the fret ends are shaped and (to some extent) already polished. If you file the ends, to will need to sand the rough filed surface first, before you prep it for polishing, and that's another 48 individual fret-end chores you can do without. So I must get some of those Dremel wheels. Thanks!
Great idea Chris. I first had rounded fret ends on a new Brian Moore guitar from the factory. It had the best fret work I've seen on any guitar I've owned. Gonna try this on my current build. Thanks for sharing!!!!
Your method is very refined...took me a while but I got the same effect using a crown file (already curved) the file I got has the flat edge so only the center shaves...(did this after pressing in the fret wire) what I noticed was that each fret gave off a pitch while being shaved so once I got the first perfect one made all the others went much faster (I just shaved until I heard my pitch then sanded using 1000). Polish was done with a finger nail buffer from Wal-Mart. Not as fast as a dremmel tho. I might try ur trick cuz my job lasted all week. Thanks for sharing.
I've just tried both the fret tang nipper and the hemispherical fret ends devices. For the first one, i need to practice a bit especially for SS material. The second device is just a joy. Very easy to setup, and fantastic results. The only important thing is to cut accurately the length of the fret. Thanks a lot for sharing all these nice things Chris.
Just found you. Great video. Those frets on Ibanez jems, and what you do are great. The only thing I've not done in repairing my own guitars is fret work and nut jobs. Someday I'm going to design a thin Ibanez S series bodied guitar with Stainless frets with these fret edges, and in a neck thru guitar. Since I'm dreaming. I just like the comfort of the same. Thank you again for the cool video my friend. :-) :-)
love this! I'm going to change some frets out to stainless steel. ill definitely make some jigs for the dremel to accomplish your procedures or techniques.
Looks like a lot of dust is being created. You can see it angling down when grinding the fret ends, and when you're cutting the groove in the grinding wheel. Since the dust cloud is narrow and small close to the grinding wheel, it would be a good idea to make a holder for a vacuum cleaner tube to locate the tube so the dust goes into the vacuum cleaner, rather than being expelled into the open air of the shop.
Chris; ... I've been doing this "hemispherical" technique since 1976. (I'm quite Old.) I do it with a safe-edge file. I leave one edge of the file at 90- degrees, and grind the other edge at about 45 degrees. Both edges are "safe" for the intended result of a "hemispherical" edge (as you call it) which I've made "safer" by grinding a smooth, non-cutting radius into one edge of the file. The files I use for this are VERY fine files ... 000 grit, ( Grobet makes great machinists files). It takes me about 7-10 minutes to round all of the fret edges by hand for any neck in a "hemispherical" manner. ( I timed my work for this comment). That's WAY WAY faster than using the tools you make for this job. Your mechanized technique makes the end result MUCH harder to achieve. ... and; I've taught a lot of luthiers the " hemispherical" approach to fret-end dressing for 30 years. ... I use no jigs, no machines, and I just FOCUSon my work. ( a lost art, as folks rely more and more on motorized tools that separate them from the increasingly lost craft of Luthiery . I suggest that we all divorce ourselves from being alienated from hand tools, and from being seduced by the false suggestions that the way to do "better work" requires that we use motorized stuff as Dremel tools, as our first "go-to" solutions. By the way; I've been a consultant for Collings, PRS, Bartolini, Lakland, Ibanez, and do all the major work for Eric Johnson, Redd Volkaert, David Grissom, and guys from Germany, etc etc etc. ( Blah Blah) ... I'm old enough to have worked on stuff for Joe Pass. I've "been around the block" To conclude; I think folks would find more benefit actually engaging in the use of non-motorized tools, to hone their instincts and .... " go by feel" as a way to REALLY understand every aspect of the dynamics/physics of a vibrating musical instrument. Make mistakes. Learn from them. Throw your first guitar way. ... I did: 38 years ago. Use a file, and a plane. Sharpen the plane blade till you can shave the hair off your arm with it. Get real with it. In the instance of " hemispherical" fret ends, a few files are vastly superior and astoundingly faster that the complex process offered up in this video. Ed Reynolds.
Well said Bob! Before CNC it was a bit of a crapshoot as to the dimensional outcome of, say, a guitar neck. The necks on a particular model might vary drastically, depending on who was working at the factory that day. Even though I appreciate the physics and historical significance involved in driving a nail with a hammer, were I to frame a house I'd still reach for the nail gun as my "go-to" solution. Does a perfectly cut board resent that it was made so by virtue of a power saw? Often when I utilize a modern convenience I'm afforded the time to ponder how it was once done and how lucky I am to be living among devices that bend to my will and save my limbs from repetitive actions that induce pain and wear on joints and ligaments, etc. It's fine to champion romantic hypotheses about luthiery and craftsmanship in general, but I'd rather spend this time making music. Don't you think the master craftsmen and artisans of history would have utilized power tools had they had the chance? Of course they would! It was their pioneering and utilizing the cutting edge technology available to them at the time that allowed them to not only preserve their traditions but to propel them to greater heights. There will come a day when they have to pry my Dremel from my cold, dead (and uncallused) hands!
