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Never again. I'm in the process of resetting the neck on my number 1where I tried CA because the slots were cut with a dull blade I've since fixed that. Getting CA out of the slots , yes slots was very tedious work. I had to remove all of the end frets because they lifted when I heated them in the neck removal. Just 1 wouldn't have been too bad. I can only imagine doing the whole fretboard. Oh yeah, this is a bound board.

I'm going to use titebond this time. I'm also considering hide glue since it's brittle but resists heat. Opinions?

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

What am I missing……hide glue resists heat? Not in my shop.

It does when no moisture is present. Frank Ford proved this.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

The frets and the slots must fit well so much so that glue is insurance and an after thought. If the slots are too large CA is not the only glue that won't hold it's not a gap filler.

We've used quality (Bob Smith Industries) thin CA for hundreds of refrets for nearly 20 years and have never had a fret to our knowledge that has lifted or come loose. Our clients are not transients for the most part and they do come back to us and many are regulars so we would know if our work was substandard AND we are one of the very few shops in the world that offers a 100% guarantee on our work that we have never had to honor not once.

Getting CA out of the slots I find one of the easiest glues to clean out of the slots. You can save time too and use a rotary tool we have the one the Looth Group is offering but we are not thrilled with the level of runout.... We never used Dremels for cleaning out slots because of the high amount of runout and again we are all about the fit of the fret in the slot before ever gluing anything. I use the SM hook tool to clean glue out even on bound boards. Old school, works great.

Frets and nuts have something in common. In both cases the fit should be good enough that no glue is required but instead insurance. We make our nuts to "snap" fit into the channel and we want to feel some resistance (we press frets so we can feel how they fit) of the frets when clamping down the Jaws II tools that we use for seating frets.

In the Martin world pre truss rod Martins early 70's and before did not have truss rods making a refret totally an exercise in how the slots and the frets are prepared for each other. We shape the neck using some frets that fit snugger than other frets to intentionally induce perhaps a little back bow where there might be forward bow we don't want. It's add four frets in strategic places, string and tune to pitch and look at the neck, add more frets and restring and retune and look at the neck. This is what is called a "compression refret." Again it is done where there is no truss rod to shape the neck. A compression refret takes a snug fret expectation and fit and makes it a feature of the refret procedure.

So the fit of the frets to the slots is key. I'll add that although some people get on fine with a hammer in my my experience most hobby builders may only fret an instrument once a year or less. You forget all you learned or some of it so much time passes with no practice or need to do it again. More blows from the hammer to the fret can start to damage the slot and cause room for play and wiggle. It can also "spring" the radius in the fret wire making the ends require glue to stay down which is not a good idea they should stay down with no glue.

So once again, we like pressing frets for the feedback that is provided that we can feel and the act of pressing them when the slot is prepared well does not damage the slot like the wrong hammer blow may.

Lastly regarding using HHG or Titebond there is a huge difference in the sequence of fretting if you change glues. These glues must be applied first which is not a big deal but with CA we apply or can apply it at any time after the fret has been pressed in place. We do not use glue to be relied on to hold the ends down we instead over radius the fret wire intentionally so the wire's own radius, tighter radius holds the ends down. With stainless steel that won't bend likely ever... the ends will never lift and we have not seen any lifting with EVO or NS either.

The methods, glues, tools I'm describing here is shop tested we do around 2 refrets a week that's over 100 year for nearly 20 years now and again we have never had a CA glued, well fit fret that we pressed in place with our methods lift, not a one.

Those who some are still with the OLF who took our classes will remember much of this, hopefully... PS: We no longer offer classes, far too busy for that so please no requests for a class.

I reiterate, the only reason for the sloppy fit is because my slotting saw was dull. My slots henceforth shouldn't need any glue and I like you, over bend my frets a bit. That is where my problem occurred. Because the slots were loose, when I applied heat to loosen the fretboard extension, the over bent frets popped up in the middle from the heat.

That said, on future guitars, ill get a tight fit and no glue.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

I would not nix the glue use on frets, frets need to be glued because that insurance that I spoke of in my prior post is necessary with guitars.

Your original post does suggest that CA was part of the problem and it's not and I want to so some reiterating of my own here. CA, quality CA is a fine choice for fretting and many, many pro luthiers use it and have used it for a very long time.

CA can also be very easy to clean up with the right set-up to do so.

With any glue choice the application and the fit is key.

Thanks Richard

Slightly off topic, but I would like to thank the OLFer (possibly Chris Pile or Hesh?) who recommended applying Howard Feed and Wax to the fretboard before gluing the frets with CA. I tried that for the first time on the guitar I finished a week ago and it worked great.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter