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Has anyone found a mini table saw that would work for cutting fingerboards?, I can do it by hand, or on the large table saw, but it would be nice to have one all setup for that and trim...

Thanks
-Paul-

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-Paul-

Patriot Guitars

Byrnes Model Machines Table Saw.. Great saw!!

http://www.byrnesmodelmachines.com/tablesaw.html

Kerry

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Wow, perfect, I like having tools all setup for one thing (especially when it's important to be right)...

Thank You
-Paul-

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-Paul-

Patriot Guitars

Are you talking about fret slotting or tapering? That one would work for tapering. I have a little Dremel table saw that I bought used for around $150 that looks about the same. If you're talking about slotting, it's all going to depend on the blade you can get which are very very limited.

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Pat

Yep, precision and quality. I use mine more than my regular table saw. It is also safer for cutting small parts, but can cut wood .75 thick,
Mike

The Byrnes saw is indeed a very nice saw. I use mine a lot and it is great for small parts and much safer than a larger tablesaw, IMO. The slotting blades work great for thin veneer ripping but if you plan on cutting thicker pieces of exotic woods like Ebony - then make sure you invest in a decent blade. I use this Tenryu blade and the performance of the machine is excellent. I did not get great results with the 4" carbide blade that you can by through the Byrne website.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/36-tooth-carbid ... Sw54xUUveU

I think there are a fair number of blade options available for this saw both from the maker and other sources.. some get a bit pricey but they are there. Interestingly I don't use this for slotting as I had a blade and jig for my slightly bigger Dewalt jobsite saw so I still use that. However as others have said this saw is very useful for instrument building, in fact if I had it all to do over again I would buy a better band saw and this saw and not worry about a bigger table saw.. Now of course I have a house a wife and so i have projects I use the table saw for but in general for Lutherie I think a good band saw and this saw would work..

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Good tip, I just ordered one as I really like the Tenryu on my sawstop. I thought the carbide blade from Byrnes was pretty good, so if this one is better, it will be money well spent,
Mike

+1 on Tenyru blades. Great value.

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Do you think those slotting blades would work for fret slots?

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Pat

The slotting blades will work great for fret slotting. I did get my Byrne saw with the wider table option. IF you are going to try slotting, I would advise springing for this option. These are incredible little saws. I've thought about buying a second one just in case something ever happened to the one I have. I've found all sorts of uses for the saw in cutting small parts that I would have normally done by hand and for which I would never feel comfortable using a regular tablesaw for. One thing to bear in mind is this is still a powerful tool - so don't through caution to the wind and get your hand to close to the blade.

I'd just like to say, nice to see you Paul! It's been a long time.

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The Byrne's saw looks pretty slick.
I went with the budget option - I cobbled a fretting saw together out of a direct drive saw motor and a 3 inch Makita battery saw blade. The fit and finish is no where near as nice as the Byrne's saw but it does work well for cutting fret slots and the cost was considerably less ($17 + labor). It is also rather loud.
The depth of cut is adjusted by loosening the screws at the front of the table and shimming with washers. Depth of cut is limited but enough for any of the fret wire I have used. The sliding crosscut feature rides on the sides of the table.

The Byrnes is on the Christmas list.


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Sometimes you can find these Proxxon's for $100-150 on Ebay. Not as fancy, but set up, it cut a good line...

Simon, Thanks for the recommendation! I just ordered some fret slotting blades and was wondering, do you use stiffeners with them or are they small enough to not flex much?

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Pat

If OP has no miniature table saw right now, there's a flock of inexpensive ones available on E* from forty bucks up. Wouldn't hurt to buy the forty-buck one and experiment a bit. The Byrnes saw sure looks nice, but its cost would be a whack in my wallet.

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Peter Havriluk

Returning to the idea of getting the byrnes table saw. I got some slotting blades for my Dremel 4" table saw, but does not seem to be quite accurate enough for fret slots. It works nice for general-purpose cuts though and quite a bit cheaper. I rigged up a nice dust extraction too.

I'm not using blade stiffeners, and that might be part of the problem. Here's what happens: using a .023 blade, where the saw enters the fretboard the slot is wider, around .030, then .023 at about the middle of the cut through the ending. I'm thinking that the blade is wobbling a little until it gets anchored in the fretboard, so maybe stiffeners would help. Is anyone using stiffeners on their 4 inch table saw?

Pat

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Pat

Blade stiffeners should help a good deal. Some people make them out of plywood. Use a hole saw to cut them out and then drill out the arbor hole.

Can anyone please tell me the kerf of this Tenryu blade:

https://www.ebay.com/p/1236875550?iid=361969574742

TIA.

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HI Trevor,
I have this blade - can't give you measurements right now but will do so later this evening.

This is a new 4 inch diameter 36 tooth carbide tipped circular saw blade with 1/2 inch arbor (hole) made for the Dremel Model 580 and 588 series table saws.

Increasing discounts for two, three and four or more blades!

Free shipping in USA! Shipping charge on the first blade only internationally, no additional shipping charge for more than one blade!

This blade is made by Tenryu in Japan exclusively for and distributed by ZimbyoProducts.

Legendary Tenryu quality is clearly evident in this beautiful blade.

The width of the carbide teeth is only 0.059 inch (1.5 mm) and the plate thickness is 0.055 inch (1.4 mm).

The narrow cut minimizes material wastage.

The blade is designed for cutting all hard and soft wood, plywood, acrylic and plastic, but not metal.

The Craftsman Model 572-2474 and the Montgomery Ward Power Kraft Model TDR97501 table saws were made by Dremel and also use this blade.

Carbide tooth grind is ATB (Alternate Top Bevel) with 10 degree hook angle for both cross grain cutting and ripping.

Individually hammer tensioned steel plates for true run.

Tenryu's super fine honing leaves a mirror like finish on the carbide for clean and burn/melt free cuts.


This is a cut and paste from the ebay ad you posted. No longer for sale, but still on the interweb
Looks like .059”tooth, .o55” plate

Funny this blade does not show up on the Tenryu site.


B

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Just do an internet search for "slitting" or "slotting" blades. There are tons of suppliers. Most of the blades that you will want to use are 5" diameter and most of those are made for a 1" arbor. I had a machinist friend make me a sleeve that adjusts my 5/8" arbor to 1" and have been cutting fret slots on my table saw for many years. Nice perfectly vertical flat bottomed slots. I can do several fingerboards in a few minutes.

Thanks, Bri. I missed that bit! I'm looking for something with a sub-0.5mm kerf.

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

The 'half way there' approach seems like a dedicated sled...still requires a blade change and setting depth of cut, but no separate machine. Ours takes about 5 minutes for the blade swap to the StewMac and height set-up with a gauge block, and the usual double-stick carpet tape application to the aluminum template to and fretboard blank.

Another local repair shop has one of the small tablesaws mentioned and finds it idea for trimming saddles to width...also a nice little tool for a compact repair shop that does not have room for more than a few bench-top tools.

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