Gawd. Ed, You are a Blast from the past !. . .Very nice to see someone seriously "old School" Gimme' a ground off 3 corner file, and a pair of fret nippers, and I'm in heaven . . .
I have a guitar workshop for 35 years. (27 years professionally) Rounding off all fret ends with a smoothened edge file takes me 5 minutes. The polishing after this maybe two minutes with the edge of a cork block. My objection with rounding off the fret ends before they go in the board is, that when you look down from the headstock along the edge of all frets, they will never be in one line. A complete battlefield of fret ends zig-zagging all over. With bindings along side the fretboard, it's a different ballgame with a different approach.
I bought some tang nippers a couple of years ago a fellow sells them on E-bay but It never cuts them flush, and it has the problem of bending the fret at the end because the fret hangs over an unsupported area as it's being cut. I've envisioned something like your tool in my mind for a while, but you have a great idea there. I think I need one!
Very very cool. Love how you did all this and automated it. ESPECIALLY liked how you did the fret slots that are just shy of the edge of the fretboard. Just very clever. Thanks fir the vid.
That's called "self-binding". Rip a strip off each side of your fingerboard blank, slot the board as normal, cut the fingerboard taper narrower than it needs to be, then glue back the strips. Cut or sand the strips back to the desired taper. Easy!
With very little practice I was able to create the rounded fret end. It still take much longer than the flat ends but, if the customer wants it, I can do it.
Looks like a good method but for a little less stressful method I use 3 small wood sanding blocks (80, 120. 180 grit) and finish with 0000 steel wool while using a wood stick holder made with a thin saw kerf to match the fret width. Done off the board the only problem is getting consistent length. Starting toward the sound hole end and working toward the peghead helps if you get one too short just move it up the board.
a great idea re using the silicone wheel while holding the dremel carbide "round" tip. It would be real helpful if you would share the thickness (thickest I can find are 3mm) and your source. Thanks....
Great video Chris.. I first saw the Batson Brothers do the spherical fret ends in one of there videos. Been looking for the concave grinding disc since, your method solves that problem. Thanks for sharing!
Great video! I love the look of those fret ends, but I'm not sure if I want to try them or not. I like the idea of fret slots that don't go all the way to the end of the fingerboard, I may try that sometime. One piece of advice for your videos is maybe when you're editing, adjust the volume when the Dremel is running so it's much quieter. I had to mute the video in those spots because Dremel noise coming through at full volume is a bit much for me when watching the video.
Jewelers use a concave bit to round off the ends of the prongs when finishing the mounting of a gemstone (called a wire rounder). I've seen some jewelers use these in mini-drills to make this process faster than by manual rotation. I wonder if there are larger sizes of this. It would seem ideal for this application.
are you measuring each fret? I like to use a wooden dam on the play side, the bottom finger side, clamp it down like a ruler works well, or make one.. metal works even better..then round those and use the dam to push the freets against and press them in, trim your fret cull so it clear s the dam and whallah!!! perfection!!! I use the conventional method top side, I usually try to round em up best I can but they will look like hale if you do not have straight lines on frets as you know I am sure.. curious how you are doing this? measuring each one then installing is like manually rounding each end, I've used a dremel but have a different technique, I round a drill bit the same size or slightly larger than the fret ends AFTER they are round, chuck it in the lathe, then chuck up a good solid stone with a center bit other end.. then just run the bit into the stone slowly, cool with water, then I just chuck up the straight frets and go, you have to pre radius the fret to the exact radius after rounding this way, or not, works either way.... I usually only do the one end depends on value of guitar I spose? cuz it's a whole lot more time manually measuring each fret to size, and if you mess it up, you cut another but I have to have perfectly straight fret end lines on both sides, just finicky like that.. even measuring you get em wrong some times.. MUST for stainless frets imho.. the right stone will not wear and you will get constant hemi ends, time and time again... softer stone will wear out so fast and your ball or dent will just get so larger.. I used to do it your way sorta but the consistency wasn't there, every 6 frets you lose so much grit it widens which isn't bad, I like em bluntish but not flattish... lol this way I get FULL width of fret on the fretboard, flat top part of my hemi fret goes to the edge of the wood, yes the ball end hangs over slightly.. I find I like the hemi end hanging over some so I get full string play AND I feel the frets better, like braille... lol yea man hemi ends are the only way to go, cut tangs as well then it really doesn't matter if humidity shrinks and grows they are always comfortable and playable...
Man ,,, I'm so glad I saw your video before I put frets on my neck ... Scares me watching those guys dressing with a big old file on the neck ... Thanks ... David ...
I know this is an old video but would still love an answer :) Rather than shaping the fret, im having trouble locating the fret right in the middle of the slot Do u have any tips or a jig for that?
On your fret tang grinder , perhaps the cutter is too far from where the fret is sitting and causing vibration/chattering. A smaller top hole would fix this. Good job on this one.
I use tungsten carbide cutters. I also use a big ball shaped tungsten cutter to hollow out Gibson knobs for use on concentric shaft pots. I have to wow out the shafts and drill a set screw hole, but they look good. Don't buy the Dremel stuff or Cratex from Stwemac. Find a jewelry supply store, and you can buy 20 or 30 Cratex polishing discs for what Stewmac charges for 4 of them. You can also use a file on the Cratex. Even a dull file works on Cratex. You should alway wear eye protection. I need to go see the optrician ASAP because I can't see anything up close with my glasses on. How many .020-.022 rotary cutters do you run through with the CNC? I am still using a radial arm saw for most stuff. I back cut my tangs so they won't pop out the edge of the board later as things shrink. YOU CAN SAW ALUMINUM ON YOUR BANDSAW! IT'S NO WORSE THAN SAWING IRONWOOD, BOXWOOD, or any woodpecker lips hardwood.
Great idea! Unfortunately, this only works before the frets are installed... I don't install frets, I just hate it when you get a nice guitar that you can feel sharp fret ends when playing. I can round the ends pretty quick and efficiently and they turn out very nice. thank you!
This is a great tool do you have to be careful not to over heat the fret and mess with the temper also could you not laminate two strips of aluminum to the top of the existing tool
I realize this is an old VID but Ireally wished you had provided a link to the previous VID you mentioned or at least the TH-cam title. I can not easily find it. To do so means I have to sturdy ALL your VIDs to see if the title indicates it MAY be the VID. You mentioned the VIV number but I cannot find a number anywhere. But I do like and enjoy your VIDs.
Great, but ho do you cut the frets into the exact length?? in this case (rounded fret ends) you have to cut them before you install the frets, normally you just nip them off and then grind them down AFTER they are installed...
nice video! I have wondered doing something similar for crowning frets using my Dremel .. but my concern is whether the heat generated might affect the fret hardness. Unless you´re using stainless steel . i stuck to manual method for now
What about making a fixture to do all these steps such as a fret Tang rounded over fret on a CNC machine I would think you can program it to do it all at once just thought maybe it's more complicated than it needs to be
Thanks for another great video. Your vids are some of the best on lutherie on TH-cam. A quick question - if you overbend the radius on the frets before installing as I do I'd imagine there might be a little bit of overhang using your method - once the frets are pressed in and the radius matches the fretboard. I take it that's its simple enough to file off any slight overhang if this happens?
If you can use your CNC to route the blind fret slots, have you considered using it to cut your frets to length? Depending on which side is up, you could either trim the tangs or round the ends in the same setup...
Highline Guitars I agree, and not all CNCs are the same, and we do not all find satisfaction in the same things. Hand work requires little setup and is satisfying when it goes well. I don’t own a CNC, but I did a fair amount of it before I retired. The repetitive stuff like cutting and finishing frets is where it shines, plus you get accuracy. If you were faced with an order for several guitars with the same neck specs, and if you were using CAD to design your guitar and cut your fret slots, it would be a short leap to making the frets. Of course, you would need to design a fixture, too. This would be a project that might not be worth doing for a single instrument, but it would be useful every time. I just subscribed, and look forward to learning a lot from you.
If you're interested, what wears down your diamond grinders is the stainless steel frets. When it gets hot, the diamond disolves in the steel (making it essentially carbon steel), up to the point that you get a flat surface on your bit.
As a machinist's rule of thumb, diamond on stone, glass and ceramics; on steel and hard metals, always use carbide.
Diamond on steel is a bad combo. I would add aluminum to the list of things diamonds are good at cutting. We use diamond on aluminum at work and it is awesome! Run it nice and hard though...
Goldsmith working
the fuck did i just read.
LTFOL
Using some type of coolant while cutting also helps a great deal to keep the heat down. Especially with stainless steel which is much harder to work with as we all know.
This technique saves soooooo much time. I spent 2 hours just dressing the fret ends to a "semi-hemispherical fret end" and they didnt come out anywhere near as good as the frets I did with this technique. Took me all of 25 minutes to cut the frets to length, nip the tang(with nippers from eBay), then shape the ends and press them in. Absolutely incredible I cant thank you enough!
This is exactly the way I do my hemispherical fret ends and my customers love them! Been doing it this way for years (Since shortly after the Dremel and the abraisive discs were produced)... I guess we both think outside the box on designing easy ways to achieve consistently great results! I like your tang nipper attachment...I just use the fret puller to nip the tang, then hit the remaining tang (That was left) with a cut off wheel on a second Dremel... Very fast and clean.
I love the results of the rounded ends, but getting the fret wire EXACTLY the right length is very hard in my opinion. The one is this video overhangs the edge of the board, as a lot of mine are doing.The problem with nipping up to the edge of the board with radiused wire is that it elongates when pressed in the slot and then you end up with overhang. How do you negate this if you don't mind me asking Randy?
Where can i find these discs in bulk?
I know I’m late, but do you have any tips on getting a good ridge into the silicone wheel? I can’t get mine to be symmetrical enough to make the fret ends look good. Hopefully someone sees this 😅
The intelligence of your approach combined with your willingness to share causes me to shout a big THANK YOU! I will be doing my next fretting with your hemispherical technique. If and when I learn something new you can be sure I'll pass it along. Thanks again, and happy luthiery!
Good morning. I just want to thank you cause I recently started manufacturing my own guitars and I’ve learned so much from watching you work. I really appreciate it. You’re the man!!! Have a great day.
Awesome! Thanks for the kind words and good luck to you in your endeavor!!
I have a technique for doing Hemispherical Fret Ends when you're working on a Guitar with the Frets already installed. I use an Ultimate Fret End File from FretGuru. It's a square Grobet File with the bottom ground level and polished. The nose is rounded and polished also. It cuts on the left and right side. This allows you to get right down to the point where the Frets meet the Fretboard. Great for creating Binding Nibs. Starting at the bottom of the Fret go up and over 2 strokes on the left side of the Fret and 2 strokes on the right side
knocking the corner of the Fret Bevel just a bit. Then I use 3M Polishing Paper. I get mine, the assortment pack, from Rio Grande Jewelry Supply because you get 2 full size 9"× 11' sheets (12 total) of 6 different grits for the same price everyone else charges for one sheet. I use the 3M Polishing Paper holding it at approximately 35° - 45° I run up and down the Fretboard about 8 to 10 strokes working my way through the grits. This is the easiest and quickest way I've found.
God Bless!!
Jimmy in NC....
Hi James, does this shorten the fret enough that it would make your string slip off the edge of the neck ?
Made a Jig for removing the fret tang. Took 1/2 hour and glue is drying. Cant wait to try it. Even if I want to finish the frets with files it will still be nice not having to file off the tang! Thanks for sharing!!
Ingenious. Reminds me of how I made a custom bullet truss rod nut by putting a brass standoff in a drill so I could spin it against a grinding wheel to create that bullet shape. Worked perfectly.
Thank you so much for this video... it takes a tedium that I don't particularly enjoy (tanging fret ends with nippers and filing them smooth) and replaces it with a joy of making / using jigs in my woodshop. Plus you can't argue the results...
BTW, that's a gorgeous fretboard.
I only play with jagged fret ends. The bleeding lets 'em know I'm serious.
for the win!
joynthis 😂😂good one
Maybe Brian Adams had jagged fret ends...
Nothing says "listen to this now! " More than bleeding out over a maple Strat neck.
HAHA thats so messed up!
That fret tang tool would be a great seller for you if you put it into production. I would like one.
Look up the A576 attachment. You can make a jig out of that attachment that works just like the jig Chris has. It's great because it telescopes up and down making it easy to adjust to whatever type of fret you're nipping. They're only like 4 dollars on Amazon too! Having said that, I would definitely love to have Chris' version as it's probably even more precise.
Thank you so much for your inspirational channel and great how to's.
i am building a 7 string with Richlite fretboard. i wish to put in the frets as you did. Also i am going to use aged bone look binding
There shall be a dragon skull inlay at 11th through 13th fret. Various other inlay and decor. Neon glow alien glyph letters for the name of some of the notes on the guitar in places. As well as some numbers. It is going to be nuclear radical -so far beyond. It is having a multilaminate neck. 27 stainless super jumbo frets. Angled at the fret board end. A 25.5" straight scale length. And it shall be 3MM wider on each side (54MM) than the custom stainless steel locking nut (48mm) that is bolted to the custom titanium truss rod. The neck is inline reverse, straight, with tilt back. However very shapely and pleasing to see. The neck shall also have Carbon fiber sheets heated and compressed between the sandwiches. The neck is further reinforced with twin carbon rods roughed and hard glued in. The neck profile is reverse contoured and convex in shape with a huge swell at the bass string side where the thumb does not climb. The double action side adjust truss rod is virtually 'non functional' because adjustment for pressure is not needed. The body is not as thick as a standard strat body and is in an extreme aggressive shape and full size totality. The final shape of the guitar shall be adjusted in balance against neck dive.. Body material shall be Swamp Ash with Richlite top. This shall be the most aggressive, brutal, ergonomic, and yet pleasing guitar shape in history rivalling Monson and BC rich guitars, as well as some Ibanez and Jackson models, and roasting all else It shall take every ounce of my personal Drain Brammage to muster it's completion, for it's then quick use and abuse of being played by i am me.
This is great info, I'd been scratching my head trying to figure out how that's done for weeks, thank you for sharing :)
Thanks for this! My fingers are sore from doing this by hand for an 18 fret ukulele last night!
The big challenge when cutting and finishing the frets before installing them in the neck is getting the ends lined up accurately. You can get them aligned on one side using a stop, but the other side will show the variation in length. If your cutting and finishing are accurate, this might not be noticeable.
This method is going to save me a ton of time!
Remember - music works better if you can hear! Wear hearing protection whenever you use a Dremel!
You are an awesome Craftsman!! And a great instructor. Love watching all of your material.
Great video on some work efficiencies that can be implemented. Also like the common sence straight forward safety advise that so many youtubers either dont discuss, or ignorantly miss.
I was dreading this job before I saw this and the 'Better Fret Tang Nipper' vid. A Godsend! Thanks for sharing your innovative approaches, Chris!
The dot inlays look cool. Never seen it before.
I've done this before, using a file. it can also be done with a dedicated internal-half-round fret file. But the good thing about this method is that the fret ends are shaped and (to some extent) already polished. If you file the ends, to will need to sand the rough filed surface first, before you prep it for polishing, and that's another 48 individual fret-end chores you can do without. So I must get some of those Dremel wheels. Thanks!
Great idea Chris. I first had rounded fret ends on a new Brian Moore guitar from the factory. It had the best fret work I've seen on any guitar I've owned. Gonna try this on my current build. Thanks for sharing!!!!
Your method is very refined...took me a while but I got the same effect using a crown file (already curved) the file I got has the flat edge so only the center shaves...(did this after pressing in the fret wire) what I noticed was that each fret gave off a pitch while being shaved so once I got the first perfect one made all the others went much faster (I just shaved until I heard my pitch then sanded using 1000). Polish was done with a finger nail buffer from Wal-Mart. Not as fast as a dremmel tho. I might try ur trick cuz my job lasted all week. Thanks for sharing.
I've just tried both the fret tang nipper and the hemispherical fret ends devices. For the first one, i need to practice a bit especially for SS material. The second device is just a joy. Very easy to setup, and fantastic results. The only important thing is to cut accurately the length of the fret. Thanks a lot for sharing all these nice things Chris.
Hey Vasquez, was wondering if you used the same disc as included in the description? was deciding to make one for SS frets as well
@@rshizuya Yes, but i also put a drop of polishing compound (dremel) to cool down the fret when using the disc.
7:20 tighten the vise til you hear a crack then back off a quarter turn right?
Damn ,,, good one ... D
Keeps it honest
Just found you. Great video. Those frets on Ibanez jems, and what you do are great.
The only thing I've not done in repairing my own guitars is fret work and nut jobs. Someday I'm going to design a thin Ibanez S series bodied guitar with Stainless frets with these fret edges, and in a neck thru guitar. Since I'm dreaming. I just like the comfort of the same. Thank you again for the cool video my friend. :-) :-)
Thanks for sharing these great techniques and tips!
love this! I'm going to change some frets out to stainless steel. ill definitely make some jigs for the dremel to accomplish your procedures or techniques.
Some coated carbide end mills work quite well for the tangs.
Looks like a lot of dust is being created. You can see it angling down when grinding the fret ends, and when you're cutting the groove in the grinding wheel. Since the dust cloud is narrow and small close to the grinding wheel, it would be a good idea to make a holder for a vacuum cleaner tube to locate the tube so the dust goes into the vacuum cleaner, rather than being expelled into the open air of the shop.
That's a great idea.
Chris; ...
I've been doing this "hemispherical" technique since 1976. (I'm quite Old.)
I do it with a safe-edge file. I leave one edge of the file at 90- degrees, and grind the other edge at about 45 degrees. Both edges are "safe" for the intended result of a "hemispherical" edge (as you call it) which I've made "safer" by grinding a smooth, non-cutting radius into one edge of the file. The files I use for this are VERY fine files ... 000 grit, ( Grobet makes great machinists files).
It takes me about 7-10 minutes to round all of the fret edges by hand for any neck in a "hemispherical" manner. ( I timed my work for this comment).
That's WAY WAY faster than using the tools you make for this job. Your mechanized technique makes the end result MUCH harder to achieve. ... and; I've taught a lot of luthiers the " hemispherical" approach to fret-end dressing for 30 years.
... I use no jigs, no machines, and I just FOCUSon my work. ( a lost art, as folks rely more and more on motorized tools that separate them from the increasingly lost craft of Luthiery .
I suggest that we all divorce ourselves from being alienated from hand tools, and from being seduced by the false suggestions that the way to do "better work" requires that we use motorized stuff as Dremel tools, as our first "go-to" solutions.
By the way; I've been a consultant for Collings, PRS, Bartolini, Lakland, Ibanez, and do all the major work for Eric Johnson, Redd Volkaert, David Grissom, and guys from Germany, etc etc etc. ( Blah Blah) ... I'm old enough to have worked on stuff for Joe Pass. I've "been around the block"
To conclude; I think folks would find more benefit actually engaging in the use of non-motorized tools, to hone their instincts and .... " go by feel" as a way to REALLY understand every aspect of the dynamics/physics of a vibrating musical instrument.
Make mistakes. Learn from them. Throw your first guitar way. ... I did: 38 years ago.
Use a file, and a plane. Sharpen the plane blade till you can shave the hair off your arm with it. Get real with it.
In the instance of " hemispherical" fret ends, a few files are vastly superior and astoundingly faster that the complex process offered up in this video.
Ed Reynolds.
I love hand tools and I would like to have more information about your technic... Where could I found those file? thanks!
Well said Bob! Before CNC it was a bit of a crapshoot as to the dimensional outcome of, say, a guitar neck. The necks on a particular model might vary drastically, depending on who was working at the factory that day. Even though I appreciate the physics and historical significance involved in driving a nail with a hammer, were I to frame a house I'd still reach for the nail gun as my "go-to" solution. Does a perfectly cut board resent that it was made so by virtue of a power saw? Often when I utilize a modern convenience I'm afforded the time to ponder how it was once done and how lucky I am to be living among devices that bend to my will and save my limbs from repetitive actions that induce pain and wear on joints and ligaments, etc. It's fine to champion romantic hypotheses about luthiery and craftsmanship in general, but I'd rather spend this time making music. Don't you think the master craftsmen and artisans of history would have utilized power tools had they had the chance? Of course they would! It was their pioneering and utilizing the cutting edge technology available to them at the time that allowed them to not only preserve their traditions but to propel them to greater heights. There will come a day when they have to pry my Dremel from my cold, dead (and uncallused) hands!
Gawd. Ed, You are a Blast from the past !. . .Very nice to see someone seriously "old School"
Gimme' a ground off 3 corner file, and a pair of fret nippers, and I'm in heaven . . .
I love using hand tools to do this type of work, but when you have a batch of 30 guitars to finish, you have to work differently.
I have a guitar workshop for 35 years. (27 years professionally) Rounding off all fret ends with a smoothened edge file takes me 5 minutes. The polishing after this maybe two minutes with the edge of a cork block. My objection with rounding off the fret ends before they go in the board is, that when you look down from the headstock along the edge of all frets, they will never be in one line. A complete battlefield of fret ends zig-zagging all over.
With bindings along side the fretboard, it's a different ballgame with a different approach.
I don't like any sharp spinning tools at dick level.
You can't argue with that logic.
Fretboard, OMG!!! Beautiful!!
I bought some tang nippers a couple of years ago a fellow sells them on E-bay but It never cuts them flush, and it has the problem of bending the fret at the end because the fret hangs over an unsupported area as it's being cut. I've envisioned something like your tool in my mind for a while, but you have a great idea there. I think I need one!
Just wanted to say thanks for the great video! It was very clearly laid out and your technique seems to be a great approach! Keep up the good work!
This guy is great, thanks for sharing your value!
Thanks, man!
Very very cool. Love how you did all this and automated it. ESPECIALLY liked how you did the fret slots that are just shy of the edge of the fretboard. Just very clever. Thanks fir the vid.
That's called "self-binding". Rip a strip off each side of your fingerboard blank, slot the board as normal, cut the fingerboard taper narrower than it needs to be, then glue back the strips. Cut or sand the strips back to the desired taper. Easy!
With very little practice I was able to create the rounded fret end. It still take much longer than the flat ends but, if the customer wants it, I can do it.
Yes- I would purchase one also - if you decide to market it - in fact, I’d buy 5
They finish looks great, but it give me the impression that if the strings escapes outside it may get caught.
Cool man ive been doing the same for years
Amazing. Will be trying this
colorado native?
me too!
Love the videos! thanks
Looks like a good method but for a little less stressful method I use 3 small wood sanding blocks (80, 120. 180 grit) and finish with 0000 steel wool while using a wood stick holder made with a thin saw kerf to match the fret width. Done off the board the only problem is getting consistent length. Starting toward the sound hole end and working toward the peghead helps if you get one too short just move it up the board.
a great idea re using the silicone wheel while holding the dremel carbide "round" tip. It would be real helpful if you would share the thickness (thickest I can find are 3mm) and your source. Thanks....
very nice work, I hope to see it finished
Great video Chris.. I first saw the Batson Brothers do the spherical fret ends in one of there videos. Been looking for the concave grinding disc since, your method solves that problem. Thanks for sharing!
You're a genius and we don't deserve you!
Great video! I love the look of those fret ends, but I'm not sure if I want to try them or not. I like the idea of fret slots that don't go all the way to the end of the fingerboard, I may try that sometime. One piece of advice for your videos is maybe when you're editing, adjust the volume when the Dremel is running so it's much quieter. I had to mute the video in those spots because Dremel noise coming through at full volume is a bit much for me when watching the video.
I just fired my sound guy. I don’t care if he’s a widower with 6 kids to feed.
Happy new year
Chris,
Awesome video....reminds me of good old fashion ingenuity.... Tks :)
Jewelers use a concave bit to round off the ends of the prongs when finishing the mounting of a gemstone (called a wire rounder). I've seen some jewelers use these in mini-drills to make this process faster than by manual rotation. I wonder if there are larger sizes of this. It would seem ideal for this application.
Take a look at Dental Laboratory suppliers for the abrasive wheels mandrels and burs
Also those Dental Glasses with the magnifying lenses and build in lamps would be great for doing precision work. They aren't cheap though!
thank you very much for sharing! extremely interesting.
Cool tools! I’m going to try these myself, but I’ll add a ruler to the nipper tool!
You need a speed adjuster on your dremel to stop the colour change on the end. Good job mate.
Great work. Thanks for sharing.
You might put the ball end bit in a pin vise. It would give you more of a handle to hold on to.
I gave this a go and it works great! Thanks for the tip!
awesome tips and technics , thanks a lot for sharing.
Good ideas .I imagined this would be the best way to do it to speed production.
This is brilliant; and beautiful work. Thanks for sharing!
This man is a genius
Hi, Thanks for your engineering mind! Where can i find these discs in bulk?
Awesome! I've been wondering for a long time what would be the best way to do this. You have provided the answer! Thanks!
Thank you very much.
Really good inventive stuff...thanks so much. Beautiful fingerboard wood btw.
are you measuring each fret? I like to use a wooden dam on the play side, the bottom finger side, clamp it down like a ruler works well, or make one.. metal works even better..then round those and use the dam to push the freets against and press them in, trim your fret cull so it clear s the dam and whallah!!! perfection!!! I use the conventional method top side, I usually try to round em up best I can but they will look like hale if you do not have straight lines on frets as you know I am sure..
curious how you are doing this? measuring each one then installing is like manually rounding each end, I've used a dremel but have a different technique, I round a drill bit the same size or slightly larger than the fret ends AFTER they are round, chuck it in the lathe, then chuck up a good solid stone with a center bit other end.. then just run the bit into the stone slowly, cool with water, then I just chuck up the straight frets and go, you have to pre radius the fret to the exact radius after rounding this way, or not, works either way....
I usually only do the one end depends on value of guitar I spose? cuz it's a whole lot more time manually measuring each fret to size, and if you mess it up, you cut another but I have to have perfectly straight fret end lines on both sides, just finicky like that.. even measuring you get em wrong some times..
MUST for stainless frets imho.. the right stone will not wear and you will get constant hemi ends, time and time again... softer stone will wear out so fast and your ball or dent will just get so larger.. I used to do it your way sorta but the consistency wasn't there, every 6 frets you lose so much grit it widens which isn't bad, I like em bluntish but not flattish... lol
this way I get FULL width of fret on the fretboard, flat top part of my hemi fret goes to the edge of the wood, yes the ball end hangs over slightly.. I find I like the hemi end hanging over some so I get full string play AND I feel the frets better, like braille... lol
yea man hemi ends are the only way to go, cut tangs as well then it really doesn't matter if humidity shrinks and grows they are always comfortable and playable...
Thank you Sir. 👏👏👏
Great tool offerings, thank you so much.
Beautiful fretboard
hey Chris thank you for sharing a great technique
Perhaps you could use a cup burr first, and then just smooth out with the silicone wheel:
www.riogrande.com/Product/LYNX-Cup-Bur-Set-of-22/344378
now if there was just a way to do that on a neck with the frets already installed...
nice fret slots BTW!
That would be cool!
Fast. Thanks for sharing.
Great ideas Chris, thanks for sharing.
Man ,,, I'm so glad I saw your video before I put frets on my neck ... Scares me watching those guys dressing with a big old file on the neck ... Thanks ... David ...
Very nice. I do prefer non-rounded, though.
I know this is an old video but would still love an answer :)
Rather than shaping the fret, im having trouble locating the fret right in the middle of the slot
Do u have any tips or a jig for that?
Super helpful tip for a newbie! thanks!
Super helpful tip for many old professionals too
Brilliant
On your fret tang cutter a small block on top to hold fret down flush might be an idea, other than that nice idea and video
Very usefull tips, thank you for sharing.
Good video
On your fret tang grinder , perhaps the cutter is too far from where the fret is sitting and causing vibration/chattering. A smaller top hole would fix this. Good job on this one.
I use tungsten carbide cutters. I also use a big ball shaped tungsten cutter to hollow out Gibson knobs for use on concentric shaft pots. I have to wow out the shafts and drill a set screw hole, but they look good. Don't buy the Dremel stuff or Cratex from Stwemac. Find a jewelry supply store, and you can buy 20 or 30 Cratex polishing discs for what Stewmac charges for 4 of them. You can also use a file on the Cratex. Even a dull file works on Cratex. You should alway wear eye protection. I need to go see the optrician ASAP because I can't see anything up close with my glasses on. How many .020-.022 rotary cutters do you run through with the CNC? I am still using a radial arm saw for most stuff. I back cut my tangs so they won't pop out the edge of the board later as things shrink. YOU CAN SAW ALUMINUM ON YOUR BANDSAW! IT'S NO WORSE THAN SAWING IRONWOOD, BOXWOOD, or any woodpecker lips hardwood.
Great idea! Unfortunately, this only works before the frets are installed... I don't install frets, I just hate it when you get a nice guitar that you can feel sharp fret ends when playing. I can round the ends pretty quick and efficiently and they turn out very nice. thank you!
Thanks for sharing! Game changer.
What kind of wood is that fretboard?
Chechen
This is a great tool do you have to be careful not to over heat the fret and mess with the temper also could you not laminate two strips of aluminum to the top of the existing tool
Very cool technique!
I realize this is an old VID but Ireally wished you had provided a link to the previous VID you mentioned or at least the TH-cam title. I can not easily find it. To do so means I have to sturdy ALL your VIDs to see if the title indicates it MAY be the VID. You mentioned the VIV number but I cannot find a number anywhere. But I do like and enjoy your VIDs.
Thank you for your Efforts!
Great vid, Where can I get the abrasive..disc? I've searched Amazon and having trouble finding them.
Great, but ho do you cut the frets into the exact length?? in this case (rounded fret ends) you have to cut them before you install the frets, normally you just nip them off and then grind them down AFTER they are installed...
th-cam.com/video/moxUw3Ke2Q0/w-d-xo.html
COOL IDEA, i will try :)
THANKS A LOT boddy :)
nice video! I have wondered doing something similar for crowning frets using my Dremel .. but my concern is whether the heat generated might affect the fret hardness. Unless you´re using stainless steel . i stuck to manual method for now
My thoughts exactly. The discoloration is a sign of the steel tempering gone bad...
Can you give us a source and/or part number for the discs?
What about making a fixture to do all these steps such as a fret Tang rounded over fret on a CNC machine I would think you can program it to do it all at once just thought maybe it's more complicated than it needs to be
What timber is that on your fingerboard?? It’s beautiful
Chechen.
@@HighlineGuitars would it work for a neck do you think?
Thanks for another great video. Your vids are some of the best on lutherie on TH-cam. A quick question - if you overbend the radius on the frets before installing as I do I'd imagine there might be a little bit of overhang using your method - once the frets are pressed in and the radius matches the fretboard. I take it that's its simple enough to file off any slight overhang if this happens?
You are amazing!! Thank you for sharing your genius. What version Dremel tool do you suggest?
Whatever you can find at Goodwill or any secondhand shop. I own three different ones and never paid more than $10.
If you can use your CNC to route the blind fret slots, have you considered using it to cut your frets to length? Depending on which side is up, you could either trim the tangs or round the ends in the same setup...
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. CNC technology is great, however, some things are done faster and easier the old fashioned way.
Highline Guitars
I agree, and not all CNCs are the same, and we do not all find satisfaction in the same things.
Hand work requires little setup and is satisfying when it goes well.
I don’t own a CNC, but I did a fair amount of it before I retired. The repetitive stuff like cutting and finishing frets is where it shines, plus you get accuracy.
If you were faced with an order for several guitars with the same neck specs, and if you were using CAD to design your guitar and cut your fret slots, it would be a short leap to making the frets. Of course, you would need to design a fixture, too. This would be a project that might not be worth doing for a single instrument, but it would be useful every time.
I just subscribed, and look forward to learning a lot from you